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American Association of Health, Physical

Education, Recreation, and Dance.

Solomon, R. and J. Solomon, eds. 1995.

"Science and Somatics." Impulse 3/4.

Schon, L. C. and A. F DiStefano. 1999.

"Evaluationand Treatmentof PosteriorTibialis Tendinitis:A Case Report and Treatment
Protocol." Journal of Dance Medicine &
Science 3/1: 24-27.

Solomon, R. and J. Solomon. 1998. Dance

Medicine and Science Bibliography.
Andover, NJ: J. Michael Ryan Publishing,
Inc.

Skrinar,M. 1986. "MotorLearningResearch

May Help the Dancer." In The Dancer as
Athlete, ed. C. G. Shell. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics.

Solomon, R., E, Trepman,and L. J. Micheli.

1989-1990. "Foot Morphology and Injury
Patternsin Ballet and Modem Dancers."Kinesiology and Medicinefor Dance 12?1: 2040.

Skrinar,M. and N. H. Moses. 1988. "Who's

Teaching the Dance Class?" In Science of
Dance Training, eds. P. Clarkson and M.
Skrinar.Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics.

Teitz, C. C. 1990. "Knee Problems in Dancers." In Preventing Dance Injuries, eds. R.

Solomon, S. Minton and J. Solomon. Reston,
VA: American Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance..

Solomon, R., S. Minton, and J.Solomon.

1990. Preventing Dance Injuries: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Reston, VA: American Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.

Welsh, T. M. and S. J. Chatfield. 1997.

"Within-subjectResearch Designs for Dance
Medicine and Science." Journal of Dance
Medicine & Science 1/1: 16-21.

I. Dance Ethnologyand the

Anthropologyof Dance
Choreographers, dancers, and viewers of
dance are socially and historically placed
individuals who operate according to sociocultural conventions and aesthetic systems.
This is also the case with those who study
and write about dance-dance historians,
dance ethnologists, anthropologists. This
essay will focus on dance studies by anthropologists, dance ethnologists, and indigenous scholars and how their interpretations
have been presented as well as how they
have evolved and changed.
Although Western dance and its
music have made inroads into the performing arts of even the most remote corers of
the world, the indigenous dance traditions
of most nations are still alive and well, and
indeed continue to influence dance in the
West. Studies of non-Western dance traditions are usually carried out by anthropologists or dance ethnologists who are likely to
have the backgroundknowledge that would
help them to appreciate and understand

dance and other structured movement systems in the larger scheme of cultural forms.
There are also numerous studies of dance
by indigenous researcherswho work on the
dance traditionsof their own cultures as well
as the dance traditions of others, including
ballet and modern dance. What these researchers have in common is that they feel
that dance is not transparent,giving up its
secrets to the uninitiated,but that it must be
seen as an integralpart of a total way of life.
Unlike most dance in the West, in many other
parts of the world dance is not simply entertainment.
Recent trends in dance studies suggest that the terms "Western dance" and
"non-Western dance" perpetuate false dichotomies and that a focus on who studies
the dances, and their points of view, might
be more appropriate. Some studies result
from turning the anthropological eye upon
"ourselves" while others use insights from
dance history to explore the "other." For

