ARTD 250 Performing the Political Body (BMC)

Wars in this century are radically different from the major conflicts of the 20th century--more amorphous, asymmetrical, globally connected, and unending. Choreographies of 21st Century Wars is the first book to analyze the interface between choreography and wars in this century, a pertinent inquiry since choreography has long been linked to war and military training.

Focuses on the body, merging the project of writing about the body with theoretical concerns in the writing of history. This work examines how bodies are historicized and presented as political, aesthetic, and physical entities, and demonstrates how the very structure of knowledge is affected by a sustained inquiry into the category of body.

'Embodied Politics' reveals new perspectives of dance in four case studies that centre on social issues and identity politics in the USA and Britain. Counter-hegemonic and celebratory activities that shape the dance ecologies of their time and place are analysed, revealing intriguing points of connection and divergence between the two nations.

The countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean-- Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria--have undergone major turmoil in recent years, with civil war, occupation and uprising. Women, Dance and Revolution offers a highly original perspective on the political and cultural tensions through the experiences of contemporary dance practitioners from the region. It shows how these women--all established performers, choreographers and teachers--have responded to the changes brought about by the troubles.

The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Ethnicity brings together scholars from across the globe in an investigation of what it means to define oneself in an ethnic category and how this category is performed and represented by dance as an ethnicity. Newly-commissioned for the volume, the chapters of the book place a reflective lens on dance and its context to examine the role of dance as performed embodiment of the historical moments and associated lived identities.