Ballroom: Culture and Costume in Competitive Dance

(Hardback)

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Description

Competitive ballroom is much more than a style of dance. Rather, it is a continually evolving and increasingly global social and cultural arena: of fashion, performance, art, sport, gender and more. Ballroom explores the intersection of dance cultures, dress and the body. Presenting the author's experiences at an international range of dance events in Europe, the US and UK, as well as featuring the views of individual dancers, the book shows how dancing influences mind and body alike. For students of anthropology, dance, cultural and performance studies, Ballroom provides an ethnographic picture of how dancers and others live their lives both on and off the dance floor.

Reviews

'Ballroom is a deeply layered and compelling account of competitive ballroom dance, combining Jonathan Marion's insightful roles as ethnographer, photographer, and accomplished ballroom dancer. The book should be read by everyone curious about the fundamental nature of dance in human society, no matter what their particular dance passion may be. Anyone interested in the world of competitive ballroom dance will find Ballroom an invaluable resource.' Anya Peterson Royce, Indiana University 'With the ethnographic authority of a ballroom dancer, Jonathan Marion takes us to the world of competitions in this exciting dancesport. Ballroom is an absorbing book. It reveals how this dance form indexes broader issues of performance and costume as well as gender, transnationality and the visual.' Helena Wulff, Stockholm University

Author Bio

Jonathan S. Marion is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arkansas, President of the Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA), and author of Ballroom: Culture and Costume in Competitive Dance (2008) and Visual Research: A Concise Introduction to Thinking Visually (2013, w/Jerome Crowder).