116 Dance Research Journal 32/1 (Summer 2000)

example,SusanFoster'sdancehistorywork Movement analyses from anthropological

is informedby anthropological
theory,while points of view encompass all structured
Novak's
Cynthia
anthropologicalstudies movementsystems, includingthose associwere informedby dance history.The work ated with religious and secularritual, cermartialarts,sign lanof MargaretDrewalin performancestudies emony,entertainment,
is informedby both-as is evidencedby her guages, sports,and games.Whatthese sysworkon Africandanceand her studyof the tems shareis that they resultfrom creative
Rockettes.JoannKeali'inohomokualso has processesthat manipulate(i.e., handlewith
writtenon Hopi danceand ballet as an eth- skill)humanbodiesin time andspace.Some
nic dance,whileAnyaRoyce,a balletdancer, categoriesof structuredmovementmay be
has written a general book on the anthro- furthermarkedor elaborated,for example,
pology of dance. My own work invokes a by being integrally related to "music"(a
variety of disciplines in my studies of specially markedor elaboratedcategoryof
Polynesiandance-for example,in compar- "structuredsound"),and text.
Analysesthatwouldmakeit possible
ing Polynesiantraditionswith the Broadway
musical Cats to raise questionsabouthow to separatemovementsystems conceptualpoetic and movementidioms are conveyed ized as "dance"and "non-dance"accordand understood in performance, thereby ing to indigenouspoints of view (or even
emphasizingthe necessityof understanding askingif thereare such concepts)have not
the total culturein orderto understandspe- yet been carriedout in many areas. Most
researcherssimplyuse the term"dance"for
cific performances.
researchersagree any and all body movementassociatedwith
Most anthro/ethno
thatit is necessaryto examinehow individu- music, but it should be rememberedthat
als involved in studyingdance learn to in- "dance"is a Westerntermand concept(just
terpretwhatthey see. The notionthatdance as is the term"music").
Structuredmovement systems are
is a "universallanguage"is still too common and is often associatedwith the idea systemsof knowledge-the productsof accan understandbody move- tion and interaction as well as processes
that "outsiders"
ments of others without knowing the cul- throughwhich action and interactiontake
tural movement language. On the other place-and are usually partof a largeracfeel that tivity or activity system. These systems of
hand,manydancersandresearchers
ballet and modern dance are universal knowledgeare socially and culturallyconmovement languages that can (and have structed-created by, known, and agreed
been) adopted"universally."What can we upon by a group of people and primarily
learn from ways in which anthro/ethno/in- preserved in memory. Though transient,
dance, movementsystemshave structuredcontent,
digenousresearchershave interpreted
and
dances,
they can be visual manifestationsof social
dancing?
relations,the subjectsof elaborateaesthetic
Dance as a StructuredMovementSystem systems, and may assist in understanding
Culturalforms that resultfrom the creative culturalvalues andthe deep structureof the
use of humanbodies in time and space are society.Ideal movementstudieswould anaoften glossedas "dance,"but the worditself lyze all activitiesin whichhumanbodiesare
carrieswith it preconceptionsthat maskthe manipulatedin time and space, the social
importanceand usefulnessof analyzingthe processes that producethem accordingto
movementdimensionsof humanactionand the aestheticpreceptsof a specific groupof
interaction.Dance is a multi-facetedphe- people at a specific point in time, and the
nomenonthat includes,in additionto what componentsthat groupor separatethe variwe see and hear,the "invisible"underlying ous movement dimensions and activities
system,the processesthatproduceboth the theyprojectinto kinestheticandvisualform.
system and the product,and the socio-po- Indigenouscategoriescan best define what
litical context.In manysocietiestheretradi- movementsystems,if any,fit these,or other,
tionally were no categoriescomparableto characterizationsand how they should be
the Westernconcept and the word "dance" classified. Discovering the structureand
has been adopted into many languages. contentof structuredmovementsystems,as
Dance Research Journal 32/1 (Summer 2000) 117

well as the creative processes, movement

theories and philosophies from indigenous
points of view are difficult tasks, but they
are necessary for understandingculture and
society.
In order to be understood as dance
some
other special movement category),
(or
movements must be grammatical,they must
be intended as dance and interpreted as
dance. The grammarof a movement idiomlike the grammarof any language-involves
structure,style, and meaning; and one must
learn to recognize the movements that make
up the system, how they can be stylistically
varied, and their syntax (rules about how
they can be put together to form motifs,
phrases, larger forms, and whole pieces).
Competence to understand specific pieces
depends not only on movement itself, but
on knowledge of cultural context and philosophy.

