Dancers create 'civic culture' as performances for public consumption, but also as vernaculars connecting individuals who may have little in common. Examining performance and the construction of culturally diverse communities the book suggests that amateur and concert dance can teach us how to live and work productively together.

In this study, Josefine Wikstroem challenges a concept of performance that makes no difference between art and non-art and argues for a new concept. This book confronts and criticises the way in which the dominating concept of performance has been used in art theory and performance and dance studies. Through an analysis of 1960s performance practices, Wikstroem focuses specifically on task-dance and event-score practices and provides an examination of the key philosophical concepts that are inseparable from such a concept of art and are necessary for the reconstruction of a critical concept of performance, such as "practice", "experience", "object", "abstraction" and "structure". This book will be of great interest to scholars, students and practitioners across dance, performance art, aesthetics and art theory.

This book focuses on Romeo Castellucci's theatrical project, exploring the ethical and aesthetic framework determined by his reflection on the nature of the image. But why does a director whose fundamental artistic tool is the image deny this key conceptual notion? Rooted in his conscious distancing from iconoclasm in the 1980s, Castellucci frequently replaces this notion with the words 'symbol', 'form' and 'idea'. As the first publication on the international market which presents Castellucci's work from both historical and theoretical perspectives, this book systematically confronts the director's discourse with other concepts related to his artistic project. Capturing the evolution of his theatre from icon to iconoclasm, word to image and symbol to allegory, the book explores experimental notions of staging alongside an 'emotional wave', which serves as an animating principle of Castellucci's revolutionary theatre.

This innovative work introduces the interdisciplinary field of research of kinesemiotics, offering a new adaptable model and means of analysis for understanding forms of movement-based communication, such as dance, that use a codified language shared by a community of users. It begins with a theoretical overview and review of existing literature on the main approaches to movement-based communication, specifically dance, which underpin kinesemiotics as an area of study. It reaffirms previous work which established dance as a form of embodied communication in that it encompasses a wide range of semiotic styles and forms shared by communities of "speakers." In collaboration with the English National Ballet, Maiorani employs the genre of ballet as a means through which to understand and analyse some of the key concepts of kinesemiotics, mainly that of space as a semiotic dimension and "motivated movement," or movement with meaning. Supported by automated movement recognition tools from the fields of bio-robotics engineering and computer science, Maiorani argues for ballet's capacity, when movements are projected into meaningful space, to extend beyond sequences of physical movements to become a meaning making practice. Kinesemiotics advances interdisciplinary research in the fields of social semiotics, media and communication, multimodality, linguistics, and performance studies and will be of particular interest to students and scholars in these areas.

Chinese Theatre: An Illustrated History Through Nuoxi and Mulianxi is the first book in any language entirely devoted to a historical inquiry into Chinese theatre through Nuoxi and Mulianxi, the two most representative and predominant forms of Chinese temple theatre. Volume Two is a continuation of the historical inquiry into Chinese theatre with focus shifted from Mulian storytelling to Mulian story-acting. Thus, this volume traces the historical trajectory of xiqu from Northern dramas to Southern dramas and from elite court theatre to mass regional theatre with pivotal forms and functions of Mulianxi examined, explicated and illustrated in association with the development of corresponding genres of xiqu. In so doing, every aspect of Mulianxi is considered not in the margins of xiqu but in and of itself. While this volume is primarily concerned with Mulianxi, references are also made to other forms of Chinese performing arts and temple theatre, Nuoxi in particular, as Mulianxi has been performed since the twelfth century as, or in company with, Nuoxi, to cleanse the community of evil spirits and epidemic diseases. This is an interdisciplinary book project that is aimed to help researchers and students of theatre history understand the ritual origins of Chinese theatre and the dynamic relationships among myth, ritual, religion and theatre.

