LibGuides: Diversity in Dance: Research

These are only a select few of the many resources available for these topics!
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Jump to: General Resources | Body Type | Disabilities | Gender & Sexuality | Race & Ethnicity

General Resources

Books in the Allen Library (selections)

Choreographing Copyright by Anthea Kraut
Call Number: KF3054 C56 K73 [Allen shelves]
Publication Date: 2016
Historical and cultural analysis of U.S. dance-makers' investment in intellectual property rights. Covers efforts to win copyright protection for choreography and teases out their raced and gendered politics.
Choreographing Difference by Ann Cooper Albright
Call Number: GV1588.6 A32 C46 [Allen shelves]
Publication Date: 1997
Shows how the dancing body shifts conventions of representation and provides a critical example of the relationship between cultures and the bodies that inhabited them.
Moving History by Ann Dils and Ann Cooper Albright (Eds.)
Call Number: GV1601 M685 [Allen shelves]
Publication Date: 2001
Covers dance issues related to disability, gender, race, diverse cultures, and more.
(Re:) Claiming Ballet by Adesola Akinleye (Editor)
Call Number: GV1787 R435 2021 [Allen shelves]
Illuminates ballet's rich and complex history and starts conversations about the roles of class, gender normativity, and race, demonstrating that ballet thrives with "difference."
Turning Pointe by Chloe Angyal
Call Number: GV1787 A54 2021 [Allen shelves]
A reckoning with ballet, whose past and present are shaped by gender, racial, and class inequities - and a look inside the fight for its future.

Find more books about diversity in dance

Search subjects in the library catalog:

Choreography > Social aspects
Dance > Social aspects

Theses (selections)

Abject/Body: A Performative Perspective on Race, Gender, and Violence in Dance
Explores how critical theories of race, gender, and trauma can be danced out and enact both emotional and intellectual ideas.
Black Male Dancers and the Performance of Masculinity On- and Offstage
Examines the performance, perception, and representation of the black male dancing body, and reveals the implications of race, gender, and sexuality for masculinity in American culture.

Body Type

Articles (selections)

Dance is for Every Body
By Gianluca Russo. Dance Spirit, vol. 22, no. 9 (2018).
Dancing OUTSIDE the Lines
By Kathryn Holmes. Dance Spirit, vol. 22, no. 9 (2018).
Frozen Landscapes: A Foucauldian Genealogy of the Ideal Ballet Dancer’s Body
By Heather Margaret Ritenburg. Research in Dance Education, vol, 11, no. 1 (2010).

Books in the Allen Library

The Evolving Feminine Ballet Body by Pirkko Markula and Marianne I. Clark (Eds.)
Call Number: GV1787 E853 2018 [Allen shelves]
Perspectives on the historically thin, flexible, and highly feminized ballet body, now taking on new and complex meanings at the intersections of performance art, popular culture, and fitness.

Disabilities

Articles (selections)

Barriers to Dance Training for Young People with Disabilities
By Imogen J. Aujla and Emma Redding. British Journal of Special Education, vol, 40, no. 2 (2013).
Dancing While Deaf: The Nuances of Moving to Music You Can't Hear
By Rebecca J. Ritzel. Dance Magazine, vol. 94, no. 1 (2020).
A Polestar of Disability Dance: Alice Sheppard
By Kevin Gotkin. Dance Magazine, vol, 92, no. 7 (2018).
To Be or Not to Be—Able to Dance: Integrated Dance and Children’s Perceptions of Dance Ability and Disability
By Michelle R. Zitomer and Greg Reid. Research in Dance Education, vol, 12, no. 2 (2011).
Using a Principle-Based Method to Support a Disability Aesthetic
By Bailey Anderson. Journal of Dance Education, vol. 15, no. 3 (2015).

Books in the Allen Library (selections)

Breadth of Bodies by Emmaly Wiederholt, Silva Laukkanen
Call Number: GV1799.2 W54 B7 2022 [Allen shelves]
Seeks to investigate and dismantle the language and stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities.
Dance, Access and Inclusion by Stephanie Burridge, Charlotte Svendler Nielsen (Editors)
Call Number: GV1799.2 D353 R687 2018 [Allen shelves]
Considers dance for young people with special needs and presents best practice scenarios in schools, communities, and the professional sphere.
Making an Entrance by Adam Benjamin
Call Number: GV1799.2 B45 M35 [Allen shelves]
Publication Date: 2002
A practical introduction to teaching dance with disabled and non disabled students. Includes example exercises and tips for accessible workshops.

