Dancing from Past to Present: Nation, Culture, Identities (Studies in Dance History)

This groundbreaking collection combines ethnographic and historic strategies to reveal how dance plays crucial cultural roles in various regions of the world, including Tonga, Java, Bosnia-Herzegovina, New Mexico, India, Korea, Macedonia, and England. The essays find a balance between past and present and examine how dance and bodily practices are core identity and cultural creators. Reaching beyond the typically Eurocentric view of dance, Dancing from Past to Present opens a world of debate over the role dance plays in forming and expressing cultural identities around the world.

Table of Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
Dance, History, and Ethnography: Frameworks, Sources, and Identities of Past and Present Theresa Jill Buckland 3
Dances and Dancing in Tonga: Anthropological and Historical Discourses Adrienne L. Kaeppler 25
Constructing a Classical Tradition: Javanese Court Dance in Indonesia Felicia Hughes-Freeland 52
Utopia, Eutopia, and E.U.-topia: Performance and Memory in Former Yugoslavia Lynn D. Maners 75
Qualities of Memory: Two Dances of the Tortugas Fiesta, New Mexico Deidre Sklar 97
Dancing through History and Ethnography: Indian Classical Dance and the Performance of the Past Janet O'Shea 123
Interpreting the Historical Record: Using Images of Korean Dance for Understanding the Past Judy Van Zile 153
Romani Dance Event in Skopje, Macedonia: Research Strategies, Cultural Identities, and Technologies Elsie Ivancich Dunin 175
Being Traditional: Authentic Selves and Others in Researching Late-Twentieth-Century Northwest English Morris Dancing Theresa Jill Buckland 199
Selected Further Reading 231
Contributors 239
Index 241