Meta-Performance and
Jewish Identity in
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s
The Dance of R eality
Henri-Simon Blanc-Hoang
Abstract
After establishing meta-performance
as the film’s main formal device, the es-
say shows how, in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s
film The Dance of Reality (La danza de la reali-
dad, 2013), the Jewish protagonists’ various
attempts at assimilating into Chilean so-
ciety fail. Whether major characters try to
negate their ethnic identity or forget their
Jewish roots (forcefully or accidentally),
their fellow countrymen still do not accept
them as Chilean nationals—even when an
effort at assimilation becomes a sacrificial
altruistic initiative. This reiteration occur-
ring throughout the film involves, each
time, a meta-performative act.
In addition, I show that (in terms of
content) the meta-performative acts found
in this movie are meant to trigger some
form of empathy among the audience, es-
pecially when the main characters must re-
act against anti-Semitic stances. In terms of
form, I also explain that these instances of
meta-performance represent examples of
simulacra (as defined by Jean Baudrillard)
from which no original source/ origin can
be extracted.
Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 70 Post Script
Introduction:
Meta-Performance as an
Identitarian Device
If we were to define meta-perfor-
mance, we would identify a materializa-
tion of this concept every time actors refer
to themselves or to a situation that affects
them, but meta-performance is more than
a mere performance within a performance,
whereby a protagonist takes on an actor’s
role as part of a show within the plot while
other characters become spectators them-
selves. First, in terms of form, meta-per-
formance is a performance that shares the
characteristics of a simulacra from which
no original source/origin can be extracted.
Second, in terms of content, meta-perfor-
mance is often deployed to shed light on
and raise awareness of political issues and
social challenges. These two main char-
acteristics pertinent to meta-performance
differentiate it in comparison with instanc-
es of performance within a performance
such as meta-theatre.
More than a self-referential element
present in a work of fiction, a meta-per-
formance incorporates its own direct envi-
ronment. In her commentary of Le roman
de Silence (thirteenth century), medievalist
Linda Marie Zaerr affirms that “[m]eta-
performance passages, those that describe
minstrel performance, [. . .] convey histor-
ical notions of performance, notions that
could be fundamental in understanding
how these texts may have been received”
(3). Such instances may appear in a frag-
mented way instead of a linear, continuous
stream: also, presenters may try to pull the
audience into their diegesis in an attempt
at making their work more participatory.
On one hand, a meta-performance
is an open system that can directly or in-
directly involve the audience, especially
when it makes the public aware of specif-
ic social issues. Meta-theatre, on the other
hand, is more of a closed system that pre-
fers to engage with the world of the stage.
In “The Birth of the Subject out of the Spir-
it of the Play within the Play: The Hamlet
Paradigm,” for example, Bernhard Grein-
er does not mention the possibility of an
active (or passive) reaction from the audi-
ence: for Greiner, the “play within a play”
that characterizes a drama like Hamlet is
not concerned with creating a simulacrum.
By using the example of a work by Shake-
speare, Greiner associates a spatial marker
(Renaissance) to such technique, and con-
siders that the “play within a play” is “con-
stituted in early modernity” (3). Further-
more, the self is “the reference point and
pre-condition of the play within the play”
(3). By dealing with a form of subjectivity
caught in the process of its undoing, the
concept of meta-performance used in this
article is not a product of early moderni-
ty but a manifestation of post-modernity,
and works as a meta-representation from
which no original source can be extracted.
In “Post-Cinematic Affect: On Grace
Jones, Boarding Gate and Southland Tales,”
for example, Steven Shaviro notices that
the Jamaican-American singer/actress in-
cludes several textual layers within the
main narrative of her music video “Cor-
porate Cannibal.” According to Shaviro,
Jones chose for her music video a title that
is an obvious reference to the contempo-
rary hostile environment of late capital-
ism.1 The various iconographies or “reifi-
cations” that are incorporated into Jones’
Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 71 Post Script
video work like meta-performative acts.
As Shaviro explains:
[S]he also transgresses the very
sense of what it means to be a self
or a subject at all. She turns herself
into a thing—thereby forcing us to
confront the ways that slavery and
racism turn black people into things,
that patriarchy turns women into
things, and that capitalism turns all
of us into commodities, or strangely
animated things. She revivifies, and
reclaims the powers latent within,
all of these reifications (22).
The sum of these reifications that refers to
racism, sexism, and economic exploitation
contributes to create a super-performance
on the abuse of late capitalism—as its
self-referent title indicates.
Moreover, for Shaviro, Jones’ corpo-
rate figure in “Corporate Cannibal” gener-
ates its own space:2
In other words, the electronic im-
age is one more iteration—and a
particularly visceral one, at that—of
“Grace Jones” as a celebrity icon. I
say iteration, rather than version, or
copy, because there is no original,
or Platonic ideal, of a celebrity: all
instances are generated through the
same processes of composition and
modulation, and therefore any in-
stance is as valid (or “authentic”) as
any other. (19)
In the twenty-first century, marginalized
or censored cultures and political groups
can control their image more actively by
relying on similar meta-performances—
especially when it comes to social justice.
Moreover, the form adopted to express
such concern recalls the idea of a simulacra
from which no original source/ origin can
be extracted.3
In The Dance of Reality (La danza de la re-
alidad, 2013), Chilean filmmaker Alejandro
Jodorowsky includes references to tradi-
tional popular modes of expression—such
as the circus, early “talkies,” pantomime,
and opera—which are used as meta-perfor-
mative devices. At the same time, by assign-
ing new roles to them, the director exploits
the potential of these various meta-perfor-
mative tools/elements. These performative
devices serve a new purpose: to conceal
and sometimes reveal the main characters’
Jewish identity in the anti-Semitic environ-
ment of 1930s Chile. We shall see that some
meta-performative scenes in The Dance of
Reality adopt a specific form that recalls the
iteration component present in Jones’ video.