A famous nineteenth century guide to Civil War dance that includes illustrations and step-by-step instructions. Contents Include: The Toilet The Ball Room Quadrille Le Pantalon-L'Ete La Poule Trenise-La Pastorale Finale Coulon's Double Quadrille Plain Cotillions The Polka Manner of Dancing it Rules and Steps of the Polka As Taught by R. Coulon As Taught by Cellarius Rules to be Observed in Waltzing and Gallopading The Valse Valse a Trois Temps The Schottische Coulon's Explanation of the Schottische Steps The Polka Mazourka The Redowa The Gorletza Valse a Deux Temps Valse a Cinq Temps The Cellarius Valse Gallopade-Le Galop Waltz Quadrille The Waltz Cotillion Circular Circle Highland Reel Spanish Dance Coulon's Quadrille Polka Quadrilles Lancers-1 La Rose 2 La Lodoiska 3 La Dorset 4 Nina 5 Finale Les Lanciers The Original Schottische Quadrilles Junior Schottische Quadrille Mazourka Quadrilles Philadelphia Mazourka Quadrilles Russian Mazourka Quadrilles German or Parlor Cotillions The Pyramid The Two flowers The Round and Grand Chain The Star Supplemental new Dances Espagnole L'Anglicane Varsities Hungroise L'Imperiale The Tango Hungarian Rigadoon or Menuet Quadrills of Five Figures The Triplet Valse a Deux Temps Polka Minuet de la Cour Serious Family Polka European Mazourka Quadrilles Military Quadrilles The Cellarius Waltz Mazourka Scotch Reel Ball Dress for Gentlemen Etiquette of the Ball-Room

Dance and the Corporeal Uncanny takes the philosophy of the body into the field of dance, through the lens of subjectivity and via its critique. It draws on dance and performance as its dedicated field of practice to articulate a philosophy of agency and movement. It is organized around two conceptual paradigms - one phenomenological (via Merleau-Ponty), the other an interpretation of Nietzschean philosophy, mediated through the work of Deleuze. The book draws on dance studies, cultural critique, ethnography and postcolonial theory, seeking an interdisciplinary audience in philosophy, dance and cultural studies.

Dance Legacies of Scotland compiles a collage of references portraying percussive Scottish dancing and explains what influenced a wide disappearance of hard-shoe steps from contemporary Scottish practices. Mats Melin and Jennifer Schoonover explore the historical references describing percussive dancing to illustrate how widespread the practice was, giving some glimpses of what it looked and sounded like. The authors also explain what influenced a wide disappearance of hard-shoe steps from Scottish dancing practices. Their research draws together fieldwork, references from historical sources in English, Scots, and Scottish Gaelic, and insights drawn from the authors' practical knowledge of dances. They portray the complex network of dance dialects that existed in parallel across Scotland, and share how remnants of this vibrant tradition have endured in Scotland and the Scottish diaspora to the present day. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Dance and Music and its relationship to the history and culture of Scotland.

Dance, Reggae spiritual ritual practices cultural studies Jamaican/Caribbean culture Music

The first book that historicizes the evolution of K-pop dance from the 1980s to the 2020s based on extensive archival research on backup dancers, trainees, idols, performance directors, and cover dancers. Vivid five-year-long (auto)ethnographic reflections, fieldwork, and interviews in CA, NY in the U.S., and Seoul, South Korea. A pioneering work that theorizes the timely topic of dance influencers on social media and its distinctive features as social media dance.

theatre, philosophy, new materialism, environmental humanities, gesture, and the ontology of response.

Tango and the Dancing Body in Istanbul explores the expansion of social Argentine tango dancing among Muslim actors in Turkey, pioneered in Istanbul despite the conservative rule of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) and Tayyip Erdogan. In this book, Melin Levent Yuna questions why a dance that appears to publicly represent an erotic relationship finds space to expand and increase dramatically in the number of contemporary Turkish Muslim tango dancers, particularly during a conservative rule. Even during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, tango dance classes, gatherings, and messages flourished on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Zoom. Urban Turkey and its tango dance performances provide one symbol and example of how neoliberal capitalism could go hand in hand with conservatism by becoming a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. This study largely focuses on the dancers' perspective while presenting the policies of Erdogan. It presents the social characteristics of the tango dancers, the meanings they attach to their bodies and their dance as well as what this dance reflects about them - besides the policies of the Justice and Development Party. The book approaches the tango dance and its dancing body in terms of layers of meaning systems in a neoliberal and conservative context. This study will be of great interest to students and scholars in dance, anthropology, cultural studies, and performance studies.

