Jitterbuggers, Sugar Plums, and a Geisha: Dancing Nexus in Japanese American Incarceration Facilities of World War II
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
3-20-2018
Department 1
Conservatory of Music
Abstract
Dancing embodies cultural history and beliefs, and each dance carries with it features of the place where it originated. Influenced by different social, political, and environmental circumstances, dances change and adapt. American dance evolved in large part through combinations of multiple styles and forms that arrived with each new group of immigrants. Perspectives on American Dance is the first anthology in over twenty-five years to focus exclusively on American dance practices across a wide span of American culture. This volume and its companion show how social experience, courtship, sexualities, and other aspects of life in America are translated through dancing into spatial patterns, gestures, and partner relationships.
This volume of Perspectives on American Dance features essays by a young generation of authors who write with familiarity about their own era, exploring new parameters of identity and evaluating a wide variety of movement practices being performed in spaces beyond traditional proscenium stages. Topics include "dorky dancing" on YouTube; same-sex competitors on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance; racial politics in NFL touchdown dances; the commercialization of flash mobs; the connections between striptease and corporate branding; how 9/11 affected dance; the criminalization of New York City club dancing; and the joyous ironies of hipster dance. This volume emphasizes how dancing is becoming more social and interactive as technology opens up new ways to create and distribute dance.
The accessible essays use a combination of movement analysis, thematic interpretation, and historical context to convey the vitality and variety of American dance. They offer new insights on American dance practices while simultaneously illustrating how dancing functions as an essential template for American culture and identity.
ISBN/ISSN
9780813054995
Recommended Citation
Robertson, Martha. "Jitterbuggers, Sugar Plums, and a Geisha: Dancing Nexus in Japanese American Incarceration Facilities of World War II." In Perspectives on American Dance: The Twentieth Century, edited by Jennifer Atkins, Sally R. Sommer, and Tricia Henry Young. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2018.
Required Publisher's Statement
The full book can be purchased from the publisher's website here: http://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813054995