Dancing the World Smaller: Staging Globalism in Mid-Century America

Awards:   Winner of Finalist, 2021 ATHE Outstanding Book Award.
Author:   Rebekah J. Kowal (Associate Professor of Dance, Associate Professor of Dance, University of Iowa)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
ISBN:  

9780190265311


Pages:   352
Publication Date:   09 January 2020
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
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Dancing the World Smaller: Staging Globalism in Mid-Century America


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Awards

  • Winner of Finalist, 2021 ATHE Outstanding Book Award.

Overview

Full Product Details

Author:   Rebekah J. Kowal (Associate Professor of Dance, Associate Professor of Dance, University of Iowa)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.80cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 24.20cm
Weight:   0.628kg
ISBN:  

9780190265311


ISBN 10:   0190265310
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   09 January 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Staging Globalism in Mid-Century America Chapter 1: Staging Integration: Around the World with Dance and Song at the American Museum of Natural History Chapter 2: Staging Ethnologic Dance: La Meri, Whiteness, and the Problems of Cross-Ethnic Embodiment Chapter 3: Staging Diaspora: Asadata Dafora and Black Cultural Diplomacy Chapter 4: Staging Multiculturalism/Staging Containment: Paradoxes of Mid-Century Globalism Index

Reviews

Throughout this work, Kowal's nuanced analysis uncovers the paradoxes of ethnic dance, which catalyzed new forms of cultural inclusion even as it enacted ideas of white supremacy. -- The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory The circumstances of La Meri and other artists and festival events discussed throughout are a rich resource for students and teachers willing to ask: Who and what is missing in this story? Such questions make Dancing the World Smaller a model for how to bring research to life, while also judiciously reminding us that history can offer poignant perspectives for what is happening in the cultural world of today. -- Sherrie Barr, Journal of Dance Education Dancing the World Smaller offers a fascinating, richly layered account of the literal and figurative choreography by which a transnational assembly of dancers, critics, and impresarios helped mid-century New York lay claim to the status of a global city and helped the U.S. model itself as home to a new globalist imaginary ... Rebekah Kowal masterfully tracks the cultural factions and frictions that energized this lost chapter of dance history, and the result is a remarkable story that speaks just as meaningfully to our own fraught moment in global social and cultural politics. -- Jean-Christophe Agnew , Professor of American Studies and History, Yale University In Dancing the World Smaller, Kowal documents a phenomenon that has largely escaped scholarly notice: the widespread interest in stagings of 'global' dance forms in New York City in the middle of the twentieth century. Based on extensive archival research, the book not only makes a compelling case for considering 'ethnic dance' alongside the dominant form of modern dance, but also shows how performances of cultural 'otherness' registered the tensions and ambivalence of US foreign policy. In the process, Kowal deftly historicizes and theorizes one of our most fundamental assumptions about dance -- its ability to bridge difference. -- Anthea Kraut, Professor, Department of Dance, University of California, Riverside


In Dancing the World Smaller, Kowal documents a phenomenon that has largely escaped scholarly notice: the widespread interest in stagings of 'global' dance forms in New York City in the middle of the twentieth century. Based on extensive archival research, the book not only makes a compelling case for considering 'ethnic dance' alongside the dominant form of modern dance, but also shows how performances of cultural 'otherness' registered the tensions and ambivalence of US foreign policy. In the process, Kowal deftly historicizes and theorizes one of our most fundamental assumptions about dance - its ability to bridge difference. * Anthea Kraut, Professor, Department of Dance, University of California, Riverside *


Dancing the World Smaller offers a fascinating, richly layered account of the literal and figurative choreography by which a transnational assembly of dancers, critics, and impresarios helped mid-century New York lay claim to the status of a global city and helped the U.S. model itself as home to a new globalist imaginary ... Rebekah Kowal masterfully tracks the cultural factions and frictions that energized this lost chapter of dance history, and the result is a remarkable story that speaks just as meaningfully to our own fraught moment in global social and cultural politics. -- Jean-Christophe Agnew , Professor of American Studies and History, Yale University In Dancing the World Smaller, Kowal documents a phenomenon that has largely escaped scholarly notice: the widespread interest in stagings of 'global' dance forms in New York City in the middle of the twentieth century. Based on extensive archival research, the book not only makes a compelling case for considering 'ethnic dance' alongside the dominant form of modern dance, but also shows how performances of cultural 'otherness' registered the tensions and ambivalence of US foreign policy. In the process, Kowal deftly historicizes and theorizes one of our most fundamental assumptions about dance -- its ability to bridge difference. -- Anthea Kraut, Professor, Department of Dance, University of California, Riverside


"""I recommend the book with no reservations to researchers and dance practitioners, undergraduate and graduate students, and to anyone who believes that dance, as the book beautifully demonstrates, connects people. Showing that dance can 'make the world smaller,' Kowal's work brings us closer to the hope that our bodies and minds can overcome the complex challenges of our time and make the world better."" -- Camelia Lenart, Dance Research Journal ""Understanding the postwar period through the actions of US globalism is crucial to identifying and dismantling white supremacist institutions established to support the country's power, especially as we witness the gears of history churning out new world orders. Kowal's significant book is instructive for readers in dance, theatre, and performance studies, as well as for students of national-ism, imperialism, and American history, who seek to ascertain how the past constructed our present and how to use cultural mechanisms to improve our collective futures."" -- Hannah Kosstrin, Theatre Journal ""Throughout this work, Kowal's nuanced analysis uncovers the paradoxes of ethnic dance, which catalyzed new forms of cultural inclusion even as it enacted ideas of white supremacy."" -- The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory ""The circumstances of La Meri and other artists and festival events discussed throughout are a rich resource for students and teachers willing to ask: Who and what is missing in this story? Such questions make Dancing the World Smaller a model for how to bring research to life, while also judiciously reminding us that history can offer poignant perspectives for what is happening in the cultural world of today."" -- Sherrie Barr, Journal of Dance Education ""Dancing the World Smaller offers a fascinating, richly layered account of the literal and figurative choreography by which a transnational assembly of dancers, critics, and impresarios helped mid-century New York lay claim to the status of a global city and helped the U.S. model itself as home to a new globalist imaginary ... Rebekah Kowal masterfully tracks the cultural factions and frictions that energized this lost chapter of dance history, and the result is a remarkable story that speaks just as meaningfully to our own fraught moment in global social and cultural politics."" -- Jean-Christophe Agnew , Professor of American Studies and History, Yale University ""In Dancing the World Smaller, Kowal documents a phenomenon that has largely escaped scholarly notice: the widespread interest in stagings of 'global' dance forms in New York City in the middle of the twentieth century. Based on extensive archival research, the book not only makes a compelling case for considering 'ethnic dance' alongside the dominant form of modern dance, but also shows how performances of cultural 'otherness' registered the tensions and ambivalence of US foreign policy. In the process, Kowal deftly historicizes and theorizes one of our most fundamental assumptions about dance -- its ability to bridge difference."" -- Anthea Kraut, Professor, Department of Dance, University of California, Riverside"


Author Information

Rebekah J. Kowal is Professor of Dance at The University of Iowa and author of How to Do Things with Dance: Performing Change in Postwar America and co-editor with Randy Martin and Gerald Siegmund of The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Politics. She is currently serving as co-executive editor of Dance Research Journal.

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