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/p. 3 Audiences for dance performances mushroomed from one million in 1965 to twelve million only one decade later, according to statistics collected by the National Endowment for the Arts. More than 10,000 people a year now use the world-renowned Dance Collection at the New York Public Library-Museum of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, reading from more than 38,000 volumes and viewing more than 5,500 films.
Books in Print currently lists more than 300 books on dance, while more than 250 are included in its paperback counterpart. New Organizations have been formed, including the Dance History Scholars and the Dance Critics Association, to promote professional standards and achievements in research and writing.
Although recent years have seen a torrent of popular books and some scholarly works on dance, there presently exists no comprehensive collection of material on current research achievements. A landmark one-volume Dance Encyclopedia published in 1947 by Anatole Chujoy and revised in 1966 includes well-documented inaccuracies; many believe it also has a distorted emphasis on the personal interests of Mr. Chujoy. There is no parallel for dance of the acclaimed Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, first published in 1879.
The dearth of scholarly research on dance has been blamed on many factors: the recent development of the art form itself, a lack of substantial body of written criticism, and the separation of philosophical aesthetics from analytical research. Scholarship is also difficult because of the complexities of dance, especially its non-verbal, ephemeral, and multimedia character, encompassing human movement, music, scenery, lighting, costumes, acting, and even, in some experimental works, poetry-reading and "everyday" movement. The anti-intellectualism of some practitioners and the puritanism of some intellectuals have also been blamed for the paucity of scholarly research.
A major contribution to dance scholarship has been funded by the NEH [the National Endowment for the Humanities]. International Encyclopedia of Dance, to be published by Charles Scribner's Sons, will have about 7,000 entries in four volumes, plus index. Selma Jeanne Cohen, former editor of Dance Perspectives and holder of a Ph.D. in English Literature, serves as editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia. Cohen is the author of numerous theoretical articles on dance as well as several books, including her most recent, Next Week, Swan Lake.
Jerome Robbins, choreographer for the New York City Ballet and numerous Broadway musicals, points out, "It is time to pay truly scholarly attention to the art of dance through the publication of an encyclopedia, an attention which ultimately benefits all practical aspects of the art."
The Encyclopedia will cover three major areas of dance: theatrical, ritual, and social. Essays will range from brief definitions to comprehensive essays on historical subjects and thematic motifs. The complete set will contain almost 1,000 illustrations, vital for understanding the visual dimensions of the art form.
Definitions include descriptions of technical terms, including dance steps, structural vocabulary (e.g., pas de deux), equipment, personnel, stagecraft, costume, and music. The Encyclopedia defines rond de jambe, for example, as "a ballet step [in which] the working leg, turned out from the thigh to pointed toe, describes a semicircle on the floor in one continuous movement, passing through first position at the conclusion of the rotation." The essay goes on to explain distinctions in the four ways to execute the step and gives examples of choreography where variations of it have been used, as in Balanchine's 1947 Theme and Variations.
Longer and less technical entries will include biographies of choreographers, dancers, patrons, librettists, theater managers and others involved in theatrical dance, as well as essays on particular titles of dance works, such as West Side Story; generic terms, such as classical ballet or task choreography; training; art movements affecting dance, for example, surrealism; character types, such as sylphide or harlequin; performance practice; aesthetics; and institutions and organizations.
Essays are also planned -cultural influences, genres of special importance, and other broad themes, such as the repertory system, the economic life of a dancer, relationships between student and teacher or between dancer and community.
Entries on ritual and recreational dance will include religious, folk, social, and ceremonial dance, and anthropological studies. The Encyclopedia will also address the role of dance in related spectacles, such as social and political occasions, lyric theater, popular entertainment, sport, film, and television, as well as topics on body sciences, such as dance therapy.
Says Cohen of the project, "With the rapidly growing interest in dance in our time, demand has mounted for a major reference work. The Encyclopedia will bring together for the first time a vast quantity of information, logically organized and easily accessible. Much of this information has hitherto been scattered or known only to a few specialists."
Six associate editors have also been named: George Dorris, Associate Professor of English, York College, City University of New York, critic, and founder and co-editor of Dance Chronicle; Nancy Goldner, edi- /p. 4 tor, author, and critic for The Christian Science Monitor and Dance News; Beate Gordon, Director, Performing Arts Program, Asia Society; Nancy Reynolds, editor, lecturer, and author of Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet; David Vaughan, critic, teacher, and author of Frederick Ashton and His Ballets; and Suzanne Youngerman, anthropologist and Dance Research Coordinator at New York University. Dozens of "area consultants" are providing technical expertise on the diverse areas of research.
Early Endowment support for the project came in a planning grant in 1976 for a conference held in New York later that year. Additional planning meetings took place in 1977, supported with another Endowment grant to refine concepts of subject areas and approaches and to identify potential collaborators. The Endowment awarded a grant in 1981 to support research, writing and editing of the Encyclopedia.
Lincoln Kirstein, co-director with George Balanchine of the New York City Ballet, and a writer and scholar in his own right, is a strong supporter of the project. "The extraordinary development of interest in all types of the dance -- theatrical, social, and ethnic - in this country over the last two decades has developed an audience which is more enthusiastic than informed," he notes. "What has long been needed is a scholarly basis of organized information which can serve as a critical substructure."
Agnes de Mille, American choreographer for the ballet and Broadway stage, including such works as "Oklahoma!" and "Rodeo," praises the planned Encyclopedia for its comprehensive coverage of all types of dance. "There is, as far as I know, in the English language no inclusive dictionary or encyclopedia of dance material which is not heavily slanted toward ballet technique and the history of theatrical performance of the last century, particularly ballet dancers," notes de Mille, herself the author of several books on dance. "Nothing is comprehensive, nothing catholic, nothing sweeping, and this we must have. It will be an enormous boon to all scholars."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This essay was written in conjunction with the announcement that the International Encyclopedia of Dance had received an additional grant of $73,666 in outright Federal funds from the Research tools program. At the time, I was a Program officer at NEH and was closely involved in the review of the proposal for funding and the recommendation for funding. (This direct involvement with the funding proposal meant that I was ineligible, for life, from contributing to the project, even after leaving the Endowment, under Federal conflict-of-interest rules.)
It is symptomatic of the continuing struggle of dance scholarship that the Encyclopedia was not actually published until 1998, some twenty years after the initial planning, having been considered and rejected by several publishers. For more information about the publication, including a list of headwords, sample articles, and ordering information, visit the Web site of Oxford University Press. --JVC, March 1998
Your comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome: jvancamp@csulb.edu
Last updated: March 22, 1998