Perspectives on American Dance: The Twentieth Century - Hardcover

by Jennifer Atkins (Editor), Sally R. Sommer (Editor), Tricia Henry Young (Editor)

Dancing embodies cultural history and beliefs, and each dance carries with it features of the place where it originated. Influenced by different social, political, and environmental circumstances, dances change and adapt. American dance evolved in large part through combinations of multiple styles and forms that arrived with each new group of immigrants. Perspectives on American Dance is the first anthology in over twenty-five years to focus exclusively on American dance practices across a wide span of American culture. This volume and its companion show how social experience, courtship, sexualities, and other aspects of life in America are translated through dancing into spatial patterns, gestures, and partner relationships.

In this volume of Perspectives on American Dance, the contributors explore a variety of subjects: white businessmen in Prescott, Arizona, who created a "Smoki tribe" that performed "authentic" Hopi dances for over seventy years; swing dancing by Japanese American teens in World War II internment camps; African American jazz dancing in the work of ballet choreographer Ruth Page; dancing in early Hollywood movie musicals; how critics identified "American" qualities in the dancing of ballerina Nana Gollner; the politics of dancing with the American flag; English Country Dance as translated into American communities; Bob Fosse's sociopolitical choreography; and early break dancing as Latino political protest.

The accessible essays use a combination of movement analysis, thematic interpretation, and historical context to convey the vitality and variety of American dance. They offer new insights on American dance practices while simultaneously illustrating how dancing functions as an essential template for American culture and identity.

Author Biography

Jennifer Atkins is associate professor of dance at Florida State University. Sally R. Sommer is professor of dance and director of the ARTS in NYC program at Florida State University. Tricia Henry Young is professor emerita of dance history and former director of the American Dance Studies program at Florida State University.

Contributors: Jennifer Atkins Kathaleen Boche Cutler Edwards Karen Eliot Lizzie Leopold Julie Malnig Adrienne L. McLean Joellen A. Meglin Dara Milovanovic Jill Nunes Jensen Marta Robertson Lynette Russell Sally Sommer, Ph.D. Daniel J. Walkowitz Sara Wolf Tricia Henry Young