Post-Apartheid Dance
Post-Apartheid Dance

Author: Sharon Friedman

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2013-01-16

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1443845647

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The intention of this work is to present perspectives on post-apartheid dance in South Africa by South African authors. Beginning with an historical context for dance in SA, the book moves on to reflect the multiplicity of bodies, voices and stories suggested by the title. Given the diversity of conflicting realities experienced by artists in this country, contentious issues have deliberately been juxtaposed in an attempt to draw attention to the complexity of dancing on the ashes of apartheid. Although the focus is dance since 1994, all chapters are rooted in an historical analysis and offer a view of the field. This book is ground breaking as it is the first of its kind to speak of contemporary dance in South Africa and the first singular body of work to have emerged in any book form that attempts to provide a cohesive account of the range of voices within dance in post-apartheid South Africa. The book is scholarly in nature and has wide applications for colleges and universities, without alienating dance lovers or minds curious about dance in Africa. Mindful of its wide audience, the writing deliberately adopts an uncomplicated, reader-friendly tone, given the diversity of audiences including dance students, dance scholars, critics and general dance lovers that it will attract.

South African Ballet
South African Ballet

Author: Sarah Jessica Meewes

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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Literature on the topic of ballet in South Africa is growing. However, there are still gaps as a result of the fragmentation of sources. This dissertation draws on primary and secondary sources to try to provide a coherent discussion of the history of ballet in South Africa from a fresh perspective. The research demonstrates that ballet has been in constant engagement with South African history and society since its arrival on African shores. Through secondary and primary literature, the research starts by engaging with South African balletic history by looking at an overview of ballet's journey to South Africa and the establishment of balletic societies and institutions. Emphasis is placed on the more successful institutions based in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The history of these institutions, as traced within the research, demonstrates the responsiveness of the balletic community to the environment in which they were situated. South African choreographed ballets with Afrocentric themes are used to highlight the responsiveness that the ballet community has demonstrated towards the historical climate and structures within South African society during and after apartheid. Finally, ballet is explored in the post-apartheid context. Topics that are engaged with here include the removal of grand and petty apartheid policies, as well as the ideas behind the decolonisation of ballet as exemplified by the Cuban-South African exchange.

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet
The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet

Author: Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 1013

ISBN-13: 0190871490

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"Nearly four hundred and fifty years in, ballet still resonates-though the stages have become international, and the dancers, athletes far removed from noble amateurs. While vibrations from the form's beginnings clearly resound, much has transformed. Nowadays ballet dancers aspire to work across disciplines with choreographers who value a myriad of abilities. Dance theorists and historians make known possibilities and polemics in lieu of notating dances verbatim, and critics do the daily work of recording performance histories and interviewing artists. Ideas circulate, questions arise, and discussions about how to resist ballet's outmoded traditions take precedence. In the dance community, calls for innovation have defined palpable shifts in ballet's direction and resultantly we have arrived at a new moment in its history that is unquestionably recognized as a genre onto its own: Contemporary Ballet. An aspect of this recent discipline is that its dancemakers, more often than not, seek to reorient the viewer by celebrating what could be deemed vulnerabilities, re-construing ideals of perfection, problematizing the marginalized/mainstream dichotomy, bringing audiences closer in to observe, and letting the art become an experience rather than a distant object preciously guarded out of reach. Hence, the practice of ballet is moving to become a less-mediated and more active process in many circumstances. Performers and audiences alike are challenged, and while convention is still omnipresent, choices are being made. For some, this approach has been drawn on for decades, and for others it signifies a changing of the guard, yet however we arrive there, the conclusion is the same: Contemporary Ballet is not a style. That is to say, it is not a trend, phase, or fashionable term that will fade, rather it is a clear period in ballet's time deserved of investigation. And it is into this moment that we enter"--

Proceedings
Proceedings

Author: Society of Dance History Scholars (U.S.). Annual Conference

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13:

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Milestones in Dance History
Milestones in Dance History

Author: Dana Tai Soon Burgess

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-09-23

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1000635562

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This introduction to world dance charts the diverse histories and stories of dancers and artists through ten key moments that have shaped the vast spectrum of different forms and genres that we see today. Designed for weekly use in dance history courses, ten chosen milestones move chronologically from the earliest indigenous rituals and the dance crazes of Eastern trade routes, to the social justice performance and evolving online platforms of modern times. This clear, dynamic framework uses the idea of migrations to chart the shifting currents of influence and innovation in dance from an inclusive set of perspectives that acknowledge the enduring cultural legacies on display in every dance form. Milestones are a range of accessible textbooks, breaking down the need-to-know moments in the social, cultural, political, and artistic development of foundational subject areas.