Similarly to Jones’ performance in “Cor-
porate Cannibal,” none of these passages
found in Jodorowsky’s next-to-the-last film
point out to a real original source—even
though these meta-performances include
some autobiographical references.
As Jodorowsky mentions himself in
his bio-fictional novel Donde mejor canta un
pájaro (1992), his fictionalized ancestors im-
migrated to Chile and Argentina in order
to escape from pogroms that had become
prevalent in the Russian Empire during
the 1890’s.4 Jodorowsky’s bio-fictional sagas
(both novels and films) represent the harsh
lives that the author’s fictionalized grand-
parents have to endure in Argentina and
Chile. His film adaptations of his bio-fic-
tional novels focus on how the main char-
acters’ Jewish identities evolve. The Dance
of Reality introduces us to Alejandrito, the
only son (Jodorowsky’s young alter ego)
of Jaime and Sara, who settled in Tocopilla
on the Pacific Ocean in the mining north-
ern Antofagasta region of Chile in the late
1920’s.5 The other inhabitants of this small
town ostracize the newcomers because
of their ethnic origins. This set of circum-
stances explains why Alejandrito and his
family tend to negate or even “forget” their
Jewish heritage all throughout the film.
In The Dance of Reality, the main charac-
ters’ attempts at assimilating into the Chil-
ean nation (and thereby concealing their
Jewish origin) result in various meta-per-
formative acts. These transgressions with-
in the diegesis of the film reveal the pro-
tagonists’ defensive reactions when faced
with anti-Semitic prejudice. Consequently,
Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 72 Post Script
Jodorowsky’s use of meta-performance in
the film becomes a systematic requirement
for the personal development of the three
main characters: Jaime (the father), Sara (the
mother), and Alejandrito (the son).6 By com-
plicating the identification process with the
protagonists, the insertion of a meta-per-
formative element calls for an affective re-
action whereby identity construction pro-
cesses and exchanges between viewers and
characters are problematized and put into
question. This set-up forces us to become
more active viewers and creates empathy
between the audience and the main charac-
ters’ situation.7
Meta-Performance,
Jewish Identity,
and the Nuclear Family
Jaime, the Father
Jodorowsky introduces his first me-
ta-performative element in the initial
sequence of The Dance of Reality during
anti-Semitic attacks against Alejandrito’s
father. It all begins when we see a group of
amputated miners beg for money at the en-
trance of a store. When Jaime, the business
owner, violently expels the homeless peo-
ple for bothering his customers, these rep-
resentatives of Chile’s lowest class respond
with insults against his ethnicity: “That’s
the Jew who hit me,” screams one of them
(14:10-14:25). In this case, although these
amputees are marginalized, they react like
the average citizens of the time period ex-
pressing their traditional anti-Semitic feel-
ings. The destitute, jobless workers, who
are victims of the lack of labor protection
that characterizes 1930s Chile, do not hate
Jaime for being a middle-class shop owner.
They do not hate him for living in a more
advantageous socio-economic condition
because of his job but because of his Jew-
ishness. Instead of directing their resent-
ment against an unequal socio-political
system, they chose Western civilization’s
traditional go-to scapegoat.
The meta-performative reference in
this scene is based on a famous intertext:
this group of amputated miners who pro-
test in front of Jaime’s store recalls various
sequences of the 1932 film classic Freaks.8Not
unlike Tod Browning, Jodorowsky attempts
to recreate an environment where margin-
alized and deformed beings make up their
own egalitarian, separate society.9 How-
ever, this utopia is confronted with the
ugliness of anti-Semitism: even the freaks
feel superior to Jaime, because at least they
are not Jewish. This comes as a shock for
both Alejandrito and his father. In the very
first scene, both characters rehearse a per-
formance in a circus, a place that could be
seen as a micro-utopia in itself. In a circus,
dwarves, giants, bearded-women, and oth-
er people often ridiculed because of their
appearance live in peace and harmony.
Physical differences do not matter, and ev-
eryone is valued for his/her own talents.
This egalitarian society, however, cannot
be transposed into real life.10 The “freak
show” that Jaime inadvertently performs
only causes the entire neighborhood to
focus more pointedly on his being Jewish,
which leads to his ostracization.
In order to survive in this anti-Semitic
environment, the family experiments with
various solutions, all of them deployed
in meta-performative instances. First, the
father and the son try to assimilate into
Chilean society either by casting aside or
hiding their Jewish origin. They hope that
by serving their local community, they will
receive the recognition of their fellow coun-
trymen, while at the same time making
their ethnic specificity irrelevant. For the fa-
ther, “helping his neighbor” by joining the
local branch of volunteer firemen will free
and inoculate him from the dangers of an-
ti-Semitism. The deliberate act of putting on
a firefighter uniform should erase all racial,
ethnic, and religious differences: however,
his fellow firemen see only a mere disguise
in his uniform—as if he were playing the
role of a fireman instead of being a real one.
Two of his fellow firefighters confirm their
anti-Semitic prejudice by slightly chang-
ing a famous Spanish proverb when they
Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 73 Post Script
talk about their Jewish co-worker: “Even
dressed up as a fireman, a Jew is a Jew”
(50:01-50:10).11
Despite his recurring failures at inte-
gration, Jaime does not lose hope of one
day passing for any other Chilean. If he
cannot hide his being Jewish from his fel-
low countrymen, he might as well treat
them as if they were all Jewish like him.
He therefore attempts to act like a Chil-
ean Moses, not unlike the Jewish prophet
who saved the oppressed Israelites from
slavery in Egypt.12 Jaime sees an opportu-
nity to save Tocopilla’s most destitute peo-
ple when an epidemic of leprosy spreads
throughout the city.13 Local authorities
decide to quarantine all the contaminated
inhabitants in an enclosed deserted beach
and let them die either from hunger or
from the disease. Jaime takes on the role
of a self-proclaimed savior of these victims
and volunteers to bring them water.
