Embodied Communities Dance Traditions and Change in Java [Paperback]

Court dance in Java has changed from a colonial ceremonial tradition into a national artistic classicism. Central to this general transformation has been dances role in personal transformation, developing appropriate forms of everyday behaviour and strengthening the powers of persuasion that come from the skillful manipulation of both physical and verbal forms of politeness. This account of dances significance in performance and in everyday life draws on extensive research, including dance training in Java, and builds on how practitioners interpret and explain the repertoire. The Javanese case is contextualized in relation to social values, religion, philosophy, and commoditization arising from tourism. It also raises fundamental questions about the theorization of culture, society and the body during a period of radical change.

Even if it is rather demanding, Hughes-Freelands study makes for highly rewarding reading.? ??JRAI

The book is carefully constructed&we can learn a lot from it [which] may well be due to its robust empiricism.? ??Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale

This book attempts a much more comprehensive consideration of dance in its cultural, social, and historical contexts than most and the author should be commended not only for this ambitious approach but also for keeping ethnographic method as the foundation of the research& the world of dance scholarship, anthropology, performance studies, and Indonesian studies are the better for this book which is, in important ways, remarkable. ?????American Ethnologist

This is a valuable addition to the literature on performance in Southeast Asia, on dance history, and on culture change in general & a very timely and important work & the quality of its prose, the depth of research involved make it a unique contribution to dance scholarship. ?????H?l?ne Bouvier, CNRS, Paris