342 Pages
    by Routledge

    342 Pages
    by Routledge

    How do women set up institutions? How has higher education helped or hindered women in the world of dance? These are some of the questions addressed through interviews and researched by the educators and dancers Sharon E. Friedler and Susan B. Glazer in Dancing Female . In dealing with some of the tensions, joys, frustrations, and fears women experience at various points of their creative lives, the contributors strike a balance between a theoretical sense of feminism and its practice in reality. This book presents answers to basic questions about women, power, and action. Why do women choreographers choose to create the dances they do in the manner they do? How do women in dance work independently and organizationally?

    I: Matriarchs, Mentoring and Passing on the Heritage; I: Dancers Talk; I: Dancers Talk about Matriarchs, Mentoring and Passing on the Heritage; II: Matriarchs; II: A Portrait of Catherine and Dorothie Littlefield; II: Renate Schottelius: Dance at the Bottom of the World in Argentina; II: Making my Way in Dance; III: Mentoring; III: African American Rhythm Tappers; III: Mentors of American Jazz Dance; III: Body Wisdom; III: Women in Dance in Higher Education; IV: Passing on the Heritage; IV: Fire and Ice: Female Archetypes in American Modern Dance; IV: Sexual Politics; IV: Feminist Theory and Contemporary Dance; II: The Physical Body Theory and Practice and Using the Knowledge; V: Dancers Talk; V: Dancers Talk about the Physical Body, Theory and Practice and Using the Knowledge; VI: The Physical Body; VI: Standing in Awe, Sitting in Judgment; VI: Dance has Many Ages; VI: The Body Never Lies; VII: Theory and Practice; VII: Women's Lives in Dance: A Developmental Perspective; VII: Ballet as a Way of Knowing; VII: Governance and Vision; VII: A Lion in the Laundromat; VII: Love and Power Among the Critics; VIII: Using the Knowledge; VIII: Sensuality and Sexuality as Dual Unity in African Dance; VIII: Political Issues of Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Artist/Activist; VIII: Seduction in Andalusian Flamenco; VIII: How can the Brown, Female, Subaltern Feminist Speak?; VIII: Sorceress, Imperial Concubine and Dancing Girl

    Biography

    Sharon E. Friedler, Susan B. Glazer

    "A sweeping account of the field of dance from the perspective of women...provides an interesting and eclectic look at how women create, teach, direct, perform, and write about dance...Well researched and documented, and should be of great interest to established dancers as well as newcomers." -- CHOICE
    "Friedler and Glazer's book is a collection of 23 essays that...cover a diverse range of topics including dance education, dance history, and contemporary practice...A relatively conservative, humanist approach to feminist scholarship." -- The Drama Review
    "The book covers a wide range of topics...carefully and thoughtfully edited with well-written prefixes to chapters...What is most refreshing is that the editors give equal status and air space to educators, administrators, and writers as they do to dancers and choreographers...Pertinent to all involved in dance and gender issues." -- New Theatre Quarterly