Description
Book SynopsisExamining social and popular dance forms from a variety of critical and cultural perspectives
Trade Review"Contributors to this important new collection offer scholarship that helps us to hear, feel, and imagine that transformation through the ongoing story of American social and popular dance practices."--
Dance Research Journal“Malnig makes a significant contribution to the field of dance studies with this impressive, long-overdue investigation into the rich world of vernacular dance traditions. . . . Highly recommended.”--
Choice"This extraordinary collection of essays brings to the forefront the transformative power of social and popular dance as well as its profound impact in shaping American culture and history over the past two centuries."--
Dance Chronicle"This well-researched and balanced classroom tool looks inside genres like ragtime, dance marathons and krumping, and its iconic photographs will help readers further understand each style."--
Dance Teacher“An incredibly needed volume for undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, and advisors in the field of dance. These essays afford compelling glimpses into communities dancing in particular places and times; the authors provide nuanced understandings of dancing as a means of forming identity and community.”--Ann Dils, coeditor of
Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader“This invaluable volume covers an impressive range of genres, illuminating the liveliness and diversity of social dance. The book makes a unique contribution at a time when the field of dance studies is expanding to include forms other than Euro-American concert dance. An excellent book and a godsend for classroom use.”--Tricia Henry Young, director of the graduate program in American dance studies, Florida State University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments xi
Introduction /
Julie Malnig 1
SECTION 1 / HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS 1. Our National Poetry / The Afro-Chesapeake Inventions of American Dance 19
Jurretta Jordan Heckscher 2. The Civilizing of America's Ballrooms / The Revolutionary War to 1890 36
Elizabeth Aldrich 3. "Just Like Being at the Zoo" / Primitivity and Ragtime Dance 55
Nadine George-Graves 4. Apaches, Tangos, and Other Indecencies / Women, Dance, and New York Nightlife of the 1910s 72
Julie MalnigSECTION 2 / EVOLVING STYLES 5. Reality Dance / American Dance Marathons 93
Carol Martin 6. The Trianon and On / Reading Mass Social Dancing in the 1930s and 1940s in Alberta, Canada 109
Lisa Doolittle 7. Negotiating Compromise on a Burnished Wood Floor / Social Dancing at the Savoy 126
Karen Hubbard and Terry Monaghan 8. Rumba Then and Now /
Quindembo 146
Yvonne Daniel 9. Embodying Music/Disciplining Dance / The mambo Body in Havana and New York City 165
David F. Garcia 10. Rocking Around the Clock / Teenage Dance Fads from 1955 to 1965 182
Tim Wall 11. Beyond the Hustle / 1970s Social Dancing, Discotheque Culture, and the Emergence of the Contemporary Club Dancer 199
Tim LawrenceSECTION 3 / THEATRICALIZATIONS OF SOCIAL DANCE FORMS 12. "A Thousand Raggy, Draggy Dances" / Social Dance in Broadway Musical Comedy in the 1920s 217
Barbara Cohen-Stratyner 13. From Bharata Natyam to Bop / Jack Cole's "Modern" Jazz Dance 234
Constance Valis Hill 14. From Busby Berkeley to Madonna / Music Video and Popular Dance 247
Sherril Dodds 15. The Dance Archaeology of Rennie Harris / Hip-Hop or Postmodern? 261
Halifu OsumareSECTION 4 / THE CONTEMPORARY SCENE 16. "C'mon to My House" / Underground House Dancing 285
Sally R. Sommer 17. Dancing Latin/Latin Dancing / Salsa and Dancesport 302
Juliet McMains 18. Louisiana Gumbo / Retention, Creolization, and Innovation in Contemporary Cajun and Zydeco Dance 323
May Gwin Waggoner 19. The Multiringed Cosmos of Krumping / Hip-Hop Dance at the Intersections of Battle, Media, and Spirit 337
Christina Zanfagna Contributors 355
Index 361