Dance StudAnthropological/Ethnological
ies and their Roots

Cultural and academic differences must be

considered when reading dance studies.
Some Europeantraditionsderived from comparativemusicology and folkloristics,American studies derived primarily from the anthropological views of Franz Boas, while
traditions in other parts of the world derive
from historic written accounts, oral tradition,
and colonial encounters. In recent years,
owing to meetings of the ethnochoreological
study group of the InternationalCouncil for
TraditionalMusic, there is more understanding of this variety of perspectives that has
led to sharing and adoption of each other's
views.
European dance studies often used
comparative methods to derive classifications, local and regional styles, historical
layers, and interculturalinfluences-similar
to the aims of musical folklorists at the time.
There was also a focus on dance structure
that was systematized by a group of Eastern
European scholars under the aegis of the
InternationalFolk Music Council (now the
InternationalCouncil for TraditionalMusic,
ICTM) which published its syllabus in 1974
(Giurchescu and others). Work on structural
analysis is still part of the ICTM
Ethnochoreology Study Group. Recent
books incorporatingstructuraltraditions in-

clude Anca Giurchescu and Sunni Bloland

(1995), Egil Bakka (1995) and Lisbet Torp
(1990).
British traditionsinclude derivations
from folklore (such as Buckland's studies
of Morris dancing) and social anthropology
(such as studies by John Blacking and
Andree Grau [Grau 1993]). Several British
social anthropologists published their dance
perspectives in a book edited by Paul Spencer (1985).
American dance researchers(usually
termed "dance ethnologists" or "anthropologists of human movement") continue to
question what constitutes the field: should
dance studies be primarily about movement
products or should they incorporate more
anthropological notions about process,
event, ethnoaesthetics,and culturalconstructions about structured movement? Unlike
European dance researchers, Americans
have often worked with movement traditions not their own, and their research tends
to be more diffuse and less detailed in movement content.
GertrudeKurath noted that the ethnographic study of dance was "an approach
toward, and a method of, eliciting the place
of dance in human life-in a word, as a
branch of anthropology"(1960:250). Kurath
was drawn into the study of American Indian dance by William Fenton and Frank
Speck to examine dance in areas where they
had already carried out ethnographic research. Recognizing that movement or
"dance" was an importantpart of ritual activity in Indian life, they looked for someone who would be able to describe, analyze,
and make sense of the movements. They had
already done the "context," and Kurath's
task was to assist them in amassing the empirical data they were after-descriptions of
choreographic groundplans, generalized
descriptions of body movement, and statements about cultural symbolism as reflected
in choreographic patterns.
Kurath was a pioneer of empirical,
product-orientedstudies in America, but her
colleagues were in Europe. They included
Curt Sachs, whom she called "the amiable
wizard,"as well as folklorists and musicologists working within their own cultural traditions that focused on systemization, classification, and diffusion. She was also inter-

