Dance research is the study of
dance
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...
, including
dance history,
ethnochoreology
Ethnochoreology (also dance ethnology, dance anthropology) is the study of dance through the application of a number of disciplines such as anthropology, musicology, ethnomusicology, and ethnography. The word itself is relatively recent and etym ...
,
dance theory Dance theory is the philosophy underpinning contemporary dance, including formal ideologies, aesthetic concepts, and technical attributes. It is a fairly new field of study, developing largely in the 20th century. It can be considered a branch of e ...
, dance anthropology, and
dance science
Dance science is the scientific study of dance and dancers, as well as the practical application of scientific principles to dance. Its aims are the enhancement of performance, the reduction of injury, and the improvement of well-being and health. ...
.
Dance research as an academic discipline is relatively new. In 1967, the first volume of the ''CORD dance research annual'' wrote: "...One of the most serious problems in dance research is found in the fact that the literati in the field are not yet the university people".
Dance science is the scientific study of dance and dancers, as well as the practical application of scientific principles to dance, similar to
sports science
Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sport and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally inc ...
. Its aims are the enhancement of performance, the reduction of injury, and the improvement of well-being and health.
Organizations
*
Congress on Research in Dance
Congress on Research in Dance was a professional organization for dance historians in the United States and worldwide that was founded in 1964 and then merged in 2017 with the Society of Dance History Scholars to form the Dance Studies Association ...
(founded in 1965 as a Committee on Research in Dance)
*
Society for Ethnomusicology
The Society for Ethnomusicology is, with the International Council for Traditional Music and thBritish Forum for Ethnomusicology one of three major international associations for ethnomusicology. Its mission is "to promote the research, study, an ...
*
Society of Dance History Scholars
The Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) was a professional organization for dance historians in the United States and internationally. Founded in 1978, it became a non-profit in 1983. SDHS became a member of the American Council of Learned Soc ...
*
Cross-Cultural Dance Resources
Cross-Cultural Dance Resources (CCDR) is a non-profit dance research organization in the United States, formed in 1981 and based in Tempe, Arizona. It maintains a non-lending library devoted to the study of dance, with over 15,000 shelved items pl ...
References
Further reading
* Braun, Lesley Nicole. 2014. “Trading Virtue for Virtuosity: The Artistry of Kinshasa's Concert Danseuses.” ''African Arts'' 47(4): 48-57.Castaldi, Francesca. 2006. ''Choreographies of African Identities: Negritude, Dance, and the National Ballet of Senegal''. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
* Cohen, Adrienne. 2016. “Inalienable Performances, Mutable Heirlooms: Dance, Cultural Inheritance, and Political Transformation in the Republic of Guinea.” ''American Ethnologist'' 43(4): 650-662.
* Daniel, Yvonne. 1995. ''Rumba: Dance and Social Change in Contemporary Cuba''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Foster, Susan Leigh. 1996. ''Corporealities: Dancing Knowledge Culture and Power''. Edited by Susan Leigh Foster. London: Routledge.
* Dunham, Katherine. 1969. ''Island possessed''. University of Chicago Press.
* Franko, Mark. "Dance and the political: States of exception." ''Dance Research Journal'' (2006): 3-18.
* Ross, Janice. 2015. ''Like a Bomb Going Off: Leonid Yakobson and Ballet as Resistance in Soviet Russia.'' Yale University Press.
* Schauert, Paul. 2015. ''Staging Ghana: Artistry and Nationalism in State Dance Ensembles.'' Indiana University Press.
* Wilcox, Emily. 2018. ''
Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy''.
University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facul ...
.
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