Engaging Bodies: The Politics and Poetics of Corporeality - Softcover

Albright, Ann Cooper

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0819574112 ISBN 13: 9780819574114

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 2013

Synopsis

For twenty-five years, Ann Cooper Albright has been exploring the intersection of cultural representation and somatic identity in dance. For Albright, dancing is a physical inquiry, a way of experiencing and participating in the world, and her writing reflects an interdisciplinary approach to seeing and thinking about dance. In her engagement as both a dancer and a scholar, Albright draws on her kinesthetic sensibilities as well as her intellectual knowledge to articulate how movement creates meaning. Throughout Engaging Bodies movement and ideas lean on one another to produce a critical theory anchored in the material reality of dancing bodies. This blend of cultural theory and personal circumstance will be useful and inspiring for emerging scholars and dancers looking for a model of writing about dance that thrives on the interconnectedness of watching and doing, gesture and thought.

About this title

Review

"Throughout the reader encounters Albright's continuing interest in the intersections of critical and feminist theory and the practical, kinesthetic experiences of the dancing body. The 41 essays (including an afterword) are divided into six sections: 'Performance Writings, ' 'Feminist Theories, ' 'Dancing Histories, ' 'Contact Improvisation, ' 'Pedagogy, ' and 'Occasional Pieces.' ... Brief, accessible pieces and pieces that require deep theoretical grounding are intermingled. Well balanced over all, the book will be useful for young scholar artists and their mentors. Recommended (for) upper-division undergraduates through faculty/professionals."--S.E. Friedler, Choice

"An essential offering from the eminent contemporary theorist of corporeality and feminist studies. Ann Cooper Albright's practice-infused, phenomenologically derived writings explore the largest issues in dance studies today--critical race, disability, gender, philosophy, historiography, activism, and body image. Surprising and compelling at every turn, this outstanding collection confirms the capacities of bodies in motion to matter."--Thomas F. DeFrantz, author of Dancing Revelations

"Engaging Bodies gives us not only insights into major facets of dance scholarship but also into the life of the mind of an important scholar in the field. Albright's journey from college student with no dance experience to distinguished professor is nearly as compelling as the dancers, movements, and theories she analyzes."--Nadine George-Graves, professor of theater and dance, University of California-San Diego

"Throughout the reader encounters Albright's continuing interest in the intersections of critical and feminist theory and the practical, kinesthetic experiences of the dancing body. The 41 essays (including an afterword) are divided into six sections: 'Performance Writings, ' 'Feminist Theories, ' 'Dancing Histories, ' 'Contact Improvisation, ' 'Pedagogy, ' and 'Occasional Pieces.' Brief, accessible pieces and pieces that require deep theoretical grounding are intermingled. Well balanced over all, the book will be useful for young scholar artists and their mentors. Recommended (for) upper-division undergraduates through faculty/professionals."--S.E. Friedler, Choice

"Albright explores the intersection of cultural representation with somatic identity in the dance field, touching on some important issues in dance studies along the way: gender, race, disability, and more are examined through the lens of cultural theory, feminist theory, and personal experience."--Michele Trumble, Dance Chronicle

About the Author

ANN COOPER ALBRIGHT is chair of the dance department at Oberlin College. She is the author of Choreographing Difference, Traces of Light, and Modern Gestures, and coeditor of Moving History/Dancing Cultures and Taken by Surprise.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0819574112
• ISBN 13: 9780819574114
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 408