Images of Dance in the Screen Media

Abstract

It is suggested in Chapter 1 that there is a rich diversity of dance on screen. These images, in all their different forms, contribute to shaping how dance is perceived both by scholars and students of dance and by the general public at large. The dancing bodies that we see on screen are constructed through the film and television apparatus and different technical and aesthetic approaches are employed in order to create particular representations of dance. Yet these are not simply bodies inscribed with technical devices: they are also bodies that carry social, cultural, political and economic meanings. Therefore the way in which dance is filmed and the moving body as a locus of meaning are pertinent factors in relation to how we read dance on screen. In response, this chapter draws on a selection of case studies in order to investigate critically a variety of ways in which the screen media have dealt with the dancing body. As mentioned in the previous chapter, these are all examples of dance that have been broadcast on television, although one set of works was originally made for film.