Helen Thomas 
Dance, Gender and Culture 

‘…full credit to Thomas and Macmillan for embarking on such a worthwhile venture – Dance Research I have already found the Thomas edition of enormous value in teaching both undergraduates and postgraduates, from the perspectives of dance anthropology, ethnography and theatre dance analysis – Theresa Buckland, Department of Dance Studies, University of Surrey This unique collection of papers, written specially for this volume, explores the aspects of the ways in which dance and gender intersect in a variety of cultural contexts, from social and disco dance to performance dance, to the Hollywood musical and dances from different cultures. The contributors come from a broad range of disciplines, such as cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, dance studies, film studies, and journalism. They bring to the book a wide body of ideas and approaches, including feminism, psychoanalysis, ethnography and subcultural theory. List of Plates – Preface to the 1995 Reprint – Notes on the Contributors – Introduction – PART 1: CULTURAL STUDIES – Dance, Gender and Culture; T.Polhumus – Dancing in the Dark: Rationalism and the Neglect of Social Dance; A.Ward – Ballet, Gender and Cultural Power; C.J.Novack – ‘I Seem to Find the Happiness I Seek’: Heterosexuality and Dance in the Musical; R.Dyer – PART 2: ETHNOGRAPHY – An-Other Voice: Young Women Dancing and Talking; H.Thomas – Gender Interchangeability among the Tiwi; A.Grau – ‘Saturday Night Fever’: An Ethnography of Disco Dancing; D.Walsh – Classical Indian Dance and Women’s Status; J.L.Hanna – PART 3: THEORY/CRITICISM – Dance, Feminism and the Critique of the Visual; R.Copeland – ‘You put your left foot in, then you shake it all about …’: Excursions and Incursions into Feminism and Bausch’s Tanztheater; A.Sanchez-Colberg – ‘She might pirouette on a daisy and it would not bend’: Images of Femininity and Dance Appreciation; L-A.Sayers – Still Dancing Downwards and Talking Back; Z.Oyortey – The Anxiety of Dance Performance; V.Rimmer – Index