In this context, the biblical reference
is not exactly a meta-performance of the
Manna episode from the Book of Exodus
because the simulacral aspect is not there
insofar as there is a real reference for it. We
are more in presence of a grotesque re-en-
actment, where Jaime assumes the role of
Moses. The beach where the contaminated
patients are left abandoned even looks like
a desert.14 Nevertheless, the meta-aspect of
this episode lies in Jaime inventing himself
as a true Chilean savior, as if the attempts
to save “his” people would naturally be
borne out of his national belonging. When
he brings them several barrels of water, all
the quarantined people see in Jaime’s ar-
rival a divine miracle. Once again, Jaime’s
altruistic initiative backfires. Not only are
these victims of injustice thirsty; they are
also hungry. As a result, they decide to
slaughter the mules that were carrying
the barrels of water. Although the Chilean
Moses vainly explains that this act will
keep him from bringing more water the
next day, he is ignored. Once again, Jaime
cannot find recognition from his fellow
countrymen. His sense of guilt as a failed
Moses is very explicit, when he tells Sara
that although Chile is his country, he was Araucano. The meta-performance occurs
unable to save his people (59:36-59:47). in this case at two levels. The last name
Jaime also hopes that his member- “Jodorowsky” is not originally Jewish but
ship and activism in the Communist Par- (according to the author) Polish. In Donde
ty will be the key to his integration into mejor canta un pájaro, Jodorowsky explains
Chilean society. This choice seems to be that his original surname was “Levi.” Ac-
a good compromise since Jaime can em- cording to the family’s oral history, the fic-
brace the political ideas
of a “Jewish prophet”
(Karl Marx). He begins
dressing like the infa-
mous dictator and even
lets his mustache grow
in the style of Stalin.14
He then treats his house
and shop as if they were
the stage of a play, where
he designs a set that re-
sembles 1930s Russia. In
his in-law’s living room,
a giant Menorah is the
first object that one can
see,15 but behind Jaime’s
counter, it is the portrait
of Stalin that customers
notice when entering
the store. By converting Jaime, at a local meeting of Chile’s Communist Party, during
to Marxism and athe- which his comrades vote to assassinate president Ibáñez del
ism, he hopes to free Campo; Jaime is proudly showing his membership card, un-
himself from Judaism der the new identity of Juan Araucano. The Dance of Reality
and anti-Semitism.16 In (2013), directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
reality, the failure of
this character lies in his
meta-performative interpretation of com- tionalized grandfather bought the identity
munism: Jaime adopts the forms of this papers of a Polish nobleman in order to
ideology without really thinking about the escape from the Russian empire and immi-
content. grate to Latin America.16 However, for his
The last altruistic act that Jaime at- fellow countrymen this new surname does
tempts to commit is once again connected not erase the Jewish origins of its bearers.
to a meta-performance. After a meeting at Therefore, it is not a coincidence that Jaime
the headquarters of the Communist Par- choses “Araucano” as his new patronym/
ty, local cell leaders vote to assassinate pseudonym—especially since “Araucano”
Ibáñez del Campo, the authoritarian ruler is the name of Chile’s native inhabitants.
of Chile. Jaime immediately volunteers to Aboard the boat that takes Jaime and
sacrifice himself, so that he can become another member of the Party to Santiago
a national hero and, during the Party’s de Chile, the two men fight about who shall
meeting, he proudly reminds everyone kill the dictator. The argument advanced
not to call him “Jaime Jodorowsky” but to by Jaime’s comrade reveals an unconscious
use the first and last name which he choos- form of anti-Semitism and a perception of
es to write on his membership card: Juan the Jew as a total stranger: “You are a Jew

Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 74 Post Script

and a Chilean must kill him” (01:06:22- represents his success at assimilation is his
01:06:28). Jaime must agree to become a adoption by a woman from the slums, who
mere substitute in case his comrade fails in happens to be a half his height and have
his mission. After his rival commits ritual a deformed back. Not only does she turn
suicide, Jaime’s plan to assassinate Ibáñez him into his lover but also into a patriotic
del Campo involves another meta-perfor- symbol by painting Jaime’s body with the
mance. In order to look inoffensive while color of Chile’s national flag.
working as a generic employee in the pres- The price that Jaime had to pay for his
ident’s hacienda, the future national hero integration is his Jewish identity. It is not a
dresses like a simple peasant (another at- coincidence that in the two scenes that fol-
tempt to pass as “authentically” Chilean). low his “re-awakening” (when he regains
By taking care of Ibáñez’s favorite horse, his memory), Jaime meets different groups
Jaime hopes to get closer to the head of the of citizens who mistreat him; i.e., he must
state and eliminate him. This project also once more deal with anti-Semitism. More-
fails because Jaime’s hands become sud- over, during all the period of his memory
denly paralyzed as he is about to shot at loss, Jaime’s hands remain paralyzed. It is
Ibáñez. when an old man (don José) sees in this ac-
quired disability a fulfilment
of Psalm 137:5 (“If I forget
you, O Jerusalem, let my right
hand forget its skill” [1:43:30-
1:43:43]) that viewers under-
stand that Jaime’s amnesia
stands for both voluntary and
accidental erasure of his Jew-
ishness.
Jaime’s triumph over an-
ti-Semitic prejudice culmi-
nates in the sequence where
he is incarcerated and tortured
under a temporarily-displaced
military dictatorship.17 In this
Jaime, recovering his memory after a long period of case, he is not persecuted for
amnesia, during which he became the lover of a wom- being Jewish but for belonging
an with a deformed back from the slums, who painted to the political opposition—
his body with the colors of the Chilean flag. The Dance another role he has accepted.
of Reality (2013), directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. The father figure has finally
reached his goal of being treat-
ed like any other Chilean who
is opposing the dictatorship.
