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‘Keep Your Great City Paris!’ — The Lament of the Empress and other Women

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Dance in the City

Abstract

This chapter investigates the use of cities as settings in seven dance films and videos. It is based on the premise that space, and the related concepts of travel and mapping, are constructions which are gendered and consequently invested with power (Briginshaw, 1995).1 Since cities are particular kinds of constructed spaces, the ways in which they are gendered and invested with power have implications for the interpretations of dances set in them. The treatment of city spaces by the choreography and filming in these dance texts is examined to determine the extent to which the cities are positioned as ‘natural’ or constructed; hiding or revealing key constituents of that construction, such as gender.

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© 1997 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Briginshaw, V.A. (1997). ‘Keep Your Great City Paris!’ — The Lament of the Empress and other Women. In: Thomas, H. (eds) Dance in the City. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230379213_3

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