Anthropology and the Dance

Anthropology and the Dance

Author: Drid Williams

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9780252071348

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Drid Williams explores dance and dance-related subjects ranging from Aboriginal and African dances to the Royal Ballet, and makes a compelling case for moving beyond the Western view of the dance as mere entertainment.


Society and the Dance

Society and the Dance

Author: Paul Spencer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780521315500

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Presenting seven examples from Africa, Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Oceania, this study attempts to further the anthropological understanding of dance's social significance and critical relevance by exploring it as a reflection of social forces.


Dancing Cultures

Dancing Cultures

Author: Hélène Neveu Kringelbach

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2012-10-01

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0857455761

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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. Dance often captures those essential dimensions of social life that cannot be easily put into words. What are the flows and movements of dance carried by migrants and tourists? How is dance used to shape nationalist ideology? What are the connections between dance and ethnicity, gender, health, globalization and nationalism, capitalism and post-colonialism? Through innovative and wide-ranging case studies, the contributors explore the central role dance plays in culture as leisure commodity, cultural heritage, cultural aesthetic or cathartic social movement.


Anthropology of the Performing Arts

Anthropology of the Performing Arts

Author: Anya Peterson Royce

Publisher: Rowman Altamira

Published: 2004-05-05

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0759115656

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Anya Peterson Royce turns the anthropological gaze on the performing arts, attempting to find broad commonalities in performance, art, and artists across space, time, and culture. She asks general questions as to the nature of artistic interpretation, the differences between virtuosity and artistry, and how artists interplay with audience, aesthetics, and style. To support her case, she examines artists as diverse as Fokine and the Ballets Russes, Tewa Indian dancers, 17th century commedia dell'arte, Japanese kabuki and butoh, Zapotec shamans, and the mime of Marcel Marceau, adding her own observations as a professional dancer in the classical ballet tradition. Royce also points to the recent move toward collaboration across artistic genres as evidence of the universality of aesthetics. Her analysis leads to a better understanding of artistic interpretation, artist-audience relationships, and the artistic imagination as cross-cultural phenomena. Over 29 black and white photographs and drawings illustrate the wide range of Royce's cross-cultural approach. Her well-crafted volume will be of great interest to anthropologists, arts researchers, and students of cultural studies and performing arts.


Music, Dance, Anthropology

Music, Dance, Anthropology

Author: STEPHEN. COTTRELL

Publisher:

Published: 2021-09-15

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781912385317

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This volume celebrates the significant resurgence of interest in the anthropology of music and dance in recent decades. Traversing a range Traversing a range of fascinating topics, from the reassessment of historical figures such as Katherine Dunham and John Blacking, to the contemporary salience of sonic conflict between Islamic Uyghurand the Han Chinese, the essays within Music, Dance, Anthropology make a strong argument for the continued importance of the work of ethnomusicologists and ethnochoreologists, and of their ongoing recourse to anthropological theories and practices. Case studies are offered from areas as diverse as Central Africa, Ireland, Greece, Uganda and Central Asia, and illuminate core anthropological concepts such as the nature of embodied knowledge, the role of citizenship, ritual practices, and the construction of individual and group identities via a range of ethnographic methodologies. These include the consideration of soundscapes, theuse of ethnographic filmmaking, and a reflection on the importance of close cultural engagement over many years.Taken together these contributions show the study of music and dance practices to be essential to any rounded study of social activity, in whatever context it is found. For as this volume consistently demonstrates, the performance of musicand dance is always about more than just the performance of music and dance.


Dance in the Field

Dance in the Field

Author: T. Buckland

Publisher: Springer

Published: 1999-07-19

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 0230375294

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This international collection on dance ethnography - the first of its kind - comprises original contributions on fieldwork in dance and human movement. Based on extensive fieldwork experience, it explores the major theoretical approaches, methods and concerns of dance and movement research from anthropological and ethnochoreological perspectives. The result underlines the existing and continuing growth in dance ethnography which will also be of interest to those in dance studies, anthropology, cultural studies, folklore, ethnomusicology and sociology.


The Dance of Nurture

The Dance of Nurture

Author: Penny Van Esterik

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2017-06-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1785335634

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Breastfeeding and child feeding at the center of nurturing practices, yet the work of nurture has escaped the scrutiny of medical and social scientists. Anthropology offers a powerful biocultural approach that examines how custom and culture interact to support nurturing practices. Our framework shows how the unique constitutions of mothers and infants regulate each other. The Dance of Nurture integrates ethnography, biology and the political economy of infant feeding into a holistic framework guided by the metaphor of dance. It includes a critique of efforts to improve infant feeding practices globally by UN agencies and advocacy groups concerned with solving global nutrition and health problems.


Fields in Motion

Fields in Motion

Author: Dena Davida

Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press

Published: 2011-10-01

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 1554583772

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Fields in Motion: Ethnography in the Worlds of Dance examines the deeper meanings and resonances of artistic dance in contemporary culture. The book comprises four sections: methods and methodologies, autoethnography, pedagogies and creative processes, and choreographies as cultural and spiritual representations. The contributors bring an insiders insight to their accounts of the nature and function of these artistic practices, giving voice to dancers, dance teachers, creators, programmers, spectators, students, and scholars. International and intergenerational, this collection of groundbreaking scholarly research points to a new direction for both dance studies and dance anthropology. Traditionally the exclusive domain of aesthetic philosophers, the art of dance is here reframed as cultural practice, and its significance is revealed through a chorus of voices from practitioners and insider ethnographers.


Teaching Dancing with Ideokinetic Principles

Teaching Dancing with Ideokinetic Principles

Author: Drid Williams

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2011-07-27

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 0252036085

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In examining ideokinesis and its application to the teaching and practice of dancing, Drid Williams introduces readers to the work of Dr. Lulu Sweigard (1895–1974), a pioneer of ideokinetic principles. Drawing on her experiences during private instructional sessions with Sweigard over a two-year span, Williams discusses methods using imagery for improving body posture and alignment for ease of movement. Central to Williams's own teaching methods is the application of Sweigard's principles and general anatomical instruction, including how she used visual imagery to help prevent bodily injuries and increasing body awareness relative to movement. Williams also emphasizes the differences between kinesthetic (internal) and mirror (external) imagery and shares reactions from professional dancers who were taught using ideokinesis. Williams's account of teaching and practicing ideokinesis is supplemented with essays by Sweigard, William James, and Jean-Georges Noverre on dancing, posture, and habits. Teaching Dancing with Ideokinetic Principles offers an important historical perspective and valuable insights from years of teaching experience into how ideokinesis can shape a larger philosophy of the dance.


Sharing the Dance

Sharing the Dance

Author: Cynthia J. Novack

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 1990-08-15

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 0299124444

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In Sharing the Dance, Cynthia Novack considers the development of contact improvisation within its web of historical, social, and cultural contexts. This book examines the ways contact improvisers (and their surrounding communities) encode sexuality, spontaneity, and gender roles, as well as concepts of the self and society in their dancing. While focusing on the changing practice of contact improvisation through two decades of social transformation, Novack’s work incorporates the history of rock dancing and disco, the modern and experimental dance movements of Merce Cunningham, Anna Halprin, and Judson Church, among others, and a variety of other physical activities, such as martial arts, aerobics, and wrestling.