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Jan Sverre Knudsen. Those that Fly without Wings: Music and Dance in a Chilean Immigrant Community.

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Jan Sverre Knudsen. Those that Fly without Wings: Music and Dance in a Chilean Immigrant Community. Oslo: Unipub AS, Oslo Academic Press, 2006.

The focus of this study of immigrant musical culture is Casa Cultural Chilena, a center founded by working-class immigrants who came to Norway in the twilight years of Pinochet (90). In this ethnomusicological dissertation, Knudsen examines how music and dance contribute to the construction of a Chilean identity in Oslo, but also illuminates the encounter between Chilean and Norwegian culture. From the political solidarity of the 1970s to the Salsa fever of more recent times, Knudsen reveals as much about Norwegian engagement with Latin culture as he does about the Chileans themselves.

Focusing on one cultural center naturally has implications for the breadth of the study. The practicalities of fieldwork no doubt made the Casa a tempting site for access to the community, and to Knudsen's credit the reader arrives at a fairly nuanced understanding of the Chilean cultural and political landscape in Oslo. The axes of class, politics, and economic status are all addressed in this volume, if sometimes with great deference. Occasionally the reader is forced to read between the lines to extrapolate conclusions not made explicitly. Knudsen himself is admirably self-reflexive about his own participatory observation of the Oslo Chilean community over many years, including...

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