Dance Discourses : Keywords in Dance Research

Focusing on politics, gender, and identities, a group of international dance scholars provide a broad overview of new methodological approaches – with specific case studies – and how they can be applied to the study of ballet and modern dance.

With an introduction exploring the history of dance studies and the development of central themes and areas of concerns in the field, the book is then divided into three parts:

• politics explores 'Ausdruckstanz' – an expressive dance tradition first formulated in the 1920s by dancer Mary Wigman and carried forward in the work of Pina Bausch and others
• gender examines eighteenth century theatrical dance – a time when elaborate sets, costumes, and plots examined racial and sexual stereotypes
• identity is concerned with modern dance.

Exploring contemporary analytical approaches to understanding performance traditions, Dance Discourses' pedagogical structure makes it ideal for courses in performing arts and humanities.

Susanne Franco teaches dance history at the University IUAV of Venice and has taught at the Universities of Paris III and Nice. She is the author of Martha Graham (2003), and the editor of Ausdruckstanz. Il corpo, la danza e la critica (2006) and of the series Dance For Word/Dance Forward, and of its first volume Frédéric Flamand (2004).

Marina Nordera is professor and chair of Dance Department at Nice University (France). She has taught and performed early dance. Former president of the Italian Association for the Dance Research, she published essays on dance in early modern period. She is currently working on a book on dance and gender in Early Modern Italy.