Dance and Film
- LAST REVIEWED: 17 August 2022
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 October 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0091
- LAST REVIEWED: 17 August 2022
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 October 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0091
Introduction
The aesthetic, temporal, and interactive intersections of dance, film, and most recently new media cut across avant-garde art and popular culture domains. An increasingly recognized subgenre, dance films draw on physical and spatial aspects inherent to dance as well as the visual and temporal abilities of film and video in order to create a new expressive medium. Ranging from popular applications in music videos to avant-garde experimental projects, dance films created for the camera are celebrated at dedicated film festivals around the world. Since their inception in the early 20th century, Hollywood musicals and Bollywood song-and-dance sequences have firmly rooted film dance in popular culture. More recently, reality shows such as ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and NBC’s So You Think You Can Dance? brought virtuosic and popular dance as competition to primetime television. And dance even has been introduced into interactive and virtual spaces as choreographers and their engineers engage new-media technologies. This bibliography collects published works that engage and explore screen dance through various disciplines and methodologies.
General Overviews
Several scholarly and practitioner-oriented works provide useful overviews of the considerations raised through the intersection of dance, film, video, and new media. Bench 2008 perhaps provides the most comprehensive and academically rigorous exploration of dance and media and takes a body-centered approach. Brannigan 2011, Dodds 2001, and Mitoma 2002 are useful overview texts for those who want to become familiar with the genre of dance on film and the disciplinary approaches that support such inquiry. The other works in this section take on particular perspectives in their analysis of dance on film. Marks 2000 focuses on the role of embodiment in intercultural cinema. Rosenberg 2000 engages the choreography as a key consideration in thinking through dance on film. Providing a more historical perspective, Knight 1967, a Dance Perspectives special issue titled “Cine-Dance,” presents key practitioners and guiding principles for film dance in the 1960s. Spain 1998 offers a very comprehensive annotated reference guide of 1,400 dance films, which cut across various aesthetic and artistic genres.
Bench, Harmony. “Choreographing Bodies in Dance-Media.” PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2008.
A definitive addition to the body of work on dance on screen, this dissertation explores approaches to dance and media, broadly defined. With a specific focus on dancing bodies, Bench makes a significant contribution to conceptualizations of corporeality.
Brannigan, Erin. Dancefilm: Choreography and the Moving Image. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Brannigan traces the evolution of dance films back to the birth of cinema. Exploring the choreographic possibilities of the close-up, gestures, and the legacy of Maya Deren, the book stresses the role of gesture in the creation of meaning.
Dodds, Sherril. Dance on Screen: Genres and Media from Hollywood to Experimental Art. Houndmills, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2001.
This book traces the complicated connection between dance and film, cutting across genres ranging from popular culture to avant-garde experimental art, with an explicit focus on the relationship among dancers, cameras, and spectators.
Knight, Arthur, ed. Special Issue: Cine-Dance. Dance Perspectives 30 (Summer 1967).
This special issue focuses on early dance on screen. It contains articles written mostly by dance-on-film practitioners of that era.
Marks, Laura U. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.
Engaging cultural memory, globality, modernity, embodiment, and media, Marks explores intercultural cinema (mostly in the decade 1985–1995).
Mitoma, Judy, ed. Envisioning Dance on Film and Video. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Featuring voices of theorists, critics, and practitioners (choreographers, filmmakers, and other artists), this book provides an accessible (albeit somewhat fleeting) fifty-three-essay overview of the last one hundred years of dance, film, and video. The included DVD with excerpts that accompany some of the entries is an added and useful bonus.
Mueller, John E. Dance Film Directory: An Annotated and Evaluative Guide to Films on Ballet and Modern Dance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Co., 1979.
This annotated filmography focuses explicitly on ballet- and modern-dance-related films.
Rosenberg, Douglas. “Video Space: A Site for Choreography.” Leonardo 33.4 (2000): 275–280.
Rosenberg engages cinema and dance and stresses the importance of the choreographed dancing body. Text available online at Rosenberg’s website.
Spain, Louise. Dance on Camera: A Guide to Dance Films and Videos. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998.
This book annotates upward of 1,400 films and videos and endeavors to include a wide range of dances on-screen. The guide provides date, running time, and other details for each entry.
