Dancing Women: Female Bodies Onstage [Paperback]

Sally Banes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 20, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0415111625 | ISBN-13: 978-0415111621

Dancing Women: Female Bodies Onstage is a spectacular and timely contribution to dance history, recasting canonical dance since the early nineteenth century in terms of a feminist perspective. Setting the creation of specific dances in socio-political and cultural contexts, Sally Banes shows that choreographers have created representations of women that are shaped by - and that in part shape - society's continuing debates about sexuality and female identity.
Broad in its scope and compelling in its argument Dancing Women:
* provides a series of re-readings of the canon, from Romantic and Russian Imperial ballet to contemporary ballet and modern dance
* investigates the gaps between plot and performance that create sexual and gendered meanings
* examines how women's agency is created in dance through aspects of choreographic structure and style
* analyzes a range of women's images - including brides, mistresses, mothers, sisters, witches, wraiths, enchanted princesses, peasants, revolutionaries, cowgirls, scientists, and athletes - as well as the creation of various women's communities on the dance stage
* suggests approaches to issues of gender in postmodern dance
Using an interpretive strategy different from that of other feminist dance historians, who have stressed either victimization or celebration of women, Banes finds a much more complex range of cultural representations of gender identities.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this thoughtful and thought-provoking work, dance critic and historian Banes (Terpsichore in Sneakers: Post-Modern Dance, LJ 12/1/79) surveys the canon of Western dance through a feminist lens, arguing that "choreographers have created images of women that are shaped byAand that in part shapeAsociety's continuing debate about sexuality and female identity." According to Banes, "through dance, men's attitudes toward women and women's attitudes about themselves are literally given body on stage." Some 13 ballets and ten modern dance works are described in choreographic detail and analyzed in sociological terms. The time period covered extends from the mid- and late 19th through the middle decades of the 20th century. Accented with photographs of key moments and movements, this study will be a welcome addition to performing arts and women's history collections.ACarolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Banes, an internationally known dance historian and critic, has written an extraordinary, fresh interpretation of dance history from a feminist perspective. . . . [S]he suggests new ways of seeing the female dancer. . . . Banes supports her work with in-depth, well-documented evidence, but she retains a reader-friendly style. An excellent addition to collections serving upper-division undergraduates through professionals, this book will have an audience that extends beyond scholars of dance.
–Choice, November 1998

Banes...grounds her sophisticated critical reflections in the material realities of dance production, performance, and audience reception. In the process, she offers what is a rarity in any field: an inquiry that sustains itself over the course of an eminently readable book.
–Interchange, 1998

Is the sort of narrative that draws one on in fascinated pursuit of the author's guiding thread as it snakes through more than a century of dance performance...Banes' is the sort of book that makes me want to sit down with the author and argue a bit, I disagree with this, find that misleading, note an error here, want to pursue a question there. In other words, it's provocative. And a remarkable achievement.
–Village Voice

After Banes, ballerina brides and modern dance witches will never seem the same. Neither victim nor vamp but a little of everything in between, the mainstream dancing woman, thanks to Banes, recovers some of a real woman's complexity.
–Cathryn Harding, The Isthmus

...and impressive attempt to recast western dance history since the early 19th century from a feminist perspective, Banes's assiduously researched and often imaginative text is aimed primarily at fellow academics and dance practitioners, but even the uninitiated, who only occasionally attend a dance performance, may find the book entertaining and intellectually stimulating.
–Montreal Gazette

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (February 20, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415111625
• ISBN-13: 978-0415111621
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #962,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #93 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Dance > Modern

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Women Breaking Barriers, October 21, 2000

By 

Lynda Ruffner (Boulder, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing Women: Female Bodies Onstage (Paperback)

Dancing Women: Female Bodies on Stage is an exceptional creation that explores women in dance. Banes gives in-depth historical and social reference for the dances in this book. This context allows the reader to more fully understand the characters on stage and the women off stage. She shows us the significance of the ever-changing "marriage plot" and how it affected choreography and influenced women to break through the social barriers in their lives. It is very educational and inspiring to read about women changing the course of art in Europe and America during the 19th and 20th centuries. I recommend Dancing Women: Female Bodies on Stage to anyone interested in dance history and the woman's rising power in the arts.