This book critically examines matters of age and aging in relation to dance. As a novel collection of diverse authors’ voices, this edited book traverses the human lifespan from early childhood to death as it negotiates a breadth of dance experiences and contexts. The conversations ignited within each chapter invite readers to interrogate current disciplinary attitudes and dominant assumptions and serve as catalysts for changing and evolving long entrenched views among dancers regarding matters of age and aging.
The text is organized in three sections, each representing a specific context within which dance exists. Section titles include educational contexts, social and cultural contexts, and artistic contexts. Within these broad categories, each contributor’s milieu of lived experiences illuminate age-related factors and their many intersections. While several contributing authors address and problematize the phenomenon of aging in mid-life and beyond, other authors tackle important issues that impact young dancers and dance professionals.
Author(s): Pam Musil, Doug Risner, Karen Schupp
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 281
City: Cham
Foreword
Contents
Editors and Contributors
About the Editors
Contributors
List of Figures
Introduction
Educational Contexts
A Letter Re-Membering Ballet Class: My Young Black Self Writes Her White Ballet Teacher
Beginning Ballet
The Dance Boom
Ballet and Respectability Politics
Intermediate Ballet
A Black White Dancer
Black Girls Don’t Have Eating Disorders
Reverence
References
The Youngest Dancers and the Curricula that Engage Them
The Youngest Dancers
Considering Curricula for the Youngest Dancers
Movement
Creative Play
Relationship
Closing Call
References
Empowering Young Male Dancers: Perspectives of Adult-Collaborators from the Outside-In
Empowerment and Dancing Masculinities
Methodology
Stories of Collaboration
Hamish’s Story
Clare’s Story
Mabingo’s Story
Carol’s Story
Discussion
Mediating Disempowerment
Generating Empowerment
Conclusion
References
When Students Become Teachers
Today Was Dance
Context, Background, and Framing
Methodology
Findings and Analysis
Mentoring Helps Children Create Meaning through Reciprocal Teaching
Poetic Transcription
Implications
Conclusion
References
Aging in Place in Higher Ed Dance: A View from Middle Age
Every Middle (Age) Has Its Beginning
Phase One: Prepare to Move
In-Habiting Body, In-Habiting Age
Phase Two: Start Moving
Dancing Body, Fleeting Body
Phase Three: Dance
Witnessing, Being Witnessed, and Invisibility
Phase Four: Witness
Toward Lifelong Practices of Becoming
References
Social and Cultural Contexts
B-Girl at 50
References
Dancing Un-Visible Bodies
The Landscape
Two Bodies
Three Bodies
Two More Bodies to Consider
Un-Visible Bodies
References
Parenting While Dancing While Parenting
Background
Methodology
Presentation of Data—Parenting Survey
Timing of Parenthood
Employment Demands and Career Progression
Access to Resources
Work-Life Balance: Finding Joy in the Parenting Journey
Concluding Observations
References
Aesthetic Community Building: Moving Stories of Fathers and Sons
Methodology
“We Danced”
Aesthetic Community
Towering Adventures
Session One: “Weehee!”
Session Two: “I Put My Hands on My Head, Stan in Tower”
Fathering While Dancing
Session Four: “We’ll Be Flying”
Session Five: “Fasten Your Seatbelts”
Shaping the World
Session Six: “It’s a Great Meeting Place for Animals”
Session Seven: “Putting My Map on the Floor with Tape”
Whole-Group Evidence of Aesthetic Community
Plasticity of Group and Individual Style
Child-Led Tower Dancing—Reciprocal, Ritualistic, and Celebratory
Lifting and Being Lifted—Exploration of Verticality and Weight
What Might Aesthetic Community Contribute to Masculinity?
References
Dance Me to the End with Love: A Duet with Neuroscience and Dance
Dance Interventions Supporting Older Adults with Motor and Cognitive impairments
Research Study: IMOVE—A Randomized Control Trial Investigating Dance for MCI
IMPROVment—A Movement Practice in Support of Adults Living with ND
Dancing Through Age-Related Challenges: Why Dance and Movement Improvisation?
Multitasking—Cognitive Processes
Multisensory Integration and Timing—Sensory Function
Body Composition and Awareness—Movement Confidence
Dance Me to the End with Love
References
Artistic Contexts
Age Appropriate Ideals in Dance Competition Culture: More! More! More!
Background
Methodology
Findings and Interpretations
Analysis
Closing Thoughts
References
Age as Another Other: Why I Make Intergenerational Dances
Marked and Unmarked Bodies
The Body Tropes
The Classical and Grotesque Bodies
The Universal Body
The Objectified Body
Choreographing Subjectivities
Conclusion
References
Conversations on Change: A Project About Women, Dance, and Aging
Part I: Enmei (Long Life): A Dance and Aging Project
Introduction
Creative Research
Socio-Cultural Context
Artistic Process
Discoveries
Part II: A Dialogue
Do You Think About Your Body Differently Now?
Mary
Eileen
How Has Your Work Changed as You Have Gotten Older?
Eileen
Mary
How Have You Benefited from Getting Older?
Mary
Eileen
Closing Thoughts
References
Narratives on Dancing and Expiring: An “End of Life” Autoethnographic Essay
Critical Autoethnography
Why Critical Ethnography
Narratives of the Self
Pathology
Dancing and Expiring
Death of the Performer-Self
Death of the Technique Teacher-Self
Death of the Choreographer-Self
Recovery and Discovery
Living a Good Death
Leaving the World: Some Questions
References
Index
