This book examines the political power of dance, particularly its transgressive potential. Focusing on readings of dance pioneers Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham, Gumboots dancers in the gold mines of South Africa, the One Billion Rising movement, dabke in Palestine and dance as a protest against human rights abuse in Israel, the book explores moments in which the form succeeds in transgressing politics as articulated in words. Close readings and critical analysis grounded in radical democratic theory combine to show how interpreting political dance as 'interruption' can unsettle conceptions of both politics and dance.
Introduction
1 Moving beyond boundaries: writing on the body
2 'I dreamed of a different dance': Isadora Duncan's danced revolution
3 'The body says what words cannot': Martha Graham, dance and politics
4 'I want to tell them how I feel and how black people feel': Gumboots dance in South Africa
5 Dancing the ruptured body: One Billion Rising, dance and gendered violence
6 Dancing human rights
Conclusions: the dancer of the future dancing radical hope
Index