118 Dance Research Journal 32/1 (Summer 2000)

ested in comparisons,and often drew them "contrastiveanalysis,"were elaboratedas

fromEuropeanfolkdancetraditions,such as ethnotheoriesand ethnoscientificstructurwere
studies made by Danica and Ljubica alism. Movementsand choreographies
Jankovicof South Slav populations.Most analyzedto find underlyingsystems. Sysof Kurath'spublications,however, are de- tems, of course, cannot be observed, but
scriptionsof specific dance occasions,with mustbe derivedfromthe social andcultural
detailed informationon costumes, musical constructionof specific movementworlds.
instruments,ground plans, postures, ges- Existing in memoryand recalledas movetures, and steps, with some analysis, com- ment motifs, as imagery, and as system,
movementsare used to createcompositions
parisons,and context.
FranzBoas was one of the founders thatproducesocial and culturalmeaningin
of anthropologyin the United States; al- performance. Such analyses involve
though he came from a Germanscientific deconstructingthe movementsinto culturtradition,he rejectedmany of the ideas of ally recognizedpieces andlearningthe rules
his homelandand focussedon culturalvari- for constructingcompositionsaccordingto
ability,rejectinguniversallanguagesof art the system. This type of analysishas been
or dance and laying a foundationfor the used primarilyby anthropologists,for expossibility of examiningdance in the con- ample,Kaeppleron the structureof Tongan
text of culturalrelativism.Boas's daughter, dance (1972); IreneLoutzaki,in a study of
Franziska,was a dancerand Boas himself dance style among Greek refugees from
wrotearticlesaboutNorthwestCoastIndian NorthernThrace now resident in Greece
dance (1944). The intellectualdescendants (1989);andFrankHall, in a studyof improof this Boasian traditioncan be followed visationin Americanclog dance(1985).Drid
fromBoas, throughHerskovitsandMerriam Williams,studyingwith Britishanthropoloto JoannKeali'inohomoku
andAnya Royce. gists, adapted concepts from Chomsky,
Merriamwas an importantanthropological Saussure,semiotics,and "semasiology"into
voice in Americanethnomusicologyfrom a methodologyconcernedwith the semanthe 1950s until his death, and his students tics of body languagesin whichthe focus is
were imbuedwith the Boasiandoctrinethat on meaning.The methods of semasiology
dance and music must be consideredin the have been used by Brenda Farnell in her
context of the society of which they are study of Plains Indian "sign language"
parts.The Boasian and Herskovitzianem- (1994) andby RajikaPurito investigatethe
phasison culturalrelativismwas widespread place of hasta mudrain Indiandanceas an
in America and was elaboratedby propo- expressionof Indiansociety (1983).
JudithLynneHannahas workedon
nents of ethnosciencein the 1960s. These
ideas were intermixedwith Malinowski's gender,communication,and emotion, and
concept that our goal should be "to grasp has investigatedthe psychobiologicalbasis
the native'spointof view, his relationto life, of dance, and in what ways humandance
to realizehis vision of his world"(1922:25) differsfrom the so-called"dances"of other
and KennethPike's dictumthat we should animals.ChristineLoken-Kimexploredthe
"attemptto discoverandto describethe pat- social constructionof female genderin Koternof thatparticularlanguageor culturein rea by investigating the representationof
referenceto the way in which the various emotion in dance and the sentimentterms
elementsof that cultureare relatedto each usedby Koreansbothin evaluatingwomen's
other in the functioning of the particular salp'uri dance and in first-personaccounts
pattern"(1954:8).FromPike camethe "etic/ of Koreanwomen'slives (1989). Lois Ibsen
emic"distinction(1954:11)thathas contin- Al Faruqi,workingin variouspartsof the
ued as a theoreticalbasis that informsthe MiddleEast, delineatedaestheticprinciples
dance and examinedhow they were manifestedin
workof manyAmericananthro/ethno
researchers.In addition,ideas about com- variousculturalforms and how they might
petenceand performancederivedfromcon- be appliedto humanmovement.She noted
cepts promulgated by Saussure and thatalthoughdanceis not consideredan art
formin this area,humanmovementsexpress
Chomskyremaincurrent.
Etic/emic distinctions, derived by the same aesthetic evaluative concepts as
Dance Research Journal 32/1 (Summer 2000) 119

