Overview

In the twenty-first century, values of competition underpin the free-market economy and aspirations of individual achievement shape the broader social world. Consequently, ideas of winning and losing, success and failure, judgment and worth, influence the dance that we see and do. Across stage, studio, street, and screen, economies of competition impact bodily aesthetics, choreographic strategies, and danced meanings. In formalized competitions, dancers are judged according to industry standards to accumulate social capital and financial gain. Within the capitalist economy, dancing bodies compete to win positions in prestigious companies, while choreographers hustle to secure funding and attract audiences. On the social dance floor, dancers participate in dance-offs that often include unspoken, but nevertheless complex, rules of bodily engagement. And the media attraction to the drama and spectacle of competition regularly plays out in reality television shows, film documentaries, and Hollywood cinema. Drawing upon a diverse collection of dances across history and geography, The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Competition asks how competition affects the presentation and experience of dance and, in response, how dancing bodies negotiate, critique, and resist the aesthetic and social structures of the competition paradigm.

Full Product Details

9780190639082

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Reviews

...this is an extremely valuable volume, offering fresh perspectives on dance and competition across an extensive spectrum, which opens up potentially fruitful avenues for future folk dance scholars to tread. * Theresa Buckland, University of Roehampton, Folk Music Journal *

""...this is an extremely valuable volume, offering fresh perspectives on dance and competition across an extensive spectrum, which opens up potentially fruitful avenues for future folk dance scholars to tread."" -- Theresa Buckland, University of Roehampton, Folk Music Journal

Author Information

Sherril Dodds is Professor of Dance at Temple University. Her research encompasses dance on screen, popular dance, and cultural theory. She is a founding member of the research network PoP MOVES. Her publications include Dance on Screen (Palgrave, 2001), Dancing on the Canon (Palgrave, 2011), and Bodies of Sound (Ashgate, 2013).

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