Alien Bodies Representations of Modernity, 'Race' and Nation in Early Modern Dance

Blurring the conventional distinction between modern dance and ballet, African American dance, gymnastics and dancing as popular entertainment, "Alien Bodies" looks at the way the dance of the 1920s and 1930s mediated the experience of modernity. Through an examination of work by key dancers and choreographers including Josephine Baker, Jean Borlin, George Balanchine, Katherine Dunham, Martha Graham, and Doris Humphrey, "Alien Bodies" shows that during the jazz age dance became a privileged site for defining the lived experiences of modernity and contributed to the creation of new desires and identities.

Alien Bodies is a fascinating examination of dance in Germany, France, and the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Ranging across ballet and modern dance, dance in the cinema and Revue, Ramsay Burt looks at the work of European, African American, and white American artists. Among the artists who feature are: * Josephine Baker * Jean Borlin * George Balanchine * Jean Cocteau * Valeska Gert * Katherine Dunham * Fernand Leger * Kurt Jooss * Doris Humphrey Concerned with how artists responded to the alienating experiences of modern life, Alien Bodies focuses on issues of: * national and 'racial' identity * the new spaces of modernity * fascists uses of mass spectacles * ritual and primitivism in modern dance * the 'New Woman' and the slender modern body

List of Figures. Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Choreographing the Disturbing New Spaces of Modernity 2. 'Savage' Dancer: Tout Paris Goes to See Josephine Baker 3. The Chorus Line and the Efficiency Engineers 4. Totalitarianism and the Mass Ornament 5. Dancing Across the Atlantic 6. American Moderns 7. Primitivism, Modernism and the Ritual in the Works of Mary Wigman, Katherine Dunham and Martha Graham Conclusion. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

Ramsay Burt is the author of the highly acclaimed The Male Dancer. He is currently Senior Research Fellow in Dance at De Montfort University.