other Islamic visual arts such as architec- which they are composed.In addition,her
cross-culturalemphasisand work on dance
ture (1978).
What makes movementstudies an- symbolism(1974) are importantethnologithropological is the focus on system, the cal concerns,which also deal with cultural
importanceof intention,meaning,and cul- identity (1989). Elsie Dunin's extensive
tural evaluation.Anthropologistsare inter- work on Balkan dance, carriedout in the
ested in sociallyconstructedmovementsys- Balkans, California,and Chile, is focused
tems, the activitiesthat generatethem,how on movementsand choreographyand how
andby whomthey arejudged,andhow they thesepersistor changeovertimein theirarea
can assist in understandingsociety. Some of origin and when they are transplanted,
anthropologists,such as Cowan(1990) and plus the eventsin whichthey occurandconSchieffelin(1976)choosenot to get involved cerns with ethnicity and ethnic identity.
in movementdetail, but focus primarilyon Dancing in the diasporahas also been adcontextand meaning.Otheranthropologists dressedby JudyVanZile who has focussed
combinedetailedattentionto the movement on the transplantationof Bon dance tradiitself with the historical,social and cultural tions fromJapanto Hawaii(1982).VanZile
systems in which the movementis embed- has also carriedout researchon historical
ded. Farnell's work on Plains Indian sign aspectsof Koreandancemovementand has
languagefocuses on the movementsof the done extensive work on Labanotationand
signing tradition,the stories told, and the its applicationto non-Westernmovement
culturethey express-all of which can be systems. Colin Quigley, in his work on
accessed by reading her monograph or Newfoundlandtraditionsand NorthAmerithrough a CD ROM which, in addition can step-dancing(1985), raises the importeaches the rudiments of Labanotation. tant issue of expressiveidentityin diverse
Kaeppler's monographon Hawaiian hula dancecultureswithinthe pluralismof Ameripahu (1993),focuseson the ritualnon-Chris- can society-how and why distinctivetratianbasisof a moder Hawaiiandancegenre ditions are perpetuated and/or changed
with the underlyingtheme of how tradition throughcontactwith otherculturalworlds.
is negotiatedto make it appropriatefor its Concernswith ethnicidentity,minoritystatime. A study by Susan Reed focusses on tus, gender,the conceptsof body, self, and
thepoliticalimportance
of dancein SriLanka personhoodare topics receiving attention
Other
(1998).
anthropologicalconcernsin- withindanceethnology.In these studies,the
clude Cartesianmind/bodydualism(Farnell social relationshipsof the people dancing
1995; Varela 1992), martial arts (Lewis are often backgroundedwhile the danceit1992), iconography(Seebass 1991), tour- self and its changes over time are
ism (Sweet 1985), and urban multi- foregrounded.
culturalism(Ness 1992). In short, the aim
Beyond Europe and America are
of anthropologicalworks is not simply to danceresearchersfromthe rest of the world
understanddancein its culturalcontext,but withnumerousstudiesof dancesof theirown
ratherto understandsociety throughanalyz- traditionsandelsewhere-the followinglists
only a samplingof the richesthatlie beyond:
ing movementsystems.
In contrastto anthropologicalstud- Dance has been an academicsubjectat the
ies of dance, the focus of dance ethnolo- Universityof Ghanasince 1962 and several
gists is oftenon dancecontent,andthe study theses have been writtenby Africanscholof culturalcontext aims at illuminatingthe ars.At the School of the PerformingArts at
dance. For example, researchon the court Hong Kong the three-prongedcurriculum
contextof the JavaneseBedhayais brought includesballet,moder, and Chinesedance.
to bear on understandingthe dance (rather The JapanesescholarKimikoOhtanihas rethan researchingthe Bedhaya in order to searcheddancein Japan,Okinawa,Hawaii,
understand the Javanese court). Allegra and India.Koreanscholarshave researched
Fuller Snyder'swork on YaquiEastercer- theirown dancesandtheirbasis in shamanemoniesdeals with the events withinwhich ism and Buddhism as well as ballet and
dances occur and the syncretismof Chris- modem dance. KapilaVatsyayanhas pubtian and pre-Christian movements from lished extensivelyon Indiandanceand cul120 Dance Research Journal 32/1 (Summer 2000)

ture. Mohawk Indian Nina de Shane has

workedon the politicalimportanceof dance
to ethnic identity. Arzu Ozturkmanhas
worked on dance and nationalism in her
native Turkey.Indonesianscholarsincluding I Made Bandem, Soedarsono, Sal
Murygianto,and I YayanDibia have done
extensive research on dance traditionsof
their own culture as well as elsewhere in
Indonesia and beyond. The research of
MohdAnis Md Nor in his nativeMalaysia,
Amy Ku'uleialoha Stillman on Hawaiian
dance, KaurakaKaurakaand Jon Jonassen
on Cook Island dance, MariaSusanaAzzi
on Tango, and a myriadof others suggest
that we have only begun to realize the importanceof dance to political and national
values,as art,andas a markerof ethnicand
culturalidentitythroughoutthe world.