Finally, Jaime’s last attempt at assimi- The meta-performance of this sequence
lation into Chilean society will be his only lies in its extemporaneity. Critics Jaime Gri-
success because its outcome is entirely un- jalba, Rodrigo Cánovas Emhart, and Jorge
planned. After his failure at freeing Chile Scherman Filer note that the scene of tor-
from its authoritarian ruler, Jaime turns ture of political dissidents rings more a bell
into an amnesiac and finds himself in the with Pinochet’s dictatorship than with the
slums of Santiago de Chile, with other mar- methods of Ibáñez del Campo.18 Here, the
ginalized people. During all this time, his meta-performative element is a reference to
neighbors never express any anti-Semit- the 1980s political repression that Jodorows-
ic feelings towards this newcomer. What ky inserts into the timeframe of 1930s Chile.

Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 75 Post Script

Alejandrito, the Son drowned if he had not worn those shoes.
After witnessing his father being vic- According to Lucho (Carlitos’ twin broth-
timized because of his Judaism at the be- er), Alejandrito’s Jewish origins brought
ginning of the film, it is Alejandrito’s turn the family bad luck. If he had never been
to find himself inadvertently participating friend with a Jew, his brother would nev-
in a meta-performance. In this other refer- er have drowned. Lucho even tells the
ence to the world of the circus, his ethnic main character: “I am not [your friend],
origins are blamed for his friend’s death. you crappy Jew” (1:30:50-1:30:56). For Ale-
Again, the harsh reality of 1930s life in jandrito, a simple and altruistic meta-per-
Chile contrasts with an idealized egalitar- formative act (attempting to translate the
ian society made up of freaks and other harmony of the circus community outside
marginalized charac-
ters. After the scene
with the amputated
miners, comes anoth-
er sequence that once
more involves the fam-
ily shop. In order to
attract customers, Jai-
me contracts a dwarf
who puts on various
costumes. Depend-
ing on the scene, this
employee dresses up
as a devil, as the char-
acter of Zorro, or as a
Mexican.19 Eventually, Alejandrito wearing his firefighter uniform, surrounded by
Jaime accepts to give cardboard cut-outs of the various characters he encounters
his son the manne- throughout the film, such as an amputated miner and the her-
quin’s red shoes, even mit Teósofo. The Dance of Reality (2013), directed by Alejan-
if they are too big for dro Jodorowsky.
him. Proud of his new
clown costume item,
Alejandrito takes a
walk throughout the streets of Tocopilla, of its established confines) results in being
behaving as if he were participating in a violently reminded of his Jewish origins.
circus performance or a pantomime (as Another traumatizing confrontation
the background music suggests). Howev- with anti-Semitism, that Jodorowsky ex-
er, when transposing the idealized world presses by using meta-performance, takes
of the circus to reality, one must face hu- place during Alejandrito’s years in sec-
man misery. After noticing that a friend of ondary school. During an extracurricular
his (Carlitos) walks barefoot, Jodorowsky’s activity where the school master takes his
young alter ego decides to give him his pupils to the seaside, Alejandrito follows
brand-new pair of red shoes. some of his classmates to a remote corner
On the next day, Alejandrito finds out of the beach, where he is invited to partici-
that his friend has drown in the Pacific, pate in an act of collective masturbation. In
because the sole of his shoes was too slip- order to bypass any form of censorship or
pery. Consequently, Carlitos’ parents hold legal problems, every underage actor uses
Alejandrito responsible for the accidental a wooden penis as a prop. Thanks to the
death of their son, who would not have introduction of theater props, Jodorowsky

Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 76 Post Script

can impose on the character of Alejandrito
the use of an exaggerated “circumcised”
wooden penis. This anatomical difference
is another pretext for Alejandrito’s class-
mates to express their anti-Semitism and
to reject him.
The Jewish tradition that marks Ale-
jandrito’s wooden penis is not the only
cause of his exclusion from the group of
teenagers: the shape of the wooden shaft
is a direct allusion to the character of Pi-
nocchio, whose nose can extend when he
tells a lie. It is during this scene that the
public finds out that the main character’s
nickname is “Pinocchio.” In this context,
the long nose of Collodi’s puppet becomes
a reference to the traditional anti-Semitic
caricatures that used to commonly circu-
late in Chile and other countries in the
1930s.
Alejandrito is the family member who
finds himself in situations in which the oc-
currence of meta-performances is the most
obvious, especially when the director him-
self becomes a character in his own film.20
After fighting with his father at the end of
the first sequence, a depressed Alejandrito
Alejandrito and the (drag)-Queen of Cups, just after the tsunami that brought to the
shore thousands of fresh fish for the poor. The Dance of Reality (2013), directed by
Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 77 Post Script
escapes to the beach where he meets the
Queen of Cups. This is where another me-
ta-performative act occurs. First, this old
hermit who lives by the seaside is literal-
ly a live tarot card, not unlike the talking
playing cards from Lewis Carroll’s Alice
in Wonderland (1865). Second, this meta-
morphosis of a tarot card into a flesh-and-
blood character involves an actor instead
of an actress. According to tarot card read-
er expert Brigit Esselmont, the Queen of
Cups in a traditional deck is a “beautiful,
introspective woman who sits on a throne
at the edge of the sea.” Inverting both the
biological sex and the economic status of
the Queen of Cups is a way to mimic his
interpretation of the tarot with the study
of the Torah—a type of sacralization/
profanation that he previously conducted
in The Holy Mountain.21 Thus, the director
equates a profane divinatory art with a
Jewish religious practice. In this case, the
meta-performative act of giving life to a
tarot card through a man in drag contrib-
utes to preserving a Jewish tradition. This
equation is later confirmed in Poesía sin
fin, when the family visits their relatives.
At the grand-mother’s home, a black box
that looks like a copy of the Torah contains
some cigars. Moreover, on the box cover,
we see the word “TORAT” written in both
Hebrew and French—which is “TAROT”
spelled backward (when pronounced ac-
cording to the rules of French phonetics,
the final consonant must remain silent).
During his encounter with the Drag-
Queen of Cups, Alejandrito takes on a role
similar to the one that his father will accept
in a later scene: he inadvertently becomes
a Moses of the poor and the oppressed.
Despite the warning from the hermit, the
protagonist throws a rock into the ocean—
which causes a tsunami. As a result, thou-
sands of fishes are thrown onto the beach.
