From Ballroom to DanceSport: Aesthetics, Athletics, and Body CultureDrawing 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. |
Contents
The Contested Landscape of Ballroom Dance Culture Gender Race Class and Nationality in Performance | 1 |
Dancing through Different Worlds An Autoethnography of the Interactive Body and Virtual Emotions in Ballroom Dance | 29 |
Ballroom Dance and the Movies | 39 |
Paving the Road to the Olympics Staging and Financing the Olympic Dream | 69 |
Packaging Fantasy and Morality | 89 |
Quo Vadis? | 107 |
BallroomDanceRelated Organizations | 121 |
Filmography of Selected DanceSport and Ballroom Films | 125 |
Notes | 139 |
| 151 | |
| 161 | |
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From Ballroom to DanceSport: Aesthetics, Athletics, and Body Culture Caroline Joan S. Picart No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
accessed April 26 accessed June accessed March 31 aesthetic African American Amateur American smooth Arthur Murray Astaire's athletes audience ballet ballroom dance body Burn the Floor camera Carson Zullinger Cecil Greek chapter Choreography Cinematography color Competitive Ballroom competitors conventional costumes couple cultural dancers DanceSport Championships director Dirty Dancing dressed East Coast swing Elena emotional event female feminine figure skating FILM FACTS Screenplay frame Fred Astaire Garai Gay Divorcee gender Ginger Rogers Havana Nights heterosexual Ibid IDSF initially instructor Johnny Latin dances lead legs look male mambo masculine McMains medal move movement movie Olympic sport Pablo particularly partner performance Photo courtesy professional race racial Rafael rhetorical rhythm dances Roger Ebert role rumba Sally Potter samba sexual shoes shot smooth dances social standard steps story Strictly Ballroom studio style Sugiyama swing Tango Lesson teacher television University waltz WD&DSC woman women