مؤسسة الشرق الأوسط للنشر العلمي
عادةً ما يتم الرد في غضون خمس دقائق
This article examines dance censorship in Lebanon as a mechanism of ideological control operating beneath the appearance of legal regulation and societal protection. While Lebanon is frequently portrayed as a space of relative freedom of expression within the region, the performing arts — and dance in particular — remain subject to institutional and social forms of censorship that shape not only artistic production but also the collective perception of art itself. Drawing on theories of power (Foucault), cultural capital (Bourdieu), and social representations (Moscovici), this study analyzes how censorship intervenes in the processes of objectification and anchoring through which the public constructs meaning around choreographic works. The research argues that censorship does more than limit artistic freedom: it restructures the cultural framework within which future generations interpret art, normalizing restricted forms of expression and gradually reducing the horizon of the thinkable. Through legal mechanisms, bureaucratic procedures, and social pressure groups, the Lebanese system produces a “regulated visibility” of dance, allowing only representations aligned with dominant moral, religious, and political norms. Case studies — including state interventions, festival cancellations, and socially driven repression of artists such as Alexandre Paulikevitch and Hanane Hajj Ali — illustrate how this control extends beyond institutions into the social sphere.