Description
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.
Table of Contents
List of IllustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Dance Theory as a Problem in Dance HistoryChapter 1. Dance Theory to ca. 13001.1. Plato1.2. Aristotle1.3. Plutarch1.4. Lucian of Samosata1.5. Johannes de GrocheioChapter 2. The Renaissance2.1. Domenico da Piacenza2.2. Antonio Cornazano2.3. Guglielmo Ebreo2.4. Thoinot Arbeau2.5. Fabritio CarosoChapter 3. The Seventeenth Century3.1. François De Lauze3.2. Claude-François MenestrierChapter 4. The Early Enlightenment: German and English Dance Theory, 1703-17214.1. Samuel Rudolph Behr4.2. Johann Pasch4.3. Gottfried Taubert4.4. John WeaverChapter 5. Dance Theory from Feuillet to the Encyclopédie5.1. Giambatista Dufort5.2. Bartholome Ferriol y Boxeraus5.3 Pierre-Alexandre Hardouin5.4. Louis de CahusacChapter 6. Divergent Paths: Noverre6.1. Jean-Georges Noverre6.2. Giovanni-Andrea Gallini6.3. Johann George Sulzer6.4. Gennaro Magri6.5. Charles CompanChapter 7. The Nineteenth Century and Fin de siècle: Practice Ascendent7.1. Jean-Étienne Despréaux7.2. Carlo Blasis7.3. Arthur St. Léon7.4. G. Léopold Adice7.5. Friedrich Albert Zorn7.6. Eugène Giraudet7.7. Edmond BourgeoisChapter 8. The Twentieth Century: Modernist Theory8.1. Rudolf von Laban8.2. Margaret N. H'Doubler8.3. African American Dance Theory I8.3a. Zora Neale Hurston, and 8.3b. Katherine Dunham8.3c. Robert Farris Thompson8.3d. Brenda Dixon Gottschild8.4. Martha Graham8.5a. Alwin Nikolais, and 8.5b. Murray Louis8.6a. Flavia Pappacena, and 8.6b. Susanne FrancoChapter 9. Postmodern Dance Theory and Anti-Theory9.1a. Merce Cunningham, and 9.1b,c. Yvonne Rainer9.2. Susan Leigh Foster9.3. André Lepecki and Jenn Joy9.4. African American Dance Theory II9.4a. Thomas F. DeFrantz, and 9.4b. Anita Gonzalez9.4c. Halifu Osumare9.4d. Nadine George-Graves9.4e. Philipa Rothfield and Thomas F. DeFrantz9.5a. Susan Leigh Foster, and 9.5b. P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios)9.6a. Kent De Spain, and 9.6b. Janet Lansdale9.7. Gabriele BrandstetterAppendix: Table of Dance PeriodizationBibliographyIndex
