1. Native American Dance and Engaged Resistance
Robin Prichard
2. An American Take on Ballet
Dawn Lille
3. Black Women Keep the Tempo: The Impact of Black Women on Jazz and Tap Dance in the USA
Alesondra Christmas
4. Gendered Politics and the Female Dancing Body
Julie Kerr-Berry
5. An Exploration of Inspiration, Imitation, and Cultural Appropriation in Dance in the USA
Miriam Giguere
6. Dancing for Social Change in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Hannah Kosstrin
7. Challenging the Distinction between Art and Entertainment: Dance in Musical Theater
Joanna Dee Das
8. Postmodern Dance: Laboratory of Rupture
Emmanuele Phuon
9. On Black Dance and Postmodern Representation from Black Power to Afro-Futurist Performance
Carl Paris
10. From The Serpentine to The Renegade: Milestones in Dance and Media Technology
Jody Sperling
Biography
Elizabeth McPherson, Professor and Director of the Dance Division at Montclair State University, is the editor of The Bennington School of the Dance: A History in Writings and Interviews and author of The Contributions of Martha Hill to American Dance and Dance Education. Executive Editor for the journal Dance Education in Practice, she has written articles for various other publications including Ballet Review, the Journal of Dance Education, and the Journal of Movement Arts Literacy. She holds a BFA from Juilliard, an MA from The City College of NY, and a PhD from New York University.
Milestones in Dance in the USA is a winner of the National Dance Education Organization's 2023 Ruth Lovell Murray book award.
“With an introduction by McPherson, ten contributing authors provide a more complete picture of how dance in the US impacts—and has been impacted by—society, economics, politics, and religion. […] Each chapter is well-researched and developed, focusing on a specific genre and its cultural context.”
“When studying this book, readers will hear the voices of unfamiliar, important US artists, and also reconsider familiar artists who have forever been part of the dance history canon.”
Gretchen McLaine, College of Charleston, USA in Journal of Dance Education (2025)