Immediately after the catastrophe, flocks
of seagulls rush flying toward this unex-
pected Manna. As the young Alejandrito
feels guilty for causing this environmen-
tal disaster, he is also happy that so many
birds can eat. This is when Jodorowsky, as
an eighty-six-year-old man, appears to him
and congratulates his young alter ego on
his decision, because in addition to feeding
the seagulls, thousands of poor Chileans
now can have free food.
When Alejandrito meets a second
hermit called Teósofo, another meta-per-
formance is at play because of the anach-
ronism of the situation. Although the plot
of the movie takes place in 1930s Chile,
the character of Teósofo looks more like
a 1960s convert to Hinduism who is only
wearing a string and a pair of sandals.
All the different chakras that are painted
in bright colors all over his almost-naked
body (superimposed by their correspond-
ing Sanskrit letter) contrast with the grey
landscape of Tocopilla. This view reinforc-
es the idea that this hermit’s presence is
not only out of place but also out of time.22
From Teósofo, Jodorowsky’s young al-
ter-ego learns about the chakras and the
unicity of the three monotheisms (Juda-
ism, Christianity, and Islam). The content
of this lesson represents the opposite of his
father’s militant atheism. In fact, when the
boy returns home, Jaime forces his son to
Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 78 Post Script
throw in the toilet the three pendants (a
Star of David, a cross, and a crescent) that
Teósofo gave him. He also requires Ale-
jandrito to repeat his atheist profession of
faith as if it were a mantra: “God does not
exist” (31:25-31:37). Jaime’s intransigence is
a rejection of the family’s Jewish roots un-
der the disguise of atheism. Jaime’s failure
in his role of a “Moses of the Poor” will
later echo Sara’s certitude about God (and
Judaism). When her husband once more
manifests his atheism (“God does not ex-
ist”), Sara simply replies, “Yes He does. He
cured you” (1:00:05-1:00:23).
Sara, the Mother
In Sara’s case, reliance on meta-perfor-
mance depends neither on a new role that
one must adopt nor on the use of props or
other accessories. Sara incorporates anoth-
er meta-performative element: the design
of a theater (or movie) set. It all begins
when Alejandrito tells his mother that he is
afraid of the night. The young boy’s fear of
the dark stands for the traumatism caused
by an anti-Semitic environment, a state
that he has interiorized and that he asso-
ciates with the lack of light. Sara finds an
efficient solution to comfort her son: in or-
der not to fear the night, one must become
the night, and even blend into its darkness.
As a result, Sara suggests that both her
and Alejandrito take off their clothes and
paint their body black. One could inter-
pret Sara’s initiative as a mother’s attempt
to make her son feel better. Nevertheless,
her words later leave no doubt when she
sings to him the following verse: “Out with
Pinocchio! Out with the Jew! Out with the
nose and white skin! You are empty! You
are invisible!” (1:31:50-1:32:15).
Sara participates in a second me-
ta-performance to convince her son that
her “trick” works. When Alejandrito com-
plains to his mother that another boy (Car-
litos’ brother) insulted him for being Jew-
ish, Sara takes it upon herself to prove that
she is invisible to others—i.e., she can blend
into an anti-Semitic society despite being
Jewish. Once Sara removes all her clothes
and brings her son to a gay bar, the film es-
tablishes an intertextual relationship with
the “naked emperor.” Being a member of
the opposite sex, her nudity does not arise
the gay customers’ sexual desire: it is as if
she were invisible to them.23
While Jaime hopes that the solution
for his family is a complete assimilation
to Chilean society, Sara constantly oppos-
es him. One can notice that Alejandrito’s
mother accomplishes a meta-performative
act all the times she talks because she only
communicates through her singing. By
displacing the audience from the fictional
world of cinema to the opera stage, her me-
ta-performance makes us aware of the in-
ternal conflict within the couple in which
each member stands for an opposite edu-
cational model.24 Sara defends the family’s
Jewish heritage each time Jaime attempts
to erase it. We first witness this situation
when Jaime decides to entirely embrace
the model of masculinity that is prevalent
in society in general. This kind of machis-
mo implies a very oppressive form of ho-
mophobia. By genuinely acting like a tradi-
tional machista, Alejandrito’s father expects
that his fellow countrymen will accept him
as one of them, his Jewish origins notwith-
standing.
In the first part of the film, Sara lets
Alejandrito grow his blond curly hair very
long. This decision infuriates Jaime who is
afraid that his son will become “faggot”
(“maricón”) [11:14-11:16]). Jaime forcefully
takes Alejandrito to the barber so that he
can give him the haircut of a “real man.”
Ironically, Jewish Biblical mythology asso-
ciates long-haired warriors with manhood.
In The Dance of Reality, we can distinguish
two opposites worldviews: Jaime stands
for the stereotypical machista, who believes
that his son is too effeminate (if not gay-
like) because of his long hair; Sara instead
favors the Jewish mythological image of
manhood, that recalls the story of Sam-
son.25 Her meta-performative song of sor-
row and despair (that transposes the pub-
lic to an opera stage) expresses not only a
beauty that is lost (Alejandrito’s long curly
Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 79 Post Script
blond hair) but also the negation of her
family’s Jewish heritage carried out by her
husband. As Enrique Morales Lastra points
out: “En este páramo afectivo, ni siquiera la
guarida de una figura materna cercana al delir-
io y a lo limítrofe, le servían de gran apoyo” [In
this affective wasteland, not even the hide-
out from a maternal figure, who is close to
being delirious and borderline, is of a great
help] (3). That is why, in various scenes, the
real Jodorowsky inserts himself in the die-
gesis of the film to comfort the character of
Alejandrito, his teenage alter ego.26
It is worth noting that in El Topo (1970),
Jodorowsky casts the main character (“El
Topo”) as himself and his son Brontis as
the “Son of el Topo.” Paradoxically, a par-
allel exists between the plot of The Dance
of Reality and the way Jodorowsky treated
Brontis when he made El Topo (and when
he trained his son for his failed project of
adapting Frank Herbert’s Dune to the big
screen). By acting in a macho way with his
son, Jodorowsky resorted to the same ritu-
al of passage as the fictional father of The
Dance of Reality. Indeed, in the introducto-
ry sequence of El Topo, the main character
makes his son into a man by forcing him
to bury his toy and the photograph of
his mother.27 By inserting himself within
the diegesis of his movie, the director ac-
knowledges the permanence (the possibil-
ity of recalling bad/ good events) and the
power (our past experience influences us
constantly throughout our life) of child-
hood memories even when they are fic-
tionalized and adapted to the film genre.