performance environments, emerging and multisensational atmospheres hypersensorial scenographies

This revised third edition of The Male Dancer updates and enlarges a seminal book that has established itself as the definitive study of the performance of masculinities in twentieth century modernist and contemporary choreography. In this authoritative and lively study, Ramsay Burt presents close readings of dance works from key moments of social and political change in the norms around gender and sexuality. The book's argument that prejudices against male dancers are rooted in our ideas about the male body and behaviour has been extended to take into account recent interdisciplinary discussions about whiteness, intersectionality, disability studies, and female masculinities. As well as analysing works by canonical figures like Nijinsky, Graham, Cunningham, and Bausch, it also examines the work of lesser-known figures like Michio Ito and Eleo Pomare, as well as choreographers who have recently emerged internationally like Germaine Acogny and Trajal Harrell. The Male Dancer has proven to be essential reading for anyone interested in dance and the cultural representation of gender. By reflecting on the latest studies in theory, performance, and practice, Burt has thoroughly updated this important book to include dance works from the last ten years and has renewed its timeliness for the 2020s.

Floating Bones charts the author's journey into tensegrity, which begins in ballet and culminates in a model for addressing one's body as a teacher. Tensegrity flips traditional biomechanical models such that instead of support coming from the bones, the bones float, and it is the muscles and other soft connective tissue that provide support for the moving body. Using the model of tensegretic experience, Roses-Thema connects somatics, cognition, rhetoric, and reflective practices detailing the means that constructed approaching the body as a teacher. This study presents the argument for extending the models of thinking to include bodily thinking, by citing how the experiential perspective of tensegrity constructs physical evidence of the rhetorical concept, metis, where the body thinks as it moves. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of dance, theater, and sociology.

This book explores the potential of movement as a means of eliciting conflict transformation and unfolding peace at the intrapersonal and relational levels. It examines how peace and dance have been related in different cultures and investigates embodied ways to creatively tap the energies of conflicts, inspiring possibilities of transformation and new dynamics in relationships. Drawing on Wolfgang Dietrich's Many Peaces theory, the book discusses how different expressions of dance have been connected to different interpretations of peace and strategies for transformation. Delving into elicitive approaches to conflict transformation, the book develops an innovative framework for applying movement as an elicitive method, which it vividly presents through the author's own experiences and interviews with participants in workshops. Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars, practitioners and artists working at the nexus of peace, conflict transformation and the arts.

The South China Sea has a rich and turbulent history. Today territorial disputes in the region including China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia make it potentially one of the most dangerous points of conflict in Asia and millions of people have crossed its waters in search of safer shores. This new book reveals the ways in which the peoples of the South China Sea region have used dance as a means of contending with the immense political, economic and cultural rifts that have affected their lives. Drawing on the stories of indigenous dancers in southern China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, it offers unique insights into the ways in which people have used creative movement as a means of understanding the divisions and alienation that conflict, diaspora and globalization have brought and as a first step towards reclaiming their identities and their worlds."

This was the first manual to be published in France,here in the version translated into English by the English dancer, dancing master and writer John Essex. The manual describes, using Feuillet's own dance notation system, motions for the feet and arms, how the dance corresponds to the music, and rules for performance. Additionally, floor plans and music for ten dances are given. Feuillet also suggests appropriate steps. Performed as a series of figures by a column of men facing a column of women, the English country dance was a popular ballroom dance during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Bringing together current intermedial discourses on Shakespeare, music, and dance with the affective turn in the humanities, Dramaturgies of Love in Romeo and Juliet offers a unique and highly innovative transdisciplinary discussion of "unspeakable" love in one of the most famous love stories in literary history: the tragic romance of Romeo and Juliet. Through in-depth case studies and historical contextualisation, this book showcases how the "woes that no words can sound" of Shakespeare's iconic lovers nevertheless have found expression not only in his verbal poetry, but also in non-verbal adaptations of the play in 19th-century symphonic music and 20th- and 21st-century theatre dance. Combining methodological approaches from diverse disciplines, including affect theory, musicology, and dance studies, this study opens up a new perspective onto the artistic representation of love, defining amorous emotion as a generically transformative constellation of dialogic performativity. To explore how this constellation has become manifest across the arts, this book analyses and compares dramatic, musical, and choreographic dramatisations of love in William Shakespeare's early modern tragedy, French composer Hector Berlioz's dramatic symphony Romeo et Juliette (1839), and the staging of Berlioz's symphony by German contemporary choreographer Sasha Waltz for the Paris Opera Ballet (2007).

