IMAGING DANCE; Visual Representations of Dancers and Dancing

“The scope of this book is wonderful and ambitious. It cuts across the arts in a broad panoramic sweep helping to demonstrate the importance of the theme of dance in the visual arts, and the diverse ways different artists and cultures drew upon the form and content of a sister art form. It contains an enormous amount of new scholarly material that is simply unavailable elsewhere, and is written with great passion and care.” Katherine Manthorne, Professor of Art History, Graduate Center, City University of New York. What do artists who choose dance as their subject tell us―or not tell us―about dancers and dancing? Spanning the globe from eastern and western Europe to Turkey, Korea, Polynesia, and the United States, Imaging Dance brings together the work of thirteen dance and art scholars who interpret images of dance and dancing. The images date from the sixth century AD to the present, and include paintings, drawings, lithographs, etchings, wood-block prints, stone carvings, and photographs. Each chapter enhances appreciation of artistic renderings and contributes to understanding how people see and envision what they see. Through these engaging and richly illustrated accounts, scholars, students, and general readers will find information about contexts and settings in which dance occurs, socio-cultural attitudes towards dance and dancing, artistic techniques and conventions, religious and political philosophies, rituals, repertoire, and details of movement. Readers interested in the performing and visual arts through a variety of perspectives―from art, dance, history, dance ethnology, and anthropology―will find Imaging Dance a welcome addition to their libraries. Content: Part I. Artists’ Conceptions of Dance and Movement 1. When Is a Circle Dance Simply a Circle of Dancers? Matisse and the Sardana (NANCY G. HELLER) 2. Do Artists’ Renderings Reveal or Conceal? Images of Dance in Korea (JUDY VAN ZILE) Part II. Images of Dance as Historical Records 3. In Search of Continuity: Tombstones and Dance in the Dubrovnik Area (ELSIE IVANCICH DUNIN) 4. Performance, Iconography, and Narrative in Ottoman Imperial Festivals (ARZU ÖZTÜRKMEN) 5. The Hands and Arms Tell the Story: Move-ment through Time in Eighteenth-Century Dance Depictions from Polynesia (ADRIENNE L. KAEPPLER) 6. Self-portraits: John Durang on Stage in Early Philadelphia (LYNN MATLUCK BROOKS) 7. In the Dance Classroom with Edgar Degas: Historical Perspectives on Ballet Technique (SANDRA NOLL HAMMOND) Part III. Politics, Class, and Society in Images of Dance 8. Chastisement and Celebration: Dance in Papal Bologna in the Etchings of G. M. Mitelli (1634–1718) (BARBARA SPARTI) 9. Picturing Hungarian Patriotism: The Bikkessy Album (LÁSZLÓ FELFÖLDI) 10. The Dance of Zalongos: An Invented Tradition on Canvas (IRENE LOUTZAKI) 11. George Luks and ‘Tough Dancing’ on New York’s Lower East Side (ELLERY FOUTCH) 12. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Dance Images and Dance in Early Twentieth-Century Germany (SHELLEY WOOD CORDULACK) Part IV. Motion in Stillness 13. Still Moving: The Revelation or Representation of Dance in Still Photography (MATTHEW REASON) *** Was teilen uns Künstler, die Tanz als Thema wählen, über Tänzer und das Tanzen mit – und was nicht? Den Globus überspannend von Ost- und Westeuropa bis hin zur Türkei, Korea, Polynesien und den USA, vereint Imaging Dance die Arbeit von dreizehn Tanz- und Kunstwissenschaftlern, die Abbildungen von Tanz und Tanzen interpretieren. Die Abbildungen reichen vom 6. Jhd. bis zur Gegenwart und beinhalten Malereien, Zeichnungen, Lithographien, Kupferstiche, Holzdrucke, Steinritzungen und Fotografien. Jedes Kapitel fördert die Beurteilung des künstlerischen Schaffens und leistet einen Beitrag zum Verständnis, wie Menschen sehen und wie sie visualisieren, was sie sehen. Durch diese engagierten und reich illustrierten Darstellungen werden Wissenschaftler, Studenten und interessierte Leser über Kontexte, in denen Tanz auftritt, informiert und lernen soziokulturelle Einstellungen gegenüber Tanz und Tanzen, künstlerische Techniken und Konventionen, religiöse und politische Weltanschauungen, Rituale, Repertoire und Details von Bewegungen kennen.