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Article
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Accounting, Motion Picture
- Acting
- Action Cinema
- Adaptation
- Advertising and Promotion
- African American Cinema
- African American Stars
- African Cinema
- AIDS in Film and Television
- Akerman, Chantal
- Allen, Woody
- Almodóvar, Pedro
- Alphaville
- Altman, Robert
- American Cinema, 1895-1915
- American Cinema, 1939-1975
- American Cinema, 1976 to Present
- American Independent Cinema
- American Independent Cinema, Producers
- American Public Broadcasting
- Anderson, Wes
- Animals in Film and Media
- Animation and the Animated Film
- Anime
- Arbuckle, Roscoe
- Architecture and Cinema
- Argentine Cinema
- Aronofsky, Darren
- Art Cinema
- Arzner, Dorothy
- Asian American Cinema
- Asian Television
- Astaire, Fred and Rogers, Ginger
- Australian Cinema
- Auteurism
- Authorship, Television
- Avant-Garde and Experimental Film
- Bachchan, Amitabh
- Battle of Algiers, The
- Battleship Potemkin, The
- Bazin, André
- Bergman, Ingmar
- Bernstein, Elmer
- Bertolucci, Bernardo
- Bigelow, Kathryn
- Biopics
- Birth of a Nation, The
- Blade Runner
- Blockbusters
- Brakhage, Stan
- Brando, Marlon
- Brazilian Cinema
- Breaking Bad
- Bresson, Robert
- British Cinema
- Broadcasting, Australian
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Burnett, Charles
- Buñuel, Luis
- Cameron, James
- Campion, Jane
- Canadian Cinema
- Capra, Frank
- Carpenter, John
- Casablanca
- Cassavetes, John
- Cavell, Stanley
- Censorship
- Chan, Jackie
- Chaplin, Charles
- Children in Film
- Chinese Cinema
- Cinecittà Studios
- Cinema and Media Industries, Creative Labor in
- Cinema and the Visual Arts
- Cinematography and Cinematographers
- Cinephilia
- Citizen Kane
- City in Film, The
- Cocteau, Jean
- Coen Brothers, The
- Colonial Educational Film
- Color
- Comedy, Film
- Comedy, Television
- Comics, Film, and Media
- Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI)
- Copland, Aaron
- Coppola, Francis Ford
- Copyright and Piracy
- Corman, Roger
- Costume and Fashion
- Cronenberg, David
- Cuban Cinema
- Cult Cinema
- 3D Cinema
- Dance and Film
- de Oliveira, Manoel
- Dean, James
- Deleuze, Gilles
- Denis, Claire
- Deren, Maya
- Design, Art, Set, and Production
- Detective Films
- Dietrich, Marlene
- Digital Media and Convergence Culture
- Directors
- Disability
- Disney, Walt
- Doctor Who
- Documentary Film
- Downton Abbey
- Dreyer, Carl Theodor
- Eastern European Television
- Eastwood, Clint
- Ecocinema
- Eisenstein, Sergei
- Elfman, Danny
- Epic Film
- Essay Film
- Ethnographic Film
- European Television
- Exhibition and Distribution
- Exploitation Film
- Fairbanks, Douglas
- Fan Studies
- Fantasy
- Fellini, Federico
- Festivals
- Film Aesthetics
- Film and Literature
- Film Guilds and Unions
- Film, Historical
- Film Noir
- Film Preservation and Restoration
- Film Theory and Criticism, Science Fiction
- Film Theory Before 1945
- Film Theory, Psychoanalytic
- Finance Film, The
- Ford, John
- French Cinema
- Game of Thrones
- Gance, Abel
- Gangster Films
- Garbo, Greta
- Garland, Judy
- German Cinema
- Gilliam, Terry
- Global Television Industry
- Godard, Jean-Luc
- Godfather Trilogy, The
- Godzilla
- Greek Cinema
- Griffith, D.W.
- Hammett, Dashiell
- Haneke, Michael
- Hawks, Howard
- Haynes, Todd
- Hepburn, Katharine
- Herrmann, Bernard
- Herzog, Werner
- Hindi Cinema, Popular
- Hitchcock, Alfred
- Hollywood Studios
- Holocaust Cinema
- Homeland
- Hong Kong Cinema
- Horror-Comedy
- Hsiao-Hsien, Hou
- Hungarian Cinema
- Icelandic Cinema
- Immigration and Cinema
- Indigenous Media
- Industrial, Educational, and Instructional Television and ...
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- Iranian Cinema
- Irish Cinema
- Israeli Cinema
- It Happened One Night
- Italian Americans in Cinema and Media
- Italian Cinema
- Japanese Cinema
- Jazz Singer, The
- Jews in American Cinema and Media
- Keaton, Buster
- King Kong
- Kitano, Takeshi
- Korean Cinema
- Kracauer, Siegfried
- Kubrick, Stanley
- Lang, Fritz
- Latin American Cinema
- Latina/o Americans in Film and Television
- Lee, Ang
- Lee, Chang-dong
- Lee, Spike
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Cin...
