The Amorous Indies

*Les Indes Galantes* (The Amorous Indies) is an opera-ballet composed by Jean-Philippe Rameau in 1735. One of its dances was inspired by tribal Indian dances performed by Metchigamea chiefs in Paris in 1723. Clément Cogitore adapted a short section of the ballet, incorporating Krump dancers, an art form that originated in the Black ghettos of Los Angeles in the 1990s. Krump emerged in the wake of the beating of Rodney King and the subsequent riots, as well as the police repression that followed. In that tense environment, young dancers began to express the violent tensions of the physical, social, and political body through their movements. Both the tribal dances performed in Paris in 1723 and the rebellious Krump dancers of the 1990s contribute to a reenactment of Rameau’s original libretto, portraying young people dancing on the edge of a volcano.