Abstract

This book takes an innovative approach to dance analysis, looking at issues in the interpretation and reading of dances. Building on Janet Adshead-Lansdale's Dance Analysis: Theory and Practice (1988), Dancing Texts reshapes recent developments in post-structuralist and literary theory to illuminate close readings of dances. Following a thorough introduction to the theoretical basis of intertextuality in relation to dance, the book offers a number of fully worked out examples of dance analysis, with subjects spanning the twentieth century and ranging from video-dance to ballet. The examples chosen include classical, modern and postmodern styles of theatre dance and also explore relations with music, film, architecture, language, popular culture and ethnicity. The shifting and fluid interpretations that emerge illustrate the processes of intertextuality itself, opening up a new arena for dance analysis and criticism. The editor, Janet Adshead-Lansdale, is forrmer Professor of Dance Studies and Head of the School of Performing Arts at the University of Surrey, and the authors are choreographers, researchers, and university lecturers working in dance analysis.