The Dance Event in Ethnographic Perspective

Personal interest in the behaviour associated with Dance Events has helped to encourage the selection of these events as a subject worthy of ethnographic study, but the idea of focusing on these gatherings from a scholarly perspective was also influenced by research which originally related to the preparations for the thesis I submitted for the degree of Master of Arts. During the course of this study, which focused on courtship, marriage patterns, dowries, and family patterns of sociability in a local community setting, the enduring popularity of the dance hall or ballroom as a social meeting place for young people was expressed within the many narratives which were collected. I was also personally motivated to study dance events in a scholarly manner after noticing a resurgence of interest in adult dancing. This resurgence is not surprising, as a desire to tap our feet on the floor or move our bodies from side to side in rhythmic harmony with the sound of music seems to be an instinctive human reaction

Aesthetics · Art · Ballroom · Courtship · Dance · Harmony (color · Instinct · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Performing arts · Perspective (graphical · Popularity · Sociology · Subject (documents · The arts · Visual arts · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Music History and Culture · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology

• Growing old gracefully

  Open Access•Lesley Cooper, Helen Thomas•Ageing and Society•2002

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