Before, between, and beyond: three decades of dance writing
ISBN: 9780299221508
Platform/Publisher: ACLS / The University of Wisconsin Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Ten pages at a time; Download: Ten pages at a time
Subjects: Dance & Performance History;

Veteran dance critic and scholar Banes (Terpsichore in Sneakers) is best known for her postmodern take on modern dance and women onstage. This new collection of essays showcases the best of her 30 years in the field, starting with her first-ever published piece (on the dance company Pilobolus) and ending with her most recent work (on George Balanchine's 1942 choreography for elephants in Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus). The essays in between cover Alvin Ailey, Jerome Robbins, Meredith Monk and even Madonna and disco dancing. Clear, incisive and personable, Banes is in fine form in all these pieces (some published for the first time). She brings a historical perspective to her observations, then links them to the larger worlds of politics, economics, religion and sexuality. That she's able to express such sophisticated ideas in plain, even conversational, English results in what feels like a witty and exuberant postperformance conversation in a small West Village cafe over a steaming cups of espresso. This collection-tragically Banes's last due to an incapacitating stroke-will make a welcome addition to any dance and performing arts library. (May 25) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Sally Banes is one of the leading dance historians in the United States. With such works as Dancing Women: Female Bodies on Stage and Democracy's Body: Judson Dance Theatre 1962-1964, she details the history of dance and explores issues of representation and movement in the art of dancing. She also examines the influence and aspects of feminist ideology related to dance.

Banes graduated from New York University and was involved in the theatre in the 1970s and 1980s. She has worked as a critic for the Soho Weekly News and the Village Voice. Banes is the Hannah Winter Professor of Theatre History and Dance Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

(Bowker Author Biography)


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