Researching Dance

by Fraleigh, Sondra Horton; Hanstein, Penelope; Eraleigh, Sondra

• ISBN13: 9780822956846
• ISBN10: 0822956845
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Pittsburgh Pr

Summary

In "Researching Dance," an introduction to research methods in dance addressed primarily to graduate students, the editors explore dance as evolutional, defining it in view of its intrinsic participatory values, its developmental aspects, and its purposes from art to ritual, and they examine the role of theory in research. The editors have also included essays by nine dancer-scholars who examine qualitative and quantitative inquiry and delineate the most common approaches for investigating dance, raising concerns about philosophy and aesthetics, historical scholarship, movement analysis, sexual and gender identification, cultural diversity, and the resources available to students. The writers have included study questions, research exercises, and suggested readings to facilitate the book's use as a classroom text.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Part I. Context, Process, and Theory
Family Resemblance	3	(19)
Sondra Horton Fraleigh
From Idea to Research Proposal: Balancing the Systematic and Serendipitous	22	(40)
Penelope Hanstein
Models and Metaphors: Theory Making and the Creation of New Knowledge	62	(29)
Penelope Hanstein
Part II. Modes of Inquiry and Dance Research Methods
Postpositivist Research in Dance	91	(33)
Jill Green
Susan W. Stinson
Scientific Exploration in Dance	124	(38)
Steven J. Chatfield
Dance in the Hermeneutic Circle	162	(26)
Joann McNamara
Witnessing the Frog Pond	188	(37)
Sondra Horton Fraleigh
The Sense of the Past: Historiography and Dance	225	(24)
Shelley C. Berg
Dance Ethnography: Tracing the Weave of Dance in the Fabric of Culture	249	(34)
Joan D. Frosch
Part III. Research Tools and Issues Specific to Dance
Every Little Movement Has a Meaning All Its Own: Movement Analysis in Dance Research	283	(26)
Mary Alice Brennan
Engendering Dance: Feminist Inquiry and Dance Research	309	(25)
Jane C. Desmond
Cultural Diversity and Dance History Research	334	(23)
John O. Perpener III
Unified Field Postscript	352	(5)
Sondra Horton Fraleigh
Penelope Hanstein
List of Contributors	357	(4)
Index	361