2. Movement and Meaning. Perhaps most

difficult is the analysisof meaningof specific movementsand meaningsof a movementsystemas a whole. Meaningis usually
associatedwith communication
and the presentationof the self to othersand ourselves.
Conceptsthatcan be usefullyemployedare
thosederivedfromChomsky,basedon competence and performance, and Saussure,
based on langue andparole. "Competence"
or knowledgeabouta specific dance tradition is acquiredin much the same way as
competence in a spoken language is acquired.Competencerelatesto the cognitive
learning of the shared rules of a specific
dance traditionas langue is acquiredin a
Saussurianmode. Competenceenables the
viewer to understanda grammaticalmovement sequence that he/she has never seen
before. "Performance"refers to an actual
Studies of Dance in the New Century
renderingof a movementsequence,parole
I
to
mention
two
of
want
Finally,
types analy- of Saussure, which assumes that the persis which I believe will be importantin the formerhas a certainlevel of competenceand
21st century-ethnotheory and meaning. the skill to carryit out. A viewermusthave
1. Theoretical and EthnotheoreticalAnaly- communicativecompetencein orderto unsis. Importantin the studyof humanmove- derstandmovementmessages.
Anthro/ethno researchers derive
ment systems is the study of movement
movement
from
their
from a wide variety of sources,
and
of
data
theory
philosophy
the pointof view of the societyin whichthe but basic to their studiesis the importance
movementtakes place. The use of Western of fieldwork. A recent book edited by
dance theory for analysis of non-Western TheresaBucklandhas focussed our attendanceis inappropriate,
anda researchermust tion on the importanceof fieldworkto dance
to
discover
indigenous theories studies (1999). What anthro/ethno/indigattempt
about movement. How did the structured enous fieldworkersdo with their data and
movementsystemsoriginate?Are they codi- how it is presented in publication varies
focus our
fied into genres? How and by whom can widely.But all of theseresearchers
dances be composed?How can (and can- attentionon movementcontent as well as
not) movementsand posturesbe combined? social, culturaland political concernssuch
Is therea vocabularyof motifs and a gram- as gender,the body,ethnic,culturaland namar for their use? Are there notions about tional identity,the negotiationof tradition,
energy and how it should be visually dis- and turning the ethnographiceye on any
played? On the basis of movement, can society. In orderto find the largerview as
dance be separatedfrom ritual?And more advocatedhere, fieldworkis not only recbasic still, does a culture have such con- ommendedbut is necessaryin orderto bring
movementinto focus as partof a total culcepts?
turalsystem.
Adrienne L. Kaeppler

SmithsonianInstitution

Dance Research Journal 32/1 (Summer 2000) 121

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III. Dance Theory, Sociology,and Aesthetics

My brief is to discuss recent developments
in dance theory, touching on the areas of
sociology and aesthetics in the light of the
coming millennium. In considering how
currentmy focus should be, I have reflected
upon the pace at which dance scholarship
and indeed knowledge as a whole can sometimes move. My initial plan was to point out
that dance theory is not just for dance scholars; dance artists like Isadora Duncan and
Yvonne Rainer have recognised the need to
articulate the theoretical aspects of their art
in order to create a discursive context for
the reception of their work. Indeed, progress
and change in dance practice necessitate
reciprocal developments within dance scholarship. I was therefore going to look at the
ways in which some of the more radical as-

pects of recent dance theory and practice

issue a challenge to rethink the relationship
between the sociology of dance and aesthetics. While I still intend to cover this area,
two recent incidents have caused me to
change my focus and look more critically
than I originally intended at the work which
I and others have been doing on dance and
representation.
The first incident is a conversation
during a conference in April 1999 with an
American who teaches performance studies. Why, she asked me, were so many dance
scholars working on issues concerning identity? My reply at the time was that in my
opinion the majority of dance scholars actively publishing work were concerned with
establishing a history of canonical artists,

Dance Research Journal 32/1 (Summer 2000) 125