This new collection of essays surveys the history of dance in an innovative and wide-ranging fashion. Editors Dils and Albright address the current dearth of comprehensive teaching material in the dance history field through the creation of a multifaceted, non-linear, yet well-structured and comprehensive survey of select moments in the development of both American and World dance. This book is illustrated with over 50 photographs, and would make an ideal text for undergraduate classes in dance ethnography, criticism or appreciation, as well as dance historyโparticularly those with a cross-cultural, contemporary, or an American focus.
The reader is organized into four thematic sections which allow for varied and individualized course use: Thinking about Dance History: Theories and Practices, World Dance Traditions, America Dancing, and Contemporary Dance: Global Contexts. The editors have structured the readings with the understanding that contemporary theory has thoroughly questioned the discursive construction of history and the resultant canonization of certain dances, texts and points of view. The historical readings are presented in a way that encourages thoughtful analysis and allows the opportunity for critical engagement with the text.
Ebook Edition Note: Ebook edition note: Five essays have been redacted, including โThe Belly Dance: Ancient Ritual to Cabaret Performance,โ by Shawna Helland; โEpitome of Korean Folk Danceโ, by Lee Kyong-Hee; โJuba and American Minstrelsy,โ by Marian Hannah Winter; โThe Natural Body,โ by Ann Daly; and โButoh: โTwenty Years Ago We Were Crazy, Dirty, and Madโ,โby Bonnie Sue Stein. Eleven of the 41 illustrations in the book have also been redacted.