Glamour Addiction: Inside the American Ballroom Dance Industry [Hardcover]

Juliet McMains (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 2006

In the wake of the blockbuster television success of "Dancing with the Stars," competitive ballroom dance has become a subject of new fascination--and renewed scrutiny. Known by its practitioners as DanceSport, ballroom is a significant dance form and a fascinating cultural phenomenon. In this first in-depth study of the sport, dancer and dance historian Juliet McMains explores the "Glamour Machine" that drives the thriving industry, delving into both the pleasures and perils of its seductions. She further explores the broader social issues invoked in American DanceSport: representation of "Latin," economics that often foster inequality, and issues of identity, including gender, race, class, and sexuality.

Putting ballroom dance in the larger contexts of culture and history, Glamour Addiction makes an important contribution to dance studies, while giving new and veteran enthusiasts a unique and unprecedented glimpse behind the scenes.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The only book I know that explores the contemporary practice of ballroom dancing and its professional manifestation, DanceSport. It is a significant contribution to the literature in dance studies and gender and sexuality studies." (Ann Dils, associate professor, Department of Dance, University of North Carolina, Greensboro )

About the Author

JULIET MCMAINS is the director of Dance Addiction, an independent ballroom dance studio in Orlando. She is associate faculty at the University of Central Florida, and has taught at Florida State University. As a DanceSport competitor, she has twice been a U.S. National Rising Star finalist and has won professional competitions in the U.S. and Canada.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 268 pages
• Publisher: Wesleyan; First Edition edition (November 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819567744
• ISBN-13: 978-0819567741
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Dance > Popular

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thought Provoking Book, July 2, 2008

By 

M. Perdue (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Glamour Addiction: Inside the American Ballroom Dance Industry (Hardcover)

I disagreed with some of the author's ideas, but I'm giving the book five stars anyway, because I enjoyed how thought-provoking it was. The part that I disagreed with particularly was in how much dance is an addiction. It's true, we dancers spend a lot of money and a lot of time on our hobby. In my case, if I have spare time and spare money, it's going into dance lessons and costumes. But I have a friend who is a golfer, and his spare time and money goes into golfing. Same with my bridge-playing friend, who travels to tournaments all over the world. And how about my mathematician friend who loves numbers so much that he went deeply into debt to get a PhD in mathematics? Today he loves his numbers so much that if it were a question of a hot date or an evening with his equations, I think the hot date would win out, but I can't be sure. Are these people addicted? Or is it more simply that in a capitalist economy, people have more spare time and more spare money than ever before, and they're going to spend these resources in the ways that give them the most pleasure?

Anyway, I loved the book. It was thought-provoking as well as full of new information.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, April 14, 2008

By 

G. Ross - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Glamour Addiction: Inside the American Ballroom Dance Industry (Hardcover)

This was a great very current book. It had in it current dancers from "Dancing with the Stars" that has everyone now interested in ballroom dancing. It was great to konw the history and the current goings on in ball room

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!, January 26, 2007

By 

Jane Harrison (Seattle WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Glamour Addiction: Inside the American Ballroom Dance Industry (Hardcover)

While this book is academic and a bit slow at times, I found it to be overall a very worthwhile read. As someone who was briefly a ballroom dancer, I found McMains book to be deliciously insightful. As she describes it, the DanceSport industry is kept alive by the allure of Glamour. Professionals and amateurs alike are drawn to the high-class glamorous ideal that ballroom portrays, and rather than fulfilling their desires, the industry just creates the need to invest more time, money, and energy to the pursuit. The DanceSport system seems to succeed not by making people happier, but rather by emotionally manipulating them and promising that fulfillment and happiness are waiting for them at just the next step (after taking one more class, one more private lesson, one more competition). In telling this story she describes the mix of people drawn to DanceSport and the challenges and exploitative situations they are faced with. She also gives a fascinating history of social dancing, and how it was slowly and often intentionally modified to fit the needs of a competition based industry (when reading the table of contents I assumed this chapter would be one of the dullest, but it ended up being one of the best). McMains also investigates the portrayal of "Latinness" in DanceSport, and convincingly argues that performances are racially charged and in many ways a form of "brownface." She also examines the portrayal of gender and heterosexual courtship, and wonders why such rigid roles are assumed to be an inherent and unchangeable part of the sport. But the book is not merely a laundry list of grievances against the ballroom dance industry. McMains is sensitive to multiple sides of each issue, and it is clear that despite everything, she loves ballroom dance (she was a competitor herself) and has faith in its good qualities. It was a very rewarding read.