Book description
Drawing on the postmodern perspective and concerns that informed her
groundbreaking Terpischore in Sneakers, Sally Bane's Writing Dancing
documents the background and development of avant-garde and popular
dance, analyzing individual artists, performances, and entire dance
movements. With a sure grasp of shifting cultural dynamics, Banes shows
how postmodern dance is integrally connected to other oppositional,
often marginalized strands of dance culture, and considers how certain
kinds of dance move from the margins to the mainstream.
Banes begins by considering the act of dance criticism itself, exploring
its modes, methods, and underlying assumptions and examining the work of
other critics. She traces the development of contemporary dance from the
early work of such influential figures as Merce Cunningham and George
Balanchine to such contemporary choreographers as Molissa Fenley, Karole
Armitage, and Michael Clark. She analyzes the contributions of the
Judson Dance Theatre and the Workers' Dance League, the emergence of
Latin postmodern dance in New York, and the impact of black jazz in
Russia. In addition, Banes explores such untraditional performance modes
as breakdancing and the "drunk dancing" of Fred Astaire.
"Banes' lucid assessment is a timely and extremely worthwhile book.
Banes is highly respected as a dance critic, but she is also a
conscientious historian, and it is this side of her that predominates
the book."--Susan Reiter, American Dance Guild Newsletter SALLY
BANES is associate professor of dance history and theater studies at
Cornell University. She graduated from University of Chicago (B. A.
1972) and New York University (Ph. D. 1980) and has taught at Wesleyan
University, the State University of New York at Purchase, Florida State
University, and the New York City School of Visual Arts. Banes has
received Guggenheim, Mellon, and The American Council of Learned
Socities fellowships. She has been editor of Dance Research Journal and
performance art critic for the Village Voice, and she was formerly a
senior critic at Dance Magazine, a contributing editor to Dance Scope
and Performing Arts Journal, and the dance editor of the Chicago Reader
and Soho Weekly News. Her books include Democracy's Body: Judson Dance
Theater 1962-1964; Fresh: Hip Hop Don't Stop, with Nelson George, Susan
Flinker, and Patty Romanowski; Our National Passion: 200 Years of Sex in
America, with Sheldon Frank and Tem Horwitz; Sweet Home Chicago: The
Real City Guide, with Sheldon Frank and Tem Horowitz; and Amazing Grace:
Images in the Avant-Garde Arts of the 1960s, to be published in 1990.
She has edited Footnote to History, by Si-lan Chen Leyda, and Soviet
Choreographers in the 1920s by Elizabeth Souritz. She lives in
Freeville, New York.
