Facial Choreographies Format: Hardback

The face contributes a vital, yet often overlooked, component of dance performance. Facial Choreographies: Performing the Face in Popular Dance examines what the face does in dance and what it may mean. The book centers on three facial case studies: global celebrity Michael Jackson, whose face has occupied a site of fervent controversy; Maddie Ziegler, child star of the reality television series Dance Moms and de facto face of pop star Sia; and a community of hip hop dancers who engage in fiercely contested dance battles.

Sherril Dodds is Professor of Dance at Temple University. Her books include Dance on Screen, Dancing on the Canon, Bodies of Sound (co-edited with Susan C. Cook), The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Competition, and The Bloomsbury Companion to Dance Studies. She has been a visiting scholar at Trondheim University in Norway, Griffith University in Australia, Stanford University in the USA, and Blaise-Pascal University in France. She was awarded the 2015 Gertrude Lippincott prize for her article, “The Choreographic Interface: Dancing Facial Expression in Hip Hop and Neo-burlesque Striptease.”