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The
- Los Angeles and Cinema
- Lubitsch, Ernst
- Lumet, Sidney
- Lupino, Ida
- Lynch, David
- Mad Men
- Marker, Chris
- Martel, Lucrecia
- Marxism
- Masculinity in Film
- Media, Community
- Media Ecology
- Melodrama
- Memory and the Flashback in Cinema
- Metz, Christian
- Mexican Film
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Ming-liang, Tsai
- Minnelli, Vincente
- Miyazaki, Hayao
- Méliès, Georges
- Modernism and Film
- Mészáros, Márta
- Music and Cinema, Classical Hollywood
- Music and Cinema, Global Practices
- Music, Television
- Music Video
- Musicals
- Musicals on Television
- Narrative
- Native Americans
- New Media Art
- New Media Policy
- New Media Theory
- New York City and Cinema
- New Zealand Cinema
- Opera and Film
- Ophuls, Max
- Orphan Films
- Oshima, Nagisa
- Ozu, Yasujiro
- Panh, Rithy
- Pasolini, Pier Paolo
- Passion of Joan of Arc, The
- Peckinpah, Sam
- Pedagogy
- Philosophy and Film
- Photography and Cinema
- Pickford, Mary
- Planet of the Apes
- Poems, Novels, and Plays About Film
- Poitier, Sidney
- Polanski, Roman
- Polish Cinema
- Politics, Hollywood and
- Pop, Blues, and Jazz in Film
- Pornography
- Postcolonial Theory in Film
- Potter, Sally
- Prime Time Drama
- Psycho
- Queer Television
- Queer Theory
- Race and Cinema
- Radio and Sound Studies
- Ray, Nicholas
- Ray, Satyajit
- Reality Television
- Reenactment in Cinema and Media
- Regulation, Television
- Religion and Film
- Remakes, Sequels and Prequels
- Renoir, Jean
- Repo Man
- Resnais, Alain
- Romanian Cinema
- Romantic Comedy, American
- Rossellini, Roberto
- Russian Cinema
- Saturday Night Live
- Scandinavian Cinema
- Scorsese, Martin
- Scott, Ridley
- Searchers, The
- Seinfeld
- Sennett, Mack
- Sesame Street
- Shakespeare on Film
- Silent Film
- Simpsons, The
- Singin’ in the Rain
- Sirk, Douglas
- Soap Operas
- Social Class
- Social Problem Films
- Soderbergh, Steven
- Sound Design, Film
- Sound, Film
- Spanish Cinema
- Spanish-Language Television
- Spielberg, Steven
- Sports and Media
- Sports in Film
- Stand-Up Comedians
- Star Trek
- Star Wars
- Stardom
- Stop-Motion Animation
- Streaming Television
- Sturges, Preston
- Surrealism and Film
- Taiwanese Cinema
- Talk Shows
- Tarantino, Quentin
- Tarkovsky, Andrei
- Television Audiences
- Television Celebrity
- Television, History of
- Television Industry, American
- Theater and Film
- Theory, Cognitive Film
- Theory, Critical Media
- Theory, Feminist Film
- Theory, Film
- Theory, Trauma
- Touch of Evil
- Transnational and Diasporic Cinema
- Trinh, T. Minh-ha
- Truffaut, François
- Turkish Cinema
- Twilight Zone, The
- Twin Peaks
- Varda, Agnès
- Vertigo
- Vertov, Dziga
- Video and Computer Games
- Video Installation
- Violence and Cinema
- Virtual Reality
- Visconti, Luchino
- Von Sternberg, Josef
- Von Stroheim, Erich
- von Trier, Lars
- War Film
- Warhol, The Films of Andy
- Waters, John
- Wayne, John
- Weerasethakul, Apichatpong
- Weir, Peter
- Welles, Orson
- Whedon, Joss
- Whiteness
- Wilder, Billy
- Williams, John
- Wire, The
- Wiseman, Frederick
- Wizard of Oz, The
- Women and Film
- Women and the Silent Screen
- Wong, Anna May
- Wong, Kar-wai
- Woo, John
- Wood, Natalie
- Yimou, Zhang
- YouTube
- Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Cinema
- Zinnemann, Fred
- Zombies in Cinema and Media