From healing, fertility and religious rituals, through theatrical entertainment, to death ceremonies and ancestor worship, World Dance Cultures introduces an extraordinary variety of dance forms practiced around the world.

This highly illustrated textbook draws on wide-ranging historical documentation and first-hand accounts, taking in India, Bali, Java, Cambodia, China, Japan, Hawai'i, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Africa, Turkey, Spain, Native America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Each chapter covers a certain region's distinctive dances, pinpoints key issues and trends from the form's development to its modern iteration, and offers a wealth of study features including:

• Case Studies - zooming in on key details of a dance form's cultural, historical, and religious contexts
• 'Explorations' - first-hand descriptions of dances, from scholars, anthropologists and practitioners
• 'Think About' - provocations to encourage critical analysis of dance forms and the ways in which they're understood
• Discussion Questions - starting points for group work, classroom seminars or individual study

• Further Study Tips - listing essential books, essays and video material.

Offering a comprehensive overview of each dance form covered with over 100 full color photos, World Dance Cultures is an essential introductory resource for students and instructors alike.

About the Author

Patricia Leigh Beaman is on the dance faculty at Wesleyan University and teaches dance history at New York University. As a Baroque and contemporary dancer, she has worked nationally and internationally, and is currently exploring the juxtaposition between historical Baroque and Postmodern dances of the 1960s.

Reviews

"Overall, this text is a wonderful resource for dance educators. It fills a critical gap that has existed in the literature and is a comprehensive survey of non-Western dance traditions. There is plenty of information here that would allow an instructor to design a course that could stretch beyond a single semester. Every chapter is supplemented with: (1) firsthand descriptions including relevant articles from scholars and anthropologists in the field, and (2), questions that stimulate group discussions and thought-provoking insights, encouraging critical analysis."

- Timothy Cowart, Journal of Dance Education

Book Information
ISBN 9781138907737
Author Patricia Leigh Beaman
Format Paperback
Page Count 290
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 1250g