Geographies of Dance

Body, Movement, and Corporeal Negotiations

Contributions by Frances Bronet, Georgia Connover, Tovi Fenster, Teresa Heiland, Tamara M. Johnson, Paromita Kar, Matthew Kurtz, Moriah McSharry, Jonathan Skinner, Katrinka Somdahl-Sands Edited by Adam M. Pine, Olaf Kuhlke

Publication date:

24 December 2013

Length of book:

264 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739171844

This volume provides a theoretical and practical examination of the relationships between bodies, dance and space. Using ten case studies, it illustrates the symbolic power of dance that is crafted by choreographers and acted out by dancers. The book portrays a multitude of ways in which public and private spaces (stages, buildings, town squares as well as natural environments) are transformed and made meaningful by dance. Furthermore, it explores the meaning of dance as emotionally experienced by dancers, and examines how movement in certain spaces creates meaning without the use of words or symbols.

Introduction
Olaf Kuhlke and Adam Pine
Chapter 1: Modernity, Post-modernity and the Paradigmatic Mudra: Corporeal Negotiations in the Works of Toronto's
Contemporary Bharatanatyam Choreographers
Paromita Kar
Chapter 2: Neighboring in Strip City: Local Conflict and Spaces of Exotic Dance in Portland, Oregon
Moriah McSharry McGrath
Chapter 3: One Foot Inside the Circle: Contemporary Dance of Los Angeles Steps Outside Postmodernism and into
Neo-Modernism-with-a-Twist
Teresa Heiland
Chapter 4: Some Dance to Remember: The Emotional Politics
of Marginality, Reinvention, Embodied Memory, and
All that (Cape) Jazz
Tamara M. Johnson
Chapter 5: Social Dance as Social Space
Jonathan Skinner
Chapter 6: Mediating the Other through Dance: Geopolitics, Social Ordering, and Meaning-Making in American and Improvisational Tribal Style Dance
Georgia Connover
Chapter 7: Mimetic Moves: Dance and Learning to Learn in
Northwest Alaska
Matthew Kurtz
Chapter 8: Dance, Architecture and Space in the Making
Frances Bronet
Chapter 9: At Home in Motion: Networks, Nodes, and Navigation: The Varied Flight Paths of Bird Brain Dance
Katrinka Somdahl-Sands
Chapter 10:Belly Dancing in Israel: Body, Embodiment, Religion and Nationality
Tovi Fenste
Conclusion
Adam Pine and Olaf Kuhlke

The first of two proposed volumes edited by Pine and Kuhlke, this collection explores how space and place, identity and cultural diversity create embodied dance as individuals and groups negotiate the complexities of modern life. Chapter topics illustrate that people in the varied environments and sites find meaning and community through dance in different ways than one usually employs when viewing and writing about dance and dancers. Included are essays on Israeli-Jewish women's interest in belly dancing as a way to connect physicality with feminine emotions; the experiences of exotic dancers in popular strip clubs in a large city where neighborhood placement conflicts affect their ability to make a living; the evolution of jazz in Capetown, South Africa, from the 1940s swing styles and jazz era to the more current influences of hip-hop, tango, and salsa; and the work of four Toronto choreographers trained in Bharata Natyam Indian dance as they incorporate more contemporary forms to expand their cultural identities. This interdisciplinary collection offers a unique perspective on the broad role of dance in global cultures. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.