Product Description: "Dance is a powerful, frequently adopted symbol of the way people feel about themselves." So concludes the author of this book, a general introduction to the anthropology of dance. Since anthropology has broadened its horizons to include Western, industrialised and urban societies, the study of dance culture may, with equal legitimacy, observe ballet, the Hawaiian hula, the classical tradition of Bharata Natyam, the pigeon wings and polkas of the Californian gold rush miners, and the minuets of colonial Virginia planters...read more

Product Description: This book takes its point of departure from the overwhelming interest in theories of the body and performativity in sociology and cultural studies in recent years. It explores a variety of ways of looking at dance as a social and artistic (bodily) practice as a means of generating insights into the politics of identity and difference as they are situated and traced through representations of the body and bodily practices...read more

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Chandralekha are major choreographers of the 20th century whose work will leave the dance field with a legacy as important and strong as that of Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. Zollar is Artistic Director of the world-renowned company, The Urban Bush Women (based in New York City), and Chandralekha is an Indian choreographer (based in Madras) who has performed internationally and is known for her radical mixing of postmodern and traditional dance forms. In this nuanced and in-depth study, dance scholar Ananya Chatterjea shows how each of these choreographers has positioned herself through performance in terms of gender, race, and nationality. Reading each dancer's major works in order to assess their unique contributions to the development of global culture, Butting Out does important theoretical work to identify common threads in the history of cultural production and the aesthetic philosophies of the artists. Chatterjea draws on theory from an array of complementary fields, including women's studies, African-American studies, and postcolonial studies. The book is beautifully enhanced by 42 black and white photographs.

Product Description: The Choreography of Resolution explores how conflict, movement and neuroscience are all intertwined and the effects each factor plays in resolution. The authors consider the role of movement in conflict dynamics, expose the limitations of omitting the body from understandings of conflict, explore ethical dimensions of embodied approaches, and propose key strategies for conflict intervention...read more

Product Description: This book explores contemporary club and dance cultures as a manifestation of aesthetic and prosthetic forms of life. Rief addresses the questions of how practices of clubbing help cultivate particular forms of reflexivity and modes of experience, and how these shape new devices for reconfiguring the boundaries around youth cultural and other social identities...read more

Product Description: Dance has proliferated in movies, television, Internet, and retail spaces while the spiritual power of dance has also been linked with mass consumption. Walter marries the cultural studies of dance and the religious aspects of dance in an exploration of consumption rituals, including rituals of being persuaded to buy products that include dance...read more

Product Description: Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice: Dignity in Motion presents a wide-ranging compilation of essays, spanning more than 15 countries. Organized in four parts, the articles examine the regulation and exploitation of dancers and dance activity by government and authoritative groups, including abusive treatment of dancers within the dance profession; choreography involving human rights as a central theme; the engagement of dance as a means of healing victims of human rights abuses; and national and local social/political movements in which dance plays a powerful role in helping people fight oppression...read more

Product Description: Dance in a World of Change: Reflections on Globalization and Cultural Difference will help you -understand how dance instruction is affected by globalization;-discover the ways in which the discourse and curriculum of dance connect it to the critical, political, moral, and aesthetic dimensions of contemporary society; and-learn from the rich and generative set of experiences of international dance educators, choreographers, critics, and scholars...read more

An historical survey shows dance in the context of its environment and its influence on art, literature, music, and culture

Product Description: Dancers create 'civic culture' as performances for public consumption, but also as vernaculars connecting individuals who may have little in common. Examining performance and the construction of culturally diverse communities the book suggests that amateur and concert dance can teach us how to live and work productively together...read more

Product Description: In this provocative study of dancing, Sam Gill examines the interpretive styles of a variety of cultural dance traditions in discourse with the philosophic traditions of Schiller, Merleau-Ponty, Barbaras, Derrida, Leroi-Gourhan, and Baudrillard...read more

Product Description: Dance is more than an aesthetic of life – dance embodies life. This is evident from the social history of jive, the marketing of trans-national ballet, ritual healing dances in Italy or folk dances performed for tourists in Mexico, Panama and Canada...read more

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Product Description: Employing a cultural theory approach, this book explores the relationship between popular dance and value. It traces the shifting value systems that underpin popular dance scholarship and considers how different dancing communities articulate complex expressions of judgment, significance and worth through their embodied practice...read more

Product Description: FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Looks at the history of dance, dance around the world, and influential dancers and choreographers of the past and present.