"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." . Helene Bouvier, CNRS, Paris

Court dance in Java has changed from a colonial ceremonial tradition into a national artistic classicism. Central to this general transformation has been dance's 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 dance's 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.

Felicia Hughes-Freeland is an anthropologist and filmmaker. She is a Reader in Anthropology, Dept of Geography, School of the Environment and Society, Swansea University. She has done extensive research in Indonesia on Javanese dance over a period of nearly thirty years and her articles have been widely published. Her edited books and ethnographic films include Ritual, Performance, Media and The Dancer and the Dance."

For centuries, the rite of the tarantula was the only cure for those 'bitten' or 'possessed' by the mythic Apulian spider. Its victims had to dance to the local tarantella or 'pizzica' for days on end. Today, the pizzica has returned to the limelight, bringing to the forefront issues of performance, gender, identity and well-being. This book explores how and why the pizzica has boomed in the Salento and elsewhere and asks whether this current popu- larity has anything to do with the historic ritual of tarantism or with the intention of recovering well-being. While personal stories and experiences may confirm the latter, a vital shift has appeared in the Salento: from the confrontation of life crises to the vibrant promotion and celebration of a local sense of identity and celebrity.

The carole was the principal social dance in France and England from c. 1100 to c. 1400 and was frequently mentioned in French and English medieval literature. However, it has been widely misunderstood by contributors in recent citations in dictionaries and reference books, both linguistic and musical. The carole was performed by all classes of society - kings and nobles, shepherds and servant girls. It is described as taking place both indoors and outdoors. Its central position in the life of the people is underlined by references not only in what we might call fictional texts, but also in historical (or quasi-historical) writings, in moral treatises and even in a work on astronomy. Dr Robert Mullally's focus is very much on details relevant to the history, choreography and performance of the dance as revealed in the primary sources. This methodology involves attempting to isolate the term carole from other dance terms not only in French, but also in other languages. Mullally's groundbreaking study establishes all the characteristics of this dance: etymological, choreographical, lyrical, musical and iconographical.

A complete introduction to traditional Japanese dance, this text will delight readers with its lively descriptions and beautiful illustrations. This book discusses Kabuki dance, modern dance movements based on Kabuki dance and the influence of Western dance.

Since the dawn of recorded history, Khmer royalty nurtured a sacred dance style unique to their Asian kingdom, yet instantly recognizable throughout the world. In 1913, George Groslier published the first Western study of this ancient art. For nearly a century Danseuses cambodgiennes anciennes et modernes has stood as the first significant historic account of Cambodia s royal dance tradition. This edition presents the first English translation of his pivotal work, beautifully typeset with all the author s original drawings. It also includes the first personal account of Groslier's life by biographer Kent Davis, family photos, extensive background materials, a bibliography and index. The first French child born in Cambodia in 1887, Groslier went to Paris to train as a painter before returning to Asia to become an archaeologist, historian, educator and novelist. A lifelong champion of Khmer arts, Groslier founded the National Museum of Cambodia and the School of Fine Arts. After a life of adventure, contemplation, and instruction traveling the Mekong, mapping the ruins of Cambodia's lost temples, sparking a revival of traditional Cambodian arts, and helping apprehend a young art thief named Andre Malraux Groslier was tortured and killed by the Japanese army in 1945. This book was the first in a series of works that he wrote about his beloved birthplace. Time would tame his prose but never his enthusiasm, which here leaps off the page. REVIEWS It is my pleasure to introduce new generations of readers to this classic account of Cambodia s royal dance tradition. H.R.H. Princess Norodom Buppha Devi You returned here as if marked by destiny, the most restless artist we had ever encountered to devote himself to Cambodian dancers and their secrets. Charles Gravelle - 1913 The first commentary in any language Asian or European on one of the world s most refined performing arts.. Dr. Paul Cravath - Earth in Flower

The history of dance theory has never been told. Writers in every age have theorized prescriptively, according to their own needs and ideals, and theorists themselves having continually asserted the lack of any pre-existing dance theory. Dance Theory: Source Readings from Two Millenia of Western Dance revives and reintegrates dance theory as a field of historical dance studies, presenting a coherent reading of the interaction of theory and practice during two millennia of dance history. In fifty-five selected readings with explanatory text, this book follows the various constructions of dance theories as they have morphed and evolved in time, from ancient Greece to the twenty-first century. Dance Theory is a collection of source readings that, commensurate with current teaching practice, foregrounds dance and performance theory in its presentation of western dance forms. Divided into nine chapters organized chronologically by historical era and predominant intellectual and artistic currents, the book presents a history of an idea from one generation to another. Each chapter contains introductions that not only provide context and significance for the individual source readings, but also create narrative threads that link different chapters and time periods. Based entirely on primary sources, the book makes no claim to cite every source, but rather, in connecting the dots between significant high points, it attempts to trace a coherent and fair narrative of the evolution of dance theory as a concept in Western culture.

In the middle of the 1970s, a storm swept through the world of Morris: women had started to dance what, up to then, had been widely considered to be a men-only tradition. John Cutting had joined Herga Morris in 1972 and was thus a newcomer at the time, and he was both surprised and curious at the strength of the emotions aroused. His long-standing interest in history was triggered and the seeds that grew into this book were planted. What, then, was this Morris tradition? Was it entertainment? Was it some mystical rite? Or was it somewhere halfway between? Where did it come from and how old is it? This book attempts to separate fact from fantasy and to answer some of these questions.