Conclusion
In a play or in a film, we are in the
presence of a meta-performance when
characters take on the role of actors for a
performance within the plot—while other
characters also become the audience. Usu-
ally, this technique serves to recall past
events or can become a device to foresee
future plot developments. In The Dance of
Reality, the various instances of meta-per-
formance do not automatically mirror ep-
isodes that are about to occur or that have
already happened. All the meta-performa-
tive elements that the director introduces
within the diegesis of his film constantly
make the audience aware of how the char-
acters imagined by Jodorowsky either con-
ceal or adapt their Jewish origins in order
to integrate into Chilean society. For Ale-
jandrito, Jaime and Sara, reconciling their
Jewish heritage with the need to be accept-
ed by their fellow countrymen depends on
a successful meta-performance. As in the
case of Jaime’s amnesia or of Sara’s cloak-
ing device, the unintentional forgetting or
the voluntary erasing of their Jewish eth-
nicity are seen as two workable solutions.
The second part of Jodorowsky’s bio-fic-
tional film saga, Poesía sin fín seems to con-
firm this interpretation. In this last movie
by the Chilean director, the plot of which
coincides with his years spent in Santiago
as a young man, no anti-Semitic incident
is recalled. It is as if the character of Ale-
jandrito could have resolved this rampant
problem of anti-Semitic prejudice in Chil-
ean society, but at a price that involves the
temporary erasure of his ethnic roots.
Notes
1
“[Grace Jones] embodied an all-too-fa-
miliar racist and sexist iconography with
such vicious, sarcastic excess as to blow
it apart. At the same time, she crossed
boundaries separating men from women
not with a cozy androgyny, nor even with
the 'glam rock' stylisations of the period,
but by displaying a cold and forbidding,
more-than-masculine, and ultimately un-
genderable hardbody” (221).
2
“‘Corporate Cannibal,’ therefore,
does not refer back indexically to Grace
Jones’s body as a source or model. It does
not image, reflect and distort some prior,
and supposedly more authentic, actuality
of Jones-as-physical-presence” (18).
3
For example, in staging “The Moscow
Trials,” artist Milo Rau created a “Juridical
Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 80 Post Script
Metaperformance” to protest the sentenc-
ing to labor camps of punk activists Pussy
Riot. In his words, “[t]he Moscow Trials
are a retake (‘Wiederaufnahme’), not a rep-
etition. It concerns not the simulation of a
juridical process, but its opposite: the en-
abling of a process, which was not possible
when it was originally conducted” (283).
4
According to Jodorowsky’s fami-
ly tree (described in Donde mejor canta
un pájaro), his maternal grandparents
immigrated to Argentina and his pater-
nal grandparents immigrated directly to
Chile. In the second sequence of The Dance
of Reality, Sara (Alejandrito’s mother) also
summarizes this story, when she tells
about the accidental death of her father.
5
The title of the second novel about
Jodorowsky's family saga (El niño del jueves
negro) is a reference to the author’s date
of birth (24 October 1929 or “Black Thurs-
day”).
6
Jodorowsky’s use of meta-perfor-
mance in The Dance of Reality is what dis-
tinguishes his bio-fictional novel from
his film adaptation: “The imaginary and
illusionary representations of himself of-
fered in the book are framed by the craft of
creative nonfiction and his own novelistic
devices, but in the film they are framed by
the magic of special effects, the emotions
of the actors and the physical being of the
author in costume” (Melnyk 62).
7
As Ginebra Bricollé Nadal explains
“La decisión está en el espectador de decidir
entrar en su mundo y dejarse llevar por sus fas-
cinantes pensamientos o quedarse afuera. Los
valientes tienen premio" [It is up to the mov-
ie viewer to enter Jodorowsky's world and
let himself be carried away by his fasci-
nating thoughts or to remain outside. The
brave ones get the prize] (no page number).
Alonso Díaz de la Vega also points out that
“como un todo, la película es una experiencia
única de empatía y enmienda” [As a whole,
the film is a unique experience of empathy
and mending] (1). [All translations in quote
are mine.]
8
Diego Battle has already noted the
reference to Freaks (1932): “¿Qué propone
Jodorowsky en su regreso al cine y a Chile?
Ejércitos de freaks (marginales sin piernas ni
brazos) a-la Tod Browning, gordas tetonas y
enanos ‘fellinianos’, travestís comunistas can-
tando 'La internacional', retratos del fanatismo
nazi y stalinista y del antisemitismo . . .” [What
does Jodorowsky propose in his return to
cinema and Chile? Armies of freaks (mar-
ginalized people without legs and arms)
in the style of Tod Browning, big-breasted
fat women, Fellinian dwarves, communist
transvestites singing “The International
Anthem,” portraits of Nazi and Stalinian
fanaticism and of anti-Semitism] (1). Luis
Miguel Vicente García does not use the
term “freak show” but “reality show”:
“Siento que los pacientes son tratados como
idiotas, dignos de formar parte de un ‘reali-
ty show’” (193) [I feel that the patients are
treated like idiots, worthy of participating
in a ‘reality show’].
