Introduction -- 1. Moving beyond boundaries: writing on the body -- 2. 'I dreamed of a different dance': Isadora Duncan's danced revolution -- 3. 'The body says what words cannot': Martha Graham, dance and politics -- 4. 'I want to tell them how I feel and how black people feel': Gumboots dance in South Africa -- 5. Dancing the ruptured body: One Billion Rising, dance and gendered violence -- 6. Dancing human rights -- Conclusions: the dancer of the future dancing radical hope -- Index.

'Since ancient times and across cultures, dance has provided a powerful form of human expression. In this inspiring book, Dana Mills examines the political power of dance from a global perspective. Mills explores different dimensions of dance as a form of intervention into a politics more commonly articulated in words. She is interested in dance as a system of communication that allows its subjects to speak with their bodies and to create embodied spaces, drawing attention to the radically egalitarian nature of dance with its ability to transcend all boundaries of gender, race and sexual politics. The book is structured around a range of cross-cultural and comparative examples, from the work of Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham to gumboot dancers in South Africa and the One Billion Rising movement, which uses dance to protest against gendered violence. Each case study references powerful dance 'moments', providing links to YouTube clips to allow readers to experience dance directly as they read. The case studies are discussed within a conceptual framework drawing on Rancière's concept of 'dissensus' and in the light of recent work on embodied politics by political theorists including Jodi Dean and Jane Bennett. 'Dance and politics' is aimed at a dual audience of political theorists and students and scholars of dance and performance. It will also be of great interest to readers seeking to expand their thinking about politics, embodiment and activism' --Back cover.

This book examines the political power of dance, particularly its transgressive potential. Focusing on readings of dance pioneers Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham, Gumboots dancers in the gold mines of South Africa, the One Billion Rising movement, dabke in Palestine and dance as a protest against human rights abuse in Israel, the book explores moments in which the form succeeds in transgressing politics as articulated in words. Close readings and critical analysis grounded in radical democratic theory combine to show how interpreting political dance as 'interruption' can unsettle conceptions of both politics and dance.

In English.

Open Access EbpS