This book examines the political power of dance, particularly its transgressive potential. Focusing on readings of dance pioneers Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham, Gumboots dancers in the gold mines of South Africa, the One Billion Rising movement, dabke in Palestine and dance as a protest against human rights abuse in Israel, the book explores moments in which the form succeeds in transgressing politics as articulated in words. Close readings and critical analysis grounded in radical democratic theory combine to show how interpreting political dance as 'interruption' can unsettle conceptions of both politics and dance.

About the Author
Dana Mills is College Lecturer in Politics at Hertford College, University of Oxford. In 2016-17 she was Fellow at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University and Visiting Scholar at the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, New York. Alongside her academic interests she is a dancer and a political activist.

Reviews

'Aimed at an audience of political theorists and dance and performance students and scholars, the technical language and critical readings of Jacques Ranciere, among others, can make for heavy going for the untutored enthusiast. But as Mills develops the discussion, she moves away from abstract theory and into a series of case studies that start with Isadora Duncan's 1907 Musical Moment. It's at this point that the arguments within Dance and politics begin to intersect and gain clarity.'
Susan Darlington, The Morning Star

'Dance and Politics: Moving Beyond Boundaries offers a fresh and essentially optimistic
exploration of the political dimensions of dance.'
Victoria Thoms, Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), Coventry University, Dance Review Journal

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Book Information
ISBN 9781526105141
Author Dana Mills
Format Hardback
Page Count 144
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publisher Manchester University Press
Weight(grams) 336g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 138mm * 13mm