The Flow of Performing Arts Between Periphery and Center: Tensions and Potentialities

In 1931, Antonin Artaud envisioned a radically innovative form of theatre after witnessing a performance by a Balinese troupe at the Colonial Exposition in Paris. While this event is widely acknowledged among arts and humanities scholars, its specific details – such as the precise content of the performance and the identities of the performers – are overlooked, thus exemplifying the ambivalent nature of the circulation of performing arts from colonized and/ or marginalized regions. Throughout history, how have conflicting global power structures and unequal socio-political conditions shaped the flow, interpretation, and reception of works, artists, aesthetics and practices from the so-called peripheries in Europe and the United States? In what ways have colonial expositions, transnational networks, and international festivals facilitated or constrained exchanges between different parties? Which roles have these platforms played in challenging or reinforcing existing paradigms and hegemonies?
Conversely, creators and professionals from marginalized scenarios may appropriate, adapt and modify performing arts produced in/ by dominant hubs, whether canonical or contemporary. These recontextualized interpretations often achieve international prominence, transcending local boundaries and potentially contributing to alternative understandings of original works. A case in point is the Brazilian theater company Grupo Galpão, whose Romeo and Juliet in a circus format, staged in 2000 and 2012 at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, exemplifies this dynamic. 
Drawing on theoretical insights such as Néstor García Canclini’s Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity (1995), Patrice Pavis’s Theatre at the Crossroads of Culture (1992), Christopher Balme’s The Globalization of Theatre 1870-1930 (2023), and Rustom Bharucha’s The Politics of Cultural Practice (2000), this panel seeks to deepen conceptualizations of periphery and center, while examining how performing arts traverse borders, encountering, negotiating and trying to defy the many cultural, social and political asymmetries inherent in global exchange. We invite papers addressing drama (both text and performance), dance, and music.