Geographies of Dance

Adam M. Pine is assistant professor of geography and Director of the Urban and Regional Studies program at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Olaf Kuhlke is associate professor of geography and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

The first of two proposed volumes edited by Pine and Kuhlke, this collection explores how space and place, identity and cultural diversity create embodied dance as individuals and groups negotiate the complexities of modern life. Chapter topics illustrate that people in the varied environments and sites find meaning and community through dance in different ways than one usually employs when viewing and writing about dance and dancers. Included are essays on Israeli-Jewish women's interest in belly dancing as a way to connect physicality with feminine emotions; the experiences of exotic dancers in popular strip clubs in a large city where neighborhood placement conflicts affect their ability to make a living; the evolution of jazz in Capetown, South Africa, from the 1940s swing styles and jazz era to the more current influences of hip-hop, tango, and salsa; and the work of four Toronto choreographers trained in Bharata Natyam Indian dance as they incorporate more contemporary forms to expand their cultural identities. This interdisciplinary collection offers a unique perspective on the broad role of dance in global cultures. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

• Introduction Olaf Kuhlke and Adam PineChapter 1: Modernity, Post-modernity and the Paradigmatic Mudra: Corporeal Negotiations in the Works of Toronto's Contemporary Bharatanatyam ChoreographersParomita KarChapter 2: Neighboring in Strip City: Local Conflict and Spaces of Exotic Dance in Portland, OregonMoriah McSharry McGrathChapter 3: One Foot Inside the Circle: Contemporary Dance of Los Angeles Steps Outside Postmodernism and into Neo-Modernism-with-a-TwistTeresa HeilandChapter 4: Some Dance to Remember: The Emotional Politics of Marginality, Reinvention, Embodied Memory, and All that (Cape) Jazz Tamara M. JohnsonChapter 5: Social Dance as Social SpaceJonathan SkinnerChapter 6: Mediating the Other through Dance: Geopolitics, Social Ordering, and Meaning-Making in American and Improvisational Tribal Style DanceGeorgia ConnoverChapter 7: Mimetic Moves: Dance and Learning to Learn in Northwest AlaskaMatthew KurtzChapter 8: Dance, Architecture and Space in the MakingFrances BronetChapter 9: At Home in Motion: Networks, Nodes, and Navigation: The Varied Flight Paths of Bird Brain DanceKatrinka Somdahl-SandsChapter 10:Belly Dancing in Israel: Body, Embodiment, Religion and NationalityTovi FensteConclusionAdam Pine and Olaf Kuhlke