“You’re Not a Real Contemporary Dancer.” Discrepancy and Appropriation of the Artists’ Status by Dancers from a Working Class Background

Abstract

This article draws on a long-term ethnographical survey. It aims to discuss the social conditions of possibility in the artistic calling of contemporary dancers from working class backgrounds. In this regard, it shades light on the resources – notably cultural – underlying atypical trajectories of mobility – all the more fragile for being reversible. As will be seen, the acquisition of legitimate cultural capital contributes to change aesthetic tastes without excluding discrepancy, most evident during the creative process.

Keywords

• vocation
• artistic profession
• social mobility
• working class