When Men Dance
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While dance has always been as demanding as contact sports, intuitive boundaries distinguish the two forms of performance for men. Dance is often regarded as a feminine activity, and men who dance are frequently stereotyped as suspect, gay, or somehow unnatural. But what really happens when men dance?When Men Dance offers a progressive vision that boldly articulates double-standards in gender construction within dance and brings hidden histories to light in a globalized debate. A first of its kind, this trenchant look at the stereotypes and realities of male dancing brings together contributions from leading and rising scholars of dance from around the world to explore what happens when men dance. The dancing male body emerges in its many contexts, from the ballet, modern, and popular dance worlds to stages in Georgian and Victorian England, Weimar Germany, India and the Middle East. The men who dance and those who analyze them tell stories that will be both familiar and surprising for insiders and outsiders alike.
Features
- Global in scope: covers not only the Western dance world, but also looks at the colonial after-effects in the Middle East and former Soviet countries.
- Punctuated by the voices of men who dance and choreograph ballet, modern, tap, hip hop, folk, Baroque and belly dance
Reviews
"An intriguing, readable book about how, why, when, and where men dance...Highly recommended." --Choice
"When Men Dance is an eclectic collection of essays and personal narratives comparing the experiences of male dancers across a wide array of historical and cultural contexts. While the volume includes work by some leading scholars in the field, it also reaches out to the non-specialist, asking in both complex and heartfelt ways how masculinity is performed through movement."-Barbara Browning, New York University and author, Infectious Rhythm: Metaphors of Contagion and the Spread of African Culture (1998)
"Here at last is a richly diverse and compelling anthology that challenges any previously homogeneous notions of men in dance. Gathered in these pages are a range of perspectives that are at once so informative and so personal that they will forever change how you see male dancers and roles danced by men."-Naomi Jackson, Arizona State University and author, Converging Movements: Modern Dance and Jewish Culture at the 92nd Street Y (2000)
"This collection examines the experiences and stereotypes of men who dance by interweaving new scholarly essays with a cross section of related personal accounts. The result is a tapestry of diverse thinking which will become a key resource for dance and gender studies."--Selma Odom, Professor of Dance, York University
About the Author(s)
Jennifer Fisher
is Associate Professor of Dance, University of California - Irvine, and author of Nutcracker Nation: How an Old World Ballet Became a Christmas Tradition in the New World
(2003).
Anthony Shay
is Assistant Professor of Dance and Cultural Studies at Pomona College and author or editor of several books, including Choreographic Politics: State Folk Dance Ensembles, Representation, and Power
(2003).
