Corporealities

A ground-breaking collection of essays that bring dance into the cultural studies mainstream, exploring the many ways we use our bodies as substantial, vital constituents of cultural reality.Corporealities refuses to let bodies be seen as merely vehicles for the expression of something else. This collection of essays explores the study of bodily reality - not as a natural or given, but as a substantial, vital constituent of cultural experience. Contributors look at bodies engaged in...
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A ground-breaking collection of essays that bring dance into the cultural studies mainstream, exploring the many ways we use our bodies as substantial, vital constituents of cultural reality.Corporealities refuses to let bodies be seen as merely vehicles for the expression of something else. This collection of essays explores the study of bodily reality - not as a natural or given, but as a substantial, vital constituent of cultural experience. Contributors look at bodies engaged in practices as varied as pageantry, physical education, festivals and exhibitions, tourism, and social and theatrical dance. They succeed in bringing these bodies to life with all the political, gendered, racial and aesthetic resonances of which bodily motion is capable.Dance is used in this volume as a theoretical framework to assist the reader in understanding the body's permanent transience, and in the task of transposing movement into words; choreography into theory.Corporealities is an important and exciting development in dance studies. As a bridge to other disciplines that have neglected dance for too long, it demands to be read by all who have an interest in cultural studies, gender or performance.