Researching Dance: Evolving Modes of Inquiry

Researching Dance, addressed primarily to graduate students, introduces students to research methods in dance. In part I of three, the editors introduce dance as evolutional, raising issues of definition and naming -- defining dance in view of its intrinsic participatory values, its developmental aspects, and its purposes from art to ritual -- and they explore the role of theory in research.Parts 2 and 3 contain essays by nine additional dancer/scholars who examine qualitative and quantitative inquiry and delineate the most common approaches for investigating dance. These essays discuss basic issues of dance and examine the research process in detail, raising concerns about philosophy and aesthetics, historical scholarship, movement analysis, sexual and gender identification, cultural diversity, and the resources available to students. The writers have contributed study questions, research exercises, and suggested readings to facilitate the book's use as a classroom text.