Customer Reviews

Adversaries of Dance: From the Puritans to the Present

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a particularly well-researched and comprehensive examination of opposition to dancing, especially by religious leaders and theologians, since before the Puritans. My background is in Renaissance dance, so I can't attest to the book's accuracy regarding the later periods, but the initial chapters on early antidance views are excellent. Sometimes Wagner fails to distinguish between Puritan and more mainstream Protestant reformers, but otherwise she provides an impressively thorough overview of antidance treatises and their arguments. This book is also pioneering in its scope; it examines common themes shared by antidance writers over four centuries and on two continents, and demonstrates how many later dance opponents borrowed heavily from their antidance predecessors.

Despite what another reviewer said, this book is not about
a woman and her dog. It tells who the people are who
are against dancing. It documents how fiercely opposed they
were up to the early part of the 20th century, but unfortunately
says little about later in the 20th century. I suspect the
reviewer who said it was about a woman and her dog did not
want you to read the book. Perhaps the reviewer was one of
the people the book is about.

I found this book quite profound, yet mysterious and confusing. Perhaps my knowledge of classical dance is a bit outdated, but I was in Cats. I would have liked more pictures. Despite all of these things I was enlightened by this cryptic tale of a woman and her dog.