Sharing the Dance: Contact Improvisation and American Culture

Sharing the Dance: Contact Improvisation and American Culture
ISBN-10
0299124444
ISBN-13
9780299124441
Category
Performing Arts
Pages
258
Language
English
Published
1990-08-15
Publisher
Univ of Wisconsin Press
Author
Cynthia J. Novack

Description

In Sharing the Dance, Cynthia Novack considers the development of contact improvisation within its web of historical, social, and cultural contexts. This book examines the ways contact improvisers (and their surrounding communities) encode sexuality, spontaneity, and gender roles, as well as concepts of the self and society in their dancing. While focusing on the changing practice of contact improvisation through two decades of social transformation, Novack’s work incorporates the history of rock dancing and disco, the modern and experimental dance movements of Merce Cunningham, Anna Halprin, and Judson Church, among others, and a variety of other physical activities, such as martial arts, aerobics, and wrestling.

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