From ballroom to dancesport
Subtitle: aesthetics, athletics, and body culture
By: Caroline Joan S. Picart.
Series: SUNY series on sport, culture, and social relations; SUNY series in communication studies
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 167
ISBN-13: 9780791466292; 9780791466308
Subjects: Ballroom dancing -- Social aspects.; Popular culture.
Description: "Drawing on recent media portrayals and her own experience, author and dancer Caroline Joan S. Picart explores ballroom dancing and its more "sporty" equivalent, DanceSport, suggesting that they are reflective of larger social, political, and cultural tensions. The past several years have seen a resurgence in the popularity of ballroom dance as well as an increasing international anxiety over how and whether to transform ballroom into an Olympic sport. Writing as a participant-critic, Picart suggests that both are crucial sites where bodies are packaged as racialized, sexualized, nationalized, and classed objects. In addition, Picart argues, as the choreography, costuming, and genre of ballroom and DanceSport continue to evolve, these theatrical productions are aestheticized and constructed to encourage commercial appeal, using the narrative frame of the competitive melodrama to heighten audience interest."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.