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Dance, Gender and Culture Helen Thomas (editor) London: Macmillan Press, 1993, ££40; Women & Performance. A Journal of Feminist Theory. The Body as Discourse Edited by Marianne Goldberg. Volume 3, number 2, 1987/88. Published by Women & Performance, Inc., New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Performance Studies

Dance, Gender and Culture Helen Thomas (editor) London: Macmillan Press, 1993, ££40; Women &... AND CULTURE DANCE,GENDER Helen Thomas (editor) London: MacmillanPress, 1993,?40 & WOMEN PERFORMANCE. 0UURNAL A OFFEMINISTTHEOR_ THE BOD AS DISCOURSE Edited by MarianneGoldberg.Volume 3, number 2, 1987/88. Publishedby Women & Performance, Inc., New York University,Tisch School of the Arts, Studies Departmentof Performance Recent Western performanceand scholarshiphave increasingly addressed the idea of the body and of gender as socially constructed.This criticalinterrogation centredon the recognihas tion, and thus deconstruction,of identifiableimages and ways of moving. These previouslyunquestioned reproductionsof movement materialand syntax have often been subsumed under the seductive legitimizationsof Nature and Tradition. In late twentieth centuryWesternthought, however,the 'natural'and 'traditional'havethemselvesbeen revealedas culturalconstructs. These two edited collectionsof essaysdemonstratethat numerousartists and scholarshave become alert to implicit gender representation in dancing and both make important contributions to that growingdebate. One text is an American journal, primarily concerned with feminist perspectiveson performance,and the other is a British edited collection of essays which ranges across a number of theoretical orientations. What is so heartening is that both examine tacit assumptionsof gender representation a number in of dance genres and include non-Westernforms.Ballet and contemporarydance take their place alongside, ratherthan above, other systems of culturallyencoded human movement. In both texts,they are treatedas cultureratherthan Culture(see Williams, 1983:87-93). Helen Thomas in her http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Dance Research Edinburgh University Press

Dance, Gender and Culture Helen Thomas (editor) London: Macmillan Press, 1993, ££40; Women & Performance. A Journal of Feminist Theory. The Body as Discourse Edited by Marianne Goldberg. Volume 3, number 2, 1987/88. Published by Women & Performance, Inc., New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Performance Studies

Buckland, Theresa
Dance Research , Volume 12 (1): 60 – Apr 1, 1994
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
©© 1994 Society for Dance Research
Subject
Book Reviews
ISSN
0264-2875
eISSN
1750-0095
DOI
10.2307/1290711
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AND CULTURE DANCE,GENDER Helen Thomas (editor) London: MacmillanPress, 1993,?40 & WOMEN PERFORMANCE. 0UURNAL A OFFEMINISTTHEOR_ THE BOD AS DISCOURSE Edited by MarianneGoldberg.Volume 3, number 2, 1987/88. Publishedby Women & Performance, Inc., New York University,Tisch School of the Arts, Studies Departmentof Performance Recent Western performanceand scholarshiphave increasingly addressed the idea of the body and of gender as socially constructed.This criticalinterrogation centredon the recognihas tion, and thus deconstruction,of identifiableimages and ways of moving. These previouslyunquestioned reproductionsof movement materialand syntax have often been subsumed under the seductive legitimizationsof Nature and Tradition. In late twentieth centuryWesternthought, however,the 'natural'and 'traditional'havethemselvesbeen revealedas culturalconstructs. These two edited collectionsof essaysdemonstratethat numerousartists and scholarshave become alert to implicit gender representation in dancing and both make important contributions to that growingdebate. One text is an American journal, primarily concerned with feminist perspectiveson performance,and the other is a British edited collection of essays which ranges across a number of theoretical orientations. What is so heartening is that both examine tacit assumptionsof gender representation a number in of dance genres and include non-Westernforms.Ballet and contemporarydance take their place alongside, ratherthan above, other systems of culturallyencoded human movement. In both texts,they are treatedas cultureratherthan Culture(see Williams, 1983:87-93). Helen Thomas in her

Journal

Dance Research – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Apr 1, 1994

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