In this unprecedented volume, Professor Thomas Hagood brings together the voices of key dance educators to express their views on the legacy of dance education. The book examines the values and practices dance educators live with, and what values and practices they take forward to promote or even retool and reinvent in their professional work. The book also engages in discussions of the people who embody (or have embodied) the values and practices the dance education field takes ownership of. Through working with and being exposed to teachers in the dance field, the editor and his contributors express how their learning and professional development has been inspired and shaped by their interactions with their mentors. It follows that legacy is important territory for dancers to consider as educators and as people. Such deep discussion of legacy in educational dance is not widely evidenced in existing literature. Since it is not an easy nor simple task to inventory what dance educators have absorbed from mentors with an objective or analytically aware eye, this book will serve well to expand this discussion. Critical assessment in dance education is also challenged by the fact that the field itself is very young. In analyzing legacy, the book interestingly shows that the mentors discussed may well be about people who are still very much alive. The book also addresses how dance is so culturally challenged by archetypal notions of who practices it, as well as its educational value and worth. The book presents dance scholars with many opportunities to learn new dimensions of dance history, to reflect on practices both old and new, to appreciate the values that shape their work in danceeducation, to get to know people who may not appear in the historic record, to revisit the gifts of those whom they may consider giants in the field have left, to consider the landscape of dance education as it has been shaped over time. The inclusion of the voices and contributions of some of the fields most prominent dance educators in this book and the critical issues they discuss make this book a must for every dance collection.

Contemporary American dance scholars agree that the first venue for critically informed, aware, and diverse reflections on dance was Impulse. While Impulse was recognized as the platform for dance scholarship during the years of its publication, following its cessation in 1970, only a handful of libraries and collections retained a full complement of its issues. Over time and out of view Impulse began to fade from memory, and many upcoming dance scholars were unaware of its rich history and seminal contributions to the field. Fortunately, as Impulse collected dust on shelves, technologies evolved that offered hope for the preservation of print and media collections. In 2008 a project was initiated to preserve Impulse as a digital collection and bring together a cohort of dance scholars to analyze each issue from today's point of view. Their collected works are presented in Contemporary Dance History: Revisiting Impulse, 1950-1970. There is no comparable study or project designed to preserve and facilitate access to original source materials in dance at this time. Perspectives on Contemporary Dance History: Revisiting Impulse, 1950-1970 stands alone as a compendium of critical analyses of the full roster of a publication dedicated to dance. As eminent authors of the time were invited to contribute to issues of Impulse, contemporary dance scholars were invited to contribute to this book that examines Impulse from today's point of view. This volume revisits the journal's breadth of commentary, scope of authorship, and provocative yet engaging discourses. In these regards Perspectives on Contemporary Dance History: Revisiting Impulse, 1950-1970 is unlike any other contemporary volume of dance studies. Perspectives on Contemporary Dance History: Revisiting Impulse, 1950-1970 will be of interest to current and emerging dance scholars, dance historians, cultural theorists, education specialist, arts librarians, and those who seek a model for reclaiming the foundational literature of a discipline.