Ballroom: Culture and Costumes in Competitive Dance [Paperback]

Competitive ballroom is much more than a style of dance. Rather, it is a continually evolving and increasingly global social and cultural arena: of fashion, performance, art, sport, gender and more.

Ballroomexplores the intersection of dance cultures, dress and the body. Presenting the author's experiences at an international range of dance events in Europe, the US and UK, as well as featuring the views of individual dancers, the book shows how dancing influences mind and body alike. For students of anthropology, dance, cultural and performance studies,Ballroomprovides an ethnographic picture of how dancers and others live their lives both on and off the dance floor.

A welcome addition to a growing body of literature about competitive and social dance forms ... not only contributes to our understanding of ballroom dance but also furthers and suggests the continuing promise of dance research carried out through interdisciplinary methodologies. American Ethnologist

An absorbing inside view of competitive ballroom dancing in the western world. Dance Expression

With the ethnographic authority of a ballroom dancer, Jonathan Marion takes us to the world of competitions in this exciting dancesport. Ballroom is an absorbing book. It reveals how this dance form indexes broader issues of performance and costume as well as gender, transnationality and the visual. Helena Wulff, Stockholm University

Ballroom is a deeply layered and compelling account of competitive ballroom dance, combining Jonathan Marion's insightful roles as ethnographer, photographer, and accomplished ballroom l#—