9
The scene is already mediated by
similar performances in previous movies
by Jodorowsky. Ben Cobb has already no-
ticed that in The Holy Mountain (La montaña
sagrada, 1973), the scene where “the Cripple
lights the joint is a moment that recalls the
limbless Prince Radiant rolling and light-
ing a cigarette in Tod Browning’s Freaks”
(131). Furthermore, “El Topo's display of
amputees, hunchbacks and dwarves is cast
in the affectionate mould of Tod Brown-
ing” (73). Michael Richardson has also
identified Browning's influence in Fando
and Lis (Fando y Lis, 1968) and Santa Sangre
(1989): “Not since Tod Browning has a di-
rector been able to represent abnormality
and physical disability in such an uncon-
descending and unassuming way. The
pleasure the Down’s syndrome children
take in playing their roles in Santa Sangre is
evident and comparable in this sense with
the scene with transvestites in Fando y Lis”
(140).
10
The grotesque amputees who per-
form during the first sequence of The Dance
of Reality do not share the same character-
istics with the freaks who are portrayed in
the films of David Lynch, Federico Felli-
ni, or Tod Browning, and who “poseen un
Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 81 Post Script
corazón inmenso, y una gran gallardía. Son
personas de las que debemos aprender como es-
pectadores” [They possess a huge heart, and
great bravery. These are characters from
whom we must learn as movie viewers]
(Manteca 3).
11
The Spanish original proverb is:
“Aunque mona se vista de seda, mona se que-
da.” An English equivalent would be "You
can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
No matter how good of a performance one
gives (when impersonating someone else
from a different social class or culture/eth-
nicity), a mere disguise would not do the
trick. This case applies directly to Jaime
who is still perceived as a Jew instead of
being recognized as another Chilean fire-
man.
12
This is how Rodrigo Cánovas Em-
hart and Jorge Scherman Filer describe
Jodorowsky: “Judía es su sangre dominante,
nació chileno, pero Jodorowsky prefiere ser un
ciudadano de la humanidad” [His dominant
blood type is Jewish, he was born Chilean,
but Jodorowsky would rather be a citizen
of humanity] (15). These critics also insist
on how this director/novelist makes his
Jewish heritage universal: “Jodorowsky
cuenta a través de su relato familiar la historia
de la humanidad” [Jodorowsky tells through
the récit of his family the history of human-
ity] (10).
13
According to Naomi Lindstrom “al
profeta le resultan abominables la falsedad e
injusticias comunes que los demás aceptan”
[The prophet considers an abomination the
falsehood and common injustices that oth-
ers accept] (130). In this case, she also refers
to Jaime's role as a prophet, who attempts
to save the poor and destitute people of his
hometown after witnessing their misera-
ble living conditions.
14
Since this scene takes place in Toco-
pilla and that this urban center is in fact a
desert town, the choice of this set is more
than appropriate.
15
As Verónica Sánchez Marín has al-
ready noticed, “[c]urioso detalle que parecen
notar todos menos el aludido: Jaime guarda un
parecido físico con el político soviético, que se
confunde con la admiración y devoción a su
figura” [a curious details that everybody
seem to notice except for the one who is
affected by it: Jaime displays a physical
appearance similar to the Soviet politician,
that is confused with the admiration and
devotion that he displays toward this fig-
ure] (2).
16
This scene appears in the second
part of Jodorowsky's duology, Poesía sin fin
(2016).
17
Rodrigo Cánovas Emhart and Jorge
Scherman Filer have also reached this
conclusion in the analysis of Jodorowsky's
bio-fictional novel that was the main source
of The Dance of Reality: “En consecuencia,
su historia familiar le inscribe dentro de un re-
lato de corte bíblico y milenario. Y además le
adiciona su condición de reencarnado que 'el-
ige' a sus padres y, por tanto, simbólicamente
los salva de una tradición—la judía—que a la
vez los libera y los oprime” [Consequently,
his family history inscribes him within a
biblical and millenarian récit. In addition,
one must add his condition of reincarnated
one who "chooses" his parents, and there-
fore, symbolically save them from a tradi-
tion—the Jewish one—which frees them
and oppresses them at the same time] (28).
18
“Quiso cambiar de raza, irse a vivir en-
tre los goys. Pero el apellido Levi era como lle-
var una estrella de seis puntas grabada en la
frente. Mi abuelo [. . .] encontró unos nobles de
origen polaco que no querían que su hijo único
hiciera el servicio militar entre gañanes. Le pro-
porcionaron papeles oficiales, comprados a un
funcionario venal, para que él se presentara al
ejército en lugar del delicado retoño. Le tocó lla-
marse Jodorowsky. Con ese apellido polonés, él
y su familia ya podrían cambiar de país, cruzar
las fronteras sin grandes problemas, disolverse
entre las razas no elegidas... en cinco años más
cuando terminara el enrolamiento” [He chose
to change his race, to go live with the goim.
But the family name of Levi was like having
a six-branch star engraved on his forehead.
My grandfather [. . .] found some nobles of
Polish origin who did not want their only
son to do his military service among labor-
ers. They provided my grandfather with
Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 82 Post Script
official papers, bought from a corrupted
public employee, so that he could join the
army instead of the delicate little one. His
last name would happen to be Jodorows-
ky. With this family name, they would be
able to change their country, cross borders
without any big problems, dissolve them-
selves among the non-chosen races . . . five
years after his enrolment] (23).
19
Although Rodrigo Cánovas Emhart
and Jorge Scherman Filer analyze the
bio-fictional novel instead of its film ad-
aptation, they conclude that this torture
scene has more to do with the dictatorship
of Pinochet. That is why we can say that
Jodorowsky is displacing post-1973 Chile
to the 1930s: “Es difícil soslayar que en este
capítulo Jodorowsky construye una alegoría del
Chile pos-73” [It is difficult to ignore that in
this chapter Jodorowsky constructs an al-
legory of post-73 Chile] (16).
20
“[P]ero sin dudas el momento más per-
turbador es cuando el padre es encarcelado y es
sistemáticamente torturado de maneras que re-
sultan demasiado conocidas hoy en día, además
de extemporáneas para la época retratada”
(Grijalba) [But without any doubt, the most
disturbing moment is when the father is
incarcerated and is systematically tortured
in a way that is too-well known today, in
addition of being extratemporaneous for
the time period represented].
