I just finished reading this eye-opening book, and I had planned to write a review. As I begin to write, I realize there is more I want to say than simply to review an excellent book. In this blog I will point why this work was very much needed and how Dr. McPherson developed the collection. I’ll include a brief overview of the book. In my next blog, I will explore my reaction as a retired dancer/choreographer/artistic director, and note particular chapters that were important in helping me to better understand both the times during which I was very active in the dance world, and where things have evolved to now.
Let me begin by saying I have a friendship with Elizabeth McPherson, so as I continue this blog I will be referring to her as Elizabeth. Elizabeth performed for 8 years in the company that I directed. We have continued to stay in touch since then. I have written articles for the quarterly Dance Education in Practicewhich she edits. We presented a workshop on Helen Tamiris at the 2018 Jews and Jewishness in the Dance World conference. Recently she visited me in Costa Rica, spending time working on a biography of Helen Tamiris.
Milestones in Dance in the USA was one of two books that received the 2023 Ruth Lovell Murray award from the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO). In recognizing the book, the organization provided the following description:
Designed for weekly use in dance history courses, it traces dance in the USA as it broke traditional forms, crossed genres, provoked social and political change, and drove cultural exchange and collision. The authors put a particular focus on those whose voices have been silenced, unacknowledged, and/or uncredited – exploring racial prejudice and injustice, intersectional feminism, protest movements, and economic conditions, as well as demonstrating how socio-political issues and movements affect and are affected by dance. https://www.ndeo.org/Membership/Awards/Ruth-Lovell-Murray-Book-Award
In a blog that Elizabeth wrote for NDEO in February, she describes her extensive background in taking and teaching dance history courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. She points out that most of the focus in such courses has been on showing how US dance has grown out of Western European aesthetics, and as a result, “many important and influential voices in dance have been less acknowledged and sometimes even silenced.” Her current dance history course seeks to highlight these voices.
Link to full blog: https://www.ndeo.org/Latest-News/View/ArticleId/11688/New-Blog-Post-Reframing-a-College-Dance-History-Course-to-Dance-in-the-USA
In this same blog, Elizabeth describes how she was approached to be the editor of the book:
In the summer of 2020, after doing a peer review of a book for Taylor and Francis-Routledge, I was contacted by the publisher to gauge my interest in creating a textbook on the history of American Dance. Routledge was developing a Milestones series. Each book would be an edited collection of ten essays on various topics related to the overall theme.
Drawing on her new approach to teaching dance history, Elizabeth selected ten authors who matched the new focus of her dance history course. The diverse authors were all very qualified to write on their specific subjects.
There is no better way to share the depth of the book and the authors than to list the ten chapters:
- “Native American Dance and Engage Resistance” by Robin Prichard
- “An American Take on Ballet” by Dawn Lille
- “Black Women Keep the Tempo: The Impact of Black Women on Jazz and Tap Dance in the USA” by Alesondra Christman
- “Gendered Politics and the Female Dancing Body” by Julie Kerr-Berry
- “An Exploration of Inspiration, Imitation, and Cultural Appropriation in Dance in the USA” by Miriam Giguere
- “Dancing for Social Change in the 20th and 21st Centuries” by Hannah Kosstrin
- “Challenging the Distinction between Art and Entertainment: Dance in Musical Theater” by Joanna Dee Das
- “Postmodern Dance: Laboratory of Rupture” by Emmanuele Phuon
- “On Black Dance and Postmodern Representation from Black Power to Afro-Futurist Performance” by Carl Paris
- “From The Serpentine to The Renegade: Milestones in Dance and Media Technology” by Jody Sperling.
I found each chapter fascinating, well researched and filled with new insights into the world of dance in the United States. One of the outstanding features of the book is the Further Reading List that each author gives at the end of their chapter. The materials include books, films, and Internet resources. Following that are the specific References that relate to the chapter. If one’s curiosity is peaked, there are lots of options for getting more information.
The Appendix of the book provides useful information for the reader. This includes a detailed Timeline of US history and dance in the US, a Glossary, and a Further Reading List which has sections for Books, Films and Videos, Internet Resources, Articles, Exhibits, and Journals.
Elizabeth has edited an outstanding book, not only as a textbook for dance history courses but also as an excellent resource in any college/university library for humanities courses. I highly recommend Milestones in Dance in the USA to any reader interested in getting a diverse perspective of the range of dance activities in the US. I learned a lot and in the next blog will share some of the information I found particularly fascinating.
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