Gender & Sexuality

Articles (selections)

Dance and Sexuality: Many Moves
[Literature review] By Judith Lynne Hanna. Journal of Sex Research, vol. 47, no. 2/3 (2010).
Gender Problems in Western Theatrical Dance: Little Girls, Big Sissies & the "Baryshnikov Complex"
By Doug Risner. International Journal of Education & the Arts, vol. 15, no. 10 (2014).
Negotiating the Gay Male Stereotype in Ballet and Modern Dance
By Katherine M. Polasek and Emily A. Roper. Research in Dance Education, vol. 12, no. 2 (2011).

Books in the Allen Library (selections)

Dance and Gender by Wendy Oliver and Doug Risner (Editors)
Call Number: GV1588.6 D353 2017 [Allen shelves]
Also available online.
How gender dynamics affect the lives of dancers, choreographers, and others involved in dance, and adds to today's discussions about living in a gendered society.
Dancing Women by Sally Banes
Call Number: GV1799.4 B35 D35 [Allen shelves]
Publication Date: 1998
Provides socio-political and cultural contexts for specific canonical dances, showing that representations of women are shaped by - and that in part shape - society's continuing debates about sexuality and female identity.
Men, Masculinities and Sexualities in Dance by Andria Christofidou
Call Number: GV1588.5 C47 M4 2021 [Allen shelves]
Examines men, masculinities, and sexualities in Western theatrical dance, with insights into the processes and actions around gender-transgressive acts.
Queer Dance by Clare Croft (Editor)
Call Number: GV1588.6 Q447 2017 [Allen shelves]
Engaging with dance making, dance scholarship, queer studies, and other fields, Queer Dance asks how identities, communities, and artmaking and scholarly practices might consider what queer work the body does and can do.

Find more books about gender & sexuality in dance

Search subjects in the library catalog:

Dance > Sex differences
Gender identity in dance
Homosexuality and dance
Sex in dance

Race & Ethnicity

Articles (selections)

"Breakin' the Rules": Eleo Pomare and the Transcultural Choreographies of Black Modernity
By Rachel Fensham. Dance Research Journal, vol. 45, no. 1 (2013).
Dancing in the Margins: Experiences of African American Ballerinas
By Nyama McCarthy-Brown. Journal of African American Studies, vol. 15, no. 3 (2011).
"Indian Ballerinas Toe Up": Maria Tallchief and Making Ballet "American" in the Tribal Termination Era
By Rebekah J. Kowal. Dance Research Journal, vol. 46, no. 2 (2014).

Books in the Allen Library (selections)

Beyond the Surface by Michelle Grant-Murray
Call Number: GV1623 G73 B496 2015 [Allen shelves]
Aims to generate an open discussion on what is inclusive of American dance and its history, which is built on contributions from many cultures.
Contemporary Directions in Asian American Dance by Yutian Wong (Editor)
Call Number: GV1624.7 A85 C657 2016 [Allen shelves]
Looks at the politics of how Asian aesthetics are set into motion and marketed. Includes interviews, cultural and performance studies, and more.
Hot Feet and Social Change by Kariamu Welsh, Esailama Diouf, Yvonne Daniel (Editors)
Call Number: GV1705 H674 2019 [Allen shelves]
Stories from dance experts. Explodes myths about African dance and demonstrates its power to awaken identity, self-worth, and community respect.
The People Have Never Stopped Dancing: Native American Modern Dance Histories by Jacqueline Shea Murphy
Call Number: GV1624.7 N37 M87 2007 [Allen shelves]
Demonstrates the relationship between Native and modern dance choreography, illustrating how Native dance enacts, rather than represents, cultural connections to land, ancestors, and animals, as well as spiritual and political concerns.

Find more books about race in dance or dancers of specific races

Search subjects in the library catalog:

African American dance
Asian American dance
Black people in the performing arts
Dance and race
Dance, Black
Indian dance [Note that Library of Congress subjects use "Indian" rather than "Native American."]
Race relations

Suggest a Resource

Know of a resource you think should be added to this guide? Let us know!

Want to suggest we purchase something new? Contact Tracey Rudnick (rudnick@hartford.edu).