Moving Words provides a direct line into the most pressing issues in contemporary dance scholarship, as well as insights into ways in which dance contributes to and creates culture. Instead of representing a single viewpoint, the essays in this volume reflect a range of perspectives and represent the debates swirling within dance.
The contributors confront basic questions of definition and interpretation within dance studies, while at the same time examining broader issues, such as the body, gender, class, race, nationalism and cross-cultural exchange. Specific essays address such topics as the black male body in dance, gender and subversions in the dances of Mark Morris, race and nationalism in Martha Graham's 'American Document', and the history of oriental dance.

Gay Morris is dance and art critic whose work has appeared in numerous journals and periodicals, including Dance Chronicle, ArtNews and Art in America. She teaches dance history at Sonoma State University, California

List of figures, List of contributors, Acknowledgments, 1 Introduction, Part I Strategies, Analytical and Interpretive, Part II The Body and Gender, Part III Histories Reconsidered, Part IV Cultural Crossings, Index