Editorial Reviews
Book Description
An insider explores the transformation of ballroom dance into an Olympic sport.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From the Back Cover
Drawing on recent media portrayals and her own experience, author and dancer Caroline Joan S. Picart explores ballroom dancing and its more "sporty" equivalent, DanceSport, suggesting that they are reflective of larger social, political, and cultural tensions. The past several years have seen a resurgence in the popularity of ballroom dance as well as an increasing international anxiety over how and whether to transform ballroom into an Olympic sport. Writing as a participant-critic, Picart suggests that both are crucial sites where bodies are packaged as racialized, sexualized, nationalized, and classed objects. In addition, Picart argues, as the choreography, costuming, and genre of ballroom and DanceSport continue to evolve, these theatrical productions are aestheticized and constructed to encourage commercial appeal, using the narrative frame of the competitive melodrama to heighten audience interest.
"I began this book with but a cursory understanding of ballroom dance and a strong understanding of things rhetorical; I ended it with a deep appreciation of the art of ballroom dancing and admiration for the author’s deployment of contemporary critical theory." — David Frank, University of Oregon
"This book on the politics, aesthetics, and cultural underpinnings of ballroom dancing and DanceSport is written by someone who participates in both, and this lends an immediacy and authority to the author. Picart is able to provide a very thoughtful and subtle analysis of how society positions itself on the transformation of an art form into a sport." — Adrian Del Caro, University of Colorado
"Exceptional, remarkable, unique, very well researched, and comprehensible! Picart’s book, From Ballroom to DanceSport, examines the increasing popularity of ballroom and cabaret dancing and the myriad of issues and forces involved internationally in the quest (and debate) for inclusion in the Olympics as dancesport. This book is a ‘must’ read for all students of dance, amateur and professional dancers, those involved in dance media, dance organizations, and all who enjoy social dancing." — Jessie Lovano-Kerr, Florida State University
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Ballroom To Dancesport: Aesthetics, Athletics, And Body Culture (Suny Series in Sport, Culture, and Social Relations; Suny Series in Communication Studies)
From Ballroom To Dancesport: Aesthetics, Athletics, And Body Culture (Suny Series in Sport, Culture, and Social Relations; Suny Series in Communication Studies),Caroline Joan Picart,State University of New York Press,0791466302,Ballroom dancing,Dance,Dance - Ballroom,Dance - General,Gender Studies,Olympics,Performing Arts,Popular Culture - General,Popular culture,Social aspects
Books:
Books