Conclusion: The Value of Popular Dance

Abstract

Since the explosion of social dance forms at the beginning of the twentieth century, popular dance has traditionally been awarded low measures of social and intellectual merit. In Chapter 1 I argued that we exist in a world shaped by value, which includes systems of economic, aesthetic, political and social capital and investment. Consequently, we perpetually negotiate and produce scales of significance and frameworks of worth. While academia has sought to repress or ignore the value structures that inform its work, its interests and methods are rooted in value judgements. These scholarly expressions of worth have significantly impacted on the artistic sphere through their legitimization of the Western art canon, which in dance terms privileges the elite domain of theatre art dance. Yet, in the last few decades of the twentieth century a relativist privileging of all cultural forms replaced the absolutist belief in inherent cultural worth. In response, the popular idiom has come back with a force, dancing on the canon in its Doc Marten boots, stiletto heels, old skool trainers and all other kinds of vernacular footwear that depart from the traditional ballet slippers or barefoot performances of modern stage dance. In light of this, popular dance now supplies a subject of keen interest within the discipline of dance studies.