Dance in Musical Theatre: A History of the Body in Movement

From Oklahoma! and West Side Story, to Spring Awakening and Hamilton, dance remains one of the most important and key factors in musical theatre.

Through the integration of song and dance in the 'dream ballets' of choreographers like Agnes De Mille; the triple threat performances of Jerome Robbins' dancers; the signature style creation by choreographers like Bob Fosse with dancers like Gwen Verdon; and the contemporary, identity-driven work of choreographers like Camille A. Brown, the history of the body in movement is one that begs study and appreciation.

Dance in Musical Theatre offers guidelines in how to read this movement by analyzing it in terms of composition and movement vocabulary whilst simultaneously situating it both historically and critically. This collection provides the tools, terms, history, and movement theory for reading, interpreting, and centralizing a discussion of dance in musical theatre, importantly, with added emphasis on women and artists of color.

Bringing together musical theatre and dance scholars, choreographers and practitioners, this edited collection highlights musical theatre case studies that employ dance in a dramaturgically essential manner, tracking the emergence of the dancer as a key figure in the genre, and connecting the contributions to past and present choreographers. This collection foregrounds the work of the ensemble, incorporating firsthand and autoethnographic accounts that intersect with historical and cultural contexts.

Through a selection of essays, this volume conceptualizes the function of dance in musical: how it functions diegetically as a part of the story or non-diegetically as an amplification of emotion, as well as how the dancing body works to reveal character psychology by expressing an unspoken aspect of the libretto, embodying emotions or ideas through metaphor or abstraction.

Dance in Musical Theatre makes dance language accessible for instructors, students, and musical theatre enthusiasts, providing the tools to critically engage with the work of important choreographers and dancers from the beginning of the 20th century to today.

Author: Phoebe Rumsey
Publisher: Methuen Drama
Published: 12/14/2023
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.19lbs
Size: 9.50h x 6.60w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781350235526

About the Author

Dustyn Martincich is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance at Bucknell University.

Phoebe Rumsey is a Senior Lecturer in Musical Theatre and Course Leader of the BA (Hons) Musical Theater degree at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom.

Benae Beamon is a scholar and artist. Her scholarship focuses on religion, ethics, and culture, specifically black cultural expressions as they intersect with ritual and reflect moral imagination.

Bud Coleman is the Roe Green Professor of Theatre and Associate Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder.

Tome' Cousin is a Full Professor of Dance in the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University.

Joanna Dee Das is an Associate Professor in the Performing Arts Department at Washington University in St. Louis and an affiliate of the Program in American Culture Studies.

Ram?n Flowers is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dance in the Jordan College of the Arts, at Butler University.

Mijiang "M-Jay" He is a Chinese actor, director, choreographer, and musical theater educator.

Michael D. Jablonski is an Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre and Program Coordinator for the BFA Music Theatre program at Brenau University.

Nathan James is the Managing Director or The Dang Academy and former Director of HE Programmes at the Urdang Academy, London.

Ariel Nereson is an associate professor of dance studies and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University at Buffalo, SUNY.

Adrienne Gibbons Oehlers is currently a PhD Theatre Candidate at The Ohio State University and a recipient of the AAUW American Fellowship for 2022-23.

Amanda Olmstead (she/her) received her PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, MA in Performance Studies from New York University, and BA in Theatre and Dance from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Kim Varhola is an Assistant Professor of Drama and Musical Theatre at Keimyung University in Daegu, South Korea.

Alexandra Joye Warren is currently an Assistant Professor of Performing Arts at Elon University and a Director/Choreographer for the Music Theatre program.

Kevin Winkler enjoyed a career of more than twenty years as a curator, archivist, and administrator at the New York Public Library, prior to which he was a professional dancer.


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