Chinese Theatre: An Illustrated History Through Nuoxi and Mulianxi is the first book in any language entirely devoted to a historical inquiry into Chinese theatre through Nuoxi and Mulianxi, the two most representative and predominant forms of Chinese temple theatre. With a view to evaluating the role of temple theatre in the development of xiqu or traditional Chinese theatre and drama from myth to ritual to ritual drama to drama, Volume One provides a panoramic perspective that allows every aspect of Nuoxi to be considered, not in the margins of xiqu but in and of itself. Thus, this volume traces xiqu history from its shamanic roots in exorcism rituals of Nuo to various forms of ritual and theatrical performance presented at temple fairs, during community and calendrical festivals or for ceremonial functions over the course of imperial history, and into the twenty-first century, followed by an exploration of the scriptural origins and oral traditions of Mulianxi, with pivotal forms and functions of Nuoxi and Mulian storytelling, examined, explicated and illustrated in association with the development of corresponding genres of Chines performance literature and performing arts. This is an interdisciplinary book project that is aimed to help researchers and students of theatre history understand the ritual origins of Chinese theatre and the dynamic relationships among myth, ritual, religion, and theatre.

This Companion documents and celebrates artistic journeys within the framework of rich and complex cultural heritages and traditional dance practices of the Asia-Pacific region. It presents various dance forms from Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and the South Pacific. Drawing on extensive research and decades of performative experience as artists, choreographers, producers, teachers, and critics, the authors approach issues of dance and cultural diversity from a theoretical perspective while at the same time exploring change, process, and transformation through dance. The book discusses themes such as tradition, contemporization, interdisciplinarity, dance education, youth dance, dance networks, curatorial practices, and evolving performative practices of dance companies and independents. It also looks at regional networking, curating dance festivals and spaces that foster collaboration, regional cooperation, and cultural exchange, which are essential features of dance in Asia and the Pacific. This collection will be of interest to students and researchers of pedagogy, choreography, community dance practice, theatre and performance studies, social and cultural studies, aesthetics, interdisciplinary arts, and more. It will be an invaluable resource for artists and practitioners working in dance schools and communities.

Dramaturgies of Interweaving explores present-day dramaturgies that interweave performance cultures in the fields of theater, performance, dance, and other arts. Merging strategies of audience engagement originating in different cultures, dramaturgies of interweaving are creative methods of theater and art-making that seek to address audiences across cultures, making them uniquely suitable for shaping people's experiences of our entangled world. Presenting in-depth case studies from across the globe, spanning Australia, China, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, the US, and the UK, this book investigates how dramaturgies of interweaving are conceived, applied, and received today. Featuring critical analyses by scholars-as well as workshop reports and artworks by renowned artists-this book examines dramaturgies of interweaving from multiple locations and perspectives, thus revealing their distinct complexities and immense potential. Ideal for scholars, students, and practitioners of theater, performance, dramaturgy, and devising, Dramaturgies of Interweaving opens up an innovative perspective on today's breathtaking plurality of dramaturgical practices of interweaving in theater, performance, dance, and other arts, such as curation and landscape design.

Dance and film have shared a dynamic relationship since the advent of cinema-a natural interplay that developed into the genre known as screendance. Charting the history of screendance festivals, this book examines important shifts in practice and theory, distinct festival eras and communities, and the process of selecting and programming works.

dancehall, dance and performance studies, sociology, cultural geography, anthropology, post-colonial studies, diaspora studies, musicology, and gender studies.