Everyone who viewed the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games can understand the power of dance and mass movement in the service of politics. While examples of such public performances and huge festivals are familiar in Nazi Germany, the former Soviet Union and today's North Korea, this new book addresses the lesser known examples of Spain under Franco, the Dominican Republic, Iran, Croatia and Uzbekistan, all of which have been subjected to various political regimes. Dance and choreographed mass movement is the newest field of serious research in dance studies, particularly in the fields of politics and international relations and gender and sexuality. The author uses dance as a lens through which to study political, ethnic, and gendered phenomena so that the reader grasps that dance constitutes an important non-verbal lens for the study of human behaviour. This is the first study on dance and political science to focus specifically on authoritarian regimes. It is a significant and original contribution to scholarship in the field, with the key studies drawn from a variety of different geographical and historical backgrounds. In Spain under Franco, the Women's Section of the fascist Falange created a folk dance program that toured widely and through the performance of Spanish regional folk dances performed by virginal young Spanish women, embodying Catholic purity, permitted the regime to re-enter the world of polite diplomacy. The Dominican Republic dictator, Rafael Trujillo, himself a gifted dancer, raised the popular folk and vernacular dance, the merengue, to the level of the "national" dance, which became a symbol of his regime and Dominican identity, which merengue it still maintains. For over a thousand years, Croatia, has endured a series of authoritarian regimes - Hapsburg, Napoleon, the Yugoslav royal dictatorship, fascist, Josip Broz Tito's communist regime, Franjo Tudjaman - that ruled that small nation. For over 70 years, Lado, the National Folk Dance Ensemble of Croatia, has served as "the light of Croatian identity." Through its public performances of folk dances and music, Lado has become the face of a series of different regimes. In Iran, dance became banned under the Islamic Republic after serving the Pahlavi regime as a form of representation of its peasant population and its historic Persian identity. Uzbekistan currently has expanded the role of the invented tradition of Uzbek "classical" dance, created during the soviet period, as a representation of Uzbek identity, in national festivals. Thus, through these examples, the reader will see how dance and mass movement have become important as political means for a variety of authoritarian regimes to represent themselves. Primary readership will be dance scholars; particularly the growing number interested in ethno-identity dances of the second half of the twentieth-century Will be of interest to academic libraries and departments, with valuable information and interest also for scholars of ethnology, anthropology, cultural studies, history.

The life of the travelling musician hasn't changed much over the millennia. For a prehistoric harper, a medieval fiddler or a modern guitar player, the experience is pretty much the same: there are times when everything goes well and others when nothing does. But it's not just performing that can go wrong - listening can also be dangerous! Can you stop dancing when you get tired or must you keep going until the music stops ... if it ever does? What happens if it carries on past midnight? What if it turns you to stone? Pete Castle has selected a variety of traditional tales from all over the UK (and a few from further afield) to enthral you, whether you are a musician, a dancer, or a reader who likes to keep dangerous things like singing and dancing at arm's length.

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.

1) This book presents a comprehensive narrative of North Indian Folk theatre as a counter culture. 2) Rich in empirical material, it shows how North Indian Folk theatres are challenging the cultural hegemony. 3) This book will be of interest to departments of South Asian studies and Cultural studies across UK and USA.

Honorable Mention, Latin American Studies Association Mexico Section Best Book in the HumanitiesA Revolution in Movement is the first book to illuminate how collaborations between dancers and painters shaped Mexico's postrevolutionary cultural identity. K. Mitchell Snow traces this relationship throughout nearly half a century of developments in Mexican dance-the emulation of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in the 1920s, the adoption of U.S.-style modern dance in the 1940s, and the creation of ballet-inspired folk dance in the 1960s. Snow describes the appearances in Mexico by Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova and Spanish concert dancer Tortola Valencia, who helped motivate Mexico to express its own national identity through dance. He discusses the work of muralists and other visual artists in tandem with Mexico's theatrical dance world, including Diego Rivera's collaborations with ballet composer Carlos Chavez; Carlos Merida's leadership of the National School of Dance; Jose Clemente Orozco's involvement in the creation of the Ballet de la Ciudad de Mexico; and Miguel Covarrubias, who led the "golden age" of Mexican modern dance. Snow draws from a rich trove of historical newspaper accounts and other contemporary documents to show how these collaborations produced an image of modern Mexico that would prove popular both locally and internationally and continues to endure today.

Now available in paperback, Performing Englishness examines the growth in popularity and profile of the English folk arts in the first decade of the twenty-first century. In the only study of its kind, the authors explore how the folk resurgence speaks to a broader explosion of interest in the subject of English national and cultural identity. Combining approaches from British cultural studies and ethnomusicology, the book draws on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews with central figures of the resurgence and close analysis of music and dance as well as visual and discursive sources. Its presentation of the English case study calls for a rethinking of concepts such as revival and indigeneity. It will be of interest to students and scholars in cultural studies, ethnomusicology and related disciplines. -- .

Performing Englishness examines the growth in popularity and profile of the English folk arts in the first decade of the twenty-first century. In the only study of its kind, the authors explore how the folk resurgence speaks to a broader explosion of interest in the subject of English national and cultural identity. Combining approaches from British cultural studies and ethnomusicology, the book draws on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews with central figures of the resurgence and close analysis of music and dance as well as visual and discursive sources. Its presentation of the English case study calls for a rethinking of concepts such as revival and indigeneity. It will be of interest to students and scholars in cultural studies, ethnomusicology and related disciplines. -- .