." . . I have used essays from the book to help dance graduate students push their thinking beyond the studio and their own physical experience and to realize the varied resources, approaches, and theoretical positions possible in writing about the body." -Dance Research Journal "Choreographing History . . . assembles an impressive diversity of sites, disciplines and critical approaches . . . and] includes not only historical bodies and discourses, but also the very bodies of the historians themselves." -Parachute "This volume is not only full of gems (the very lineup of preeminent scholars...

This work refuses to let bodies be seen as merely vehicles for the expression of something else. This collection of essays explores the study of bodily reality - not as a natural or given, but as a substantial, vital constituent of cultural experience. Contributors look at bodies engaged in practices as varied as pageantry, physical education, festivals and exhibitions, tourism, and social and theatrical dance. They succeed in bringing these bodies to life with all the political, gendered, racial and aesthetic resonances of which bodily motion is capable. Dance is used in this volume as a...