Alien Bodies is a fascinating examination of dance in Germany; France; and the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Ranging across ballet and modern dance; dance in the cinema and Revue; Ramsay Burt looks at the work of European; African American; and white American artists. Among the artists who feature are: * Josephine Baker * Jean Borlin * George Balanchine * Jean Cocteau * Valeska Gert * Katherine Dunham * Fernand Leger * Kurt Jooss * Doris Humphrey Concerned with how artists responded to the alienating experiences of modern life; Alien Bodies focuses on issues of: * national and racial identity * the new spaces of modernity * fascists uses of mass spectacles * ritual and primitivism in modern dance * the New Woman and the slender modern body
#475872 in eBooks 2002-09-11 2002-09-11File Name: B000FA5V0E
Review
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. potentially useful introduction to dance/modernism studiesBy A CustomerThe value of Burts book lies in its wide-ranging scope: taking the issue of how early modern dance and the experience(s) of modernity articulated each other in early 20th century Europe and America; Burt focuses upon pressing questions of sexuality; identity; class; consumer culture; and so forth. Chapters on Josephine Baker and "primitivist" discourses of the body; as well as rationalism; mass production and the chorus line are engaging; if also open to debate. In this sense; the volume provides a good introduction to the "new critical studies" of dance; an approach which is informed by recent developments in cultural studies. However; the book is also marred by a number of factual errors (example: Burt incorrectly claims that "In 1922; [...] Le Corbusier and Jeanneret exhibited designs for La Ville Contemporaine"--unaware that Jeanneret and Le Corbusier are in fact the same person; and that the team consisted of Le Corbusier and Ozenfant) as well as editorial gaffes: names are mispelled; articles cited incorrectly. These mistakes are not simply slips or failures to catch typos; but rather reflect the books main weakness; which is that it at once too wide-ranging and almost exclusively dependent upon secondary sources; which suggests to me that Burts expertise does not lie in historical research; but rather in broad synthesis. As such; the book provides a useful introduction to a number of different phenomena in early modern dance; and offers some ways of approaching dance through the lens of critical studies of culture; but its arguments remain open to challenge and revision.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Take a big juicy bite out of Alien BodiesBy Lynda RuffnerRamsey Burt incorporates so much in this book that it can be overwhelming but I suggest grabbing onto what you think is the good stuff and delve into it. He combines the historical; anthropological and political happenings of the 1920s and 30s with dance so well that its hard to image thinking of any of them as separate; in any part. I would suggest this book to any student of the dance that has had some 20th century dance history background;so that you can concentrate on the theory and discourse presented in the book.