An exuberant history of American dance, told through the lives of
virtuoso performers who have defined the art The history of
American dance reflects the nation's tangled culture. Dancers from
wildly different backgrounds learned, imitated, and stole from one
another. Audiences everywhere embraced the result as deeply
American. Using the stories of tapper Bill "Bojangles" Robinson,
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, ballet and Broadway choreographer
Agnes de Mille, choreographer Paul Taylor, and Michael Jackson,
Megan Pugh shows how freedom-that nebulous, contested American
ideal-emerges as a genre-defining aesthetic. In Pugh's account,
ballerinas mingle with slumming thrill-seekers, and hoedowns show
up on elite opera house stages. Steps invented by slaves on
antebellum plantations captivate the British royalty and the
Parisian avant-garde. Dances were better boundary crossers than
their dancers, however, and the issues of race and class that haunt
everyday life shadow American dance as well. Deftly narrated,
America Dancing demonstrates the centrality of dance in American
art, life, and identity, taking us to watershed moments when the
nation worked out a sense of itself through public movement.
General
Imprint: |
Yale University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
2016 |
Authors: |
Megan Pugh
|
Dimensions: |
235 x 156 x 29mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth over boards
|
Pages: |
416 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-300-20131-4 |
Categories: |
Books >
Arts & Architecture >
Performing arts >
Dance >
General
|
LSN: |
0-300-20131-1 |
Barcode: |
9780300201314 |
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