21
The presence of these characters re-
flects the influence of Mexican culture on
Jodorowsky’s work. The director spent al-
most a decade in Mexico during the 1970s,
where he produced his first successful mov-
ies. In addition, according to Miguel Ángel
Vidaurre, one must take into account “la
serie de filmes de luchadores mexicanos encabe-
zados por el Santo o Blue Demon que en Chile
tuvieron tanto éxito aún no reconocido por la
historia culta nacional, pero que aún hoy pervive
con nuevo público en las funciones de cine de
trasnoche” [the series of Mexican wrestlers
represented by ‘el Santo’ or ‘Blue Demon’
who had in Chile a success that is yet to be
recognized by the official national history,
but who are still alive today with a new
public that attend midnight cinema] (67).
 22
Four times in The Dance of Real-
ity, viewers can notice an incursion of
Jodorowsky (as an eighty-six-year-old
man) within the diegesis of the movie, in
which he tries to comfort his young al-
ter-ego—especially when Alejandrito has
to struggle with his Judaism or his feelings
of being an outcast.
23
Already in La montaña sagrada,
Jodorowsky elevates his favorite profane
divinatory art (the tarot) and desacralizes
the study of sacred Jewish texts by level-
ing the playing field between the two tra-
ditions. In the sequence where the young
initiate enters the giant pyramid, he meets
its Master (played by Jodorowsky) who is
about to give him a reading of the tarot.
However, before beginning the ceremony,
the Master puts on the traditional clothes
that a Orthodox Jewish man would wear
during weekday morning prayer (includ-
ing a hand tefillin and a head tefillin).
24
As Jodorowsky explains it himself
in an interview with Michel Ciment and
Philippe Rouvier: “[I]l y a deux temporalités
dans le film. Moi, qui raconte le film, je suis
dans le XXIe siècle, alors que mes personnag-
es sont dans les années 40 ou 50. Le film porte
donc un regard sur le passé du point de vue du
présent” [There are two temporalities in the
film. I, who tell the film, I am in the twen-
ty-first century, while my characters live in
the 40s or 50s. The film gives a perspective
on the past from the point of view in the
present] (20). The DVD cover for The Dance
of Reality also emphasizes this contrast.
Teósofo (in color) appears on the front cov-
er while other characters and the city of
Tocopilla are shown in a gray/black and
white scale, thus giving importance to the
extra-temporality of the situation.
25
Another interpretation could be that
her nudity bestowed her with transparen-
cy, which transferred to Alejandrito. This
transparency allowed her to take her son
to the site of trauma and overcome his
traumatism.
26
As George Melnyk notes: “Jodorows-
ky totally rejected his father’s emphasis
on strength, physical power and a com-
Volume 38, Nos. 2 & 3 83 Post Script
bative stance to life [. . .]. He could only
communicate through metaphor. Perhaps
that is why he removes the normal pow-
er of speech from his mother. Instead, she
communicates through the highly charged
melodramatic form of opera” (60).
27
As Benjamín Harguindey has al-
ready noticed, “Don Jaime es un tirano que
idolatra a Stalin (de hecho se parece bastante
a él) y vive intentando ‘rectificar’ a su afemi-
nado hijo con retos demenciales” [Don Jaime
is a tyrant who worships Stalin (in fact he
closely resembles him) and who lives try-
ing to ‘rectify’ his effeminate son with in-
sane challenges] (2).
28
According to Stefanie Massman,
Jodorowsky’s generational bio-fictional
novel Donde mejor canta un pájaro puts em-
phasis on the “family tree” (that is insert-
ed at the beginning of each chapter of the
book), while its film adaptation favors the
“family picture.” Furthermore, the use of
the family picture coincides with the fi-
nal meta-performance, where Jodorowsky
stands next to his pre-teenage alter ego. “El
álbum de familia, por el contrario, funciona de
modo dialógico, ya que los distintos elementos
yuxtapuestos en la memoria dialogan entre sí
de manera abierta, sin estar obligados a produ-
cir una síntesis final. Los elementos de la me-
moria, que en la concepción del álbum de famil-
ia están situados en el eje sincrónico, no pueden
permanecer mudos uno al lado del otro, sino que
establecen paralelos y relaciones entre sí” [The
family album, on the contrary, works in a
dialogic way, since the distinctive elements
that are juxtaposed in the memory are in
open dialog, without being forced to pro-
duce a final synthesis. The elements from
memory that, in the conception of the fam-
ily album, are located on the synchronous
axis, cannot remain mute to each other, but
must establish parallels and relationships
between each other] (3).
29
This initiation into adulthood relies
on the use of metonymies: both his toy and
the photograph of his mother represent
the childhood that the son of El Topo must
leave behind.
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danza de la realidad.” En filme: cine todo el bras en La danza de la realidad de Alejan-
tiempo. Rev. of The Dance of Reality dro Jodorowsky.” Analecta malacitana:
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Alliance Entertainment, 1989. Severin 191-202. Print.
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Shaviro, Steven. “Post-Cinematic Affect: On Vieille: The Metaperformance Scenes
Grace Jones, Boarding Gate and South- of Le roman de Silence in Performance.”
land Tales,” Film-Philosophy 14.1 (2010): Mosaic 42.1 (2009): 99-116. Print.
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el cine chileno/Stratégies dissidentes
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Henri-Simon Blanc-Hoang (Ph.D., University of Florida) is associate professor at

the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, where he teaches Spanish,
French, Latin American studies, Afro-Francophone studies, Postcolonial and Global-
ization studies. His research interests include the graphic novel and film genres as
well as science fiction. Among his contributions are “Redefining the Nation through
the Camino de Santiago in the Graphic Novel Genre” in The Camino de Santiago in
the 21st Century: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Global Views (Routledge, 2015) and
“Planetas mestizos: un análisis de tres cómics de ciencia-ficción del Cono Sur” (Revista
Iberoamericana, 2017).

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