The Body, Dance and Cultural Theory [Paperback]

This book takes its point of departure from the overwhelming interest in theories of the body and performativity in sociology and cultural studies in recent years. It explores a variety of ways of looking at dance as a social and artistic (bodily) practice as a means of generating insights into the politics of identity and difference as they are situated and traced through representations of the body and bodily practices. These issues are addressed through a series of case studies.Introduction.-?PART 1: CULTURAL BODIES?The Body in Culture: Before the Body Project.-?The Body in Culture: The Body Project.-?Ethnography Dances Back.-?PART 2: DANCE, THE BODY AND CULTURAL THEORY?The Body in Dance.-?Reconstructing the Dance: In Search of Authenticity?.-?Dance and Difference: Performing/Representing/Re-Writing the Body.-?Dancing the Night Away: Rave/Club Culture.-?Conclusion.-?References.-?Index.HELEN THOMAS is Reader in Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has published numerous articles on dance and presented papers on her work in Europe, North America and Japan. She is editor of Dance, Gender and Culture and Dance in the City, and is author of Dance, Modernity and Culture. She recently completed an AHRB funded study, Dancing into the Third Age: Social Dance as Cultural Text.Brings together two literatures, on theories of the body and dance studies, that have surprisingly not before been connected
Develops new insights into both literatures by exploring these new connections
Written by an author with a lucid and original style