The Bloomsbury companion to dance studies /

Dodds's collection is intended as a guide for students and scholars seeking creative and critical inspiration. Dodds (Temple Univ.) has assembled 14 core essays, all by academics and practitioners, offering diverse and wide-ranging viewpoints on topical ideas about the nature, history, and practice of dance. The first two essays set the scene: Dodds provides a valuable introduction breaking down the varied challenges contemporary dance studies face, and Rachel Fensham follows Dodds with a penetrating exploration of research methods in dance. The 14 main essays, some accompanied by illustrations, focus on clearly defined aspects of dance studies. The contributors look at such topics as how science, philosophy, politics, and history relate to dance; problems in dance pedagogy; ethnography; digital concerns dance scholars face; "screendance"; dance as identity; and so on. Mark Franko provides a thorough survey of new directions in dance studies, and the volume concludes with a useful A-to-Z glossary of major concepts in dance studies and a thorough annotated bibliography for the entire volume. Those intending to teach or write about dance will find this volume of particular interest; those seeking a serious introduction to dance studies will find the collection to be an effective resource. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --James Fisher, University of North Carolina at Greensboro