Oxford Handbook of Dance and Competition

In the twenty-first century, values of competition underpin the free-market economy and aspirations of individual achievement shape the broader social world. Consequently, ideas of winning and losing, success and failure, judgment and worth, influence the dance that we see and do. Across stage, studio, street, and screen, economies of competition impact bodily aesthetics, choreographic strategies, and danced meanings. In formalized competitions, dancers are judged according to industry standards to accumulate social capital and financial gain. Within the capitalist economy, dancing bodies compete to win positions in prestigious companies, while choreographers hustle to secure funding and attract audiences. On the social dance floor, dancers participate in dance-offs that often include unspoken, but nevertheless complex, rules of bodily engagement. And the media attraction to the drama and spectacle of competition regularly plays out in reality television shows, film documentaries, and Hollywood cinema. Drawing upon a diverse collection of dances across history and geography, The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Competition asks how competition affects the presentation and experience of dance and, in response, how dancing bodies negotiate, critique, and resist the aesthetic and social structures of the competition paradigm.

Sherril Dodds is Professor of Dance at Temple University. Her research encompasses dance on screen, popular dance, and cultural theory. She is a founding member of the research network PoP MOVES. Her publications include Dance on Screen (Palgrave, 2001), Dancing on the Canon (Palgrave, 2011), and Bodies of Sound (Ashgate, 2013).

- INTRODUCTION
- Competition Culture: Winning and Losing at Dance
- Sherril Dodds
- PART I: Economic and Social Currencies of Competition
- 1. Taking the Cake: Black Dance, Competition, and Value
- Nadine George-Graves
- 2. You've Got to Sell It! Performing on the Dance Competition Stage
- Karen Schupp
- 3. Competitive Capers: Gender, Gentility, and Dancing in Early Modern England
- Emily Winerock
- 4. Endangered Strangers: Tracking Competition in US Federal Dance Funding
- Sarah Wilbur
- 5. Marking Your Territory: The Struggle to Work in Flamenco
- Kathy Milazzo
- PART II: Re-Choreographing and Re-Presentation for the Competition Frame
- 6. Re-appropriating Choreographies of Authenticity in Mexico: Competitions and The Dance of the Old Men
- Ruth Hellier-Tinoco
- 7. Above and Beyond the Battle: Virtuosity and Excess within Televised Street Dance Crew Competitions
- Laura Robinson
- 8. Shifting Dynamics: Sean Nós Dancing, Vernacular Expression, and the Competitive Arena of the Oireachtas
- Catherine E. Foley
- 9. Visible Rhythms: Competition in English Tap Practice
- Sally Crawford-Shepherd
- PART III: Winning, Participation, and the Negotiation of Meaning
- 10. The International Dancehall Queen Competition: A Discursive Space for Competing Images of Femininity
- Celena Monteiro
- 11. Congratulations, We Wish You Success: Competition and Community Participation in Romanian Dance Festivals
- Liz Mellish
- 12. Non-Competitive Body States: Corporeal Freedom and Innovation in Contemporary Dance
- Nalina Wait and Erin Brannigan
- 13. Reclaiming Competitive Tango: The Rise of Argentina's Campeonato Mundial
- Juliet McMains
- 14. Dance-off or a Battle for the Future: Dance Reality Shows in India
- Pallabi Chakravorty
- PART IV: Judging, Spectatorship, and the Values of Movement
- 15. Miss Exotic World: Judging the Neo-Burlesque Movement
- Kaitlyn Regehr
- 16. Rapper Dance Adjudication: Aesthetics, Discourse, and Decision Making
- Jeremy Carter-Gordon
- 17. Dismantling the Genre: Reality Dance Competitions and Layers of Affective Intensification
- Elena Benthaus
- 18. Why Are Breaking Battles Judged? The Rise of International Competitions
- Mary Fogarty
- 19. Not Another Don Quixote! Negotiating China's Position on the International Ballet Stage
- Rowan McLelland
- PART V: Losing, Failing, and Auto-Critique
- 20. Dancing with the Asian American Stars: Margaret Cho and the Failure to Win
- Yutian Wong
- 21. Loss of Face: Intimidation, Derision, and Failure in the Hip Hop Battle
- Sherril Dodds
- 22. Making Play Work: Competition, Spectacle, and Intersubjectivity in Hybrid Martial Arts
- Janet O'Shea
- 23. You Can't Out-do Black People: Soul Train, Queer Witnessing, and Pleasurable Competition
- Melissa Blanco Borelli
- PART VI: Hidden Agendas and Unspoken Rules
- 24. Freedom to Compete: Neoliberal Contradictions in Gaga Intensives
- Meghan Quinlan
- 25. We'll Rumble 'em Right: Aggression and Play in the Dance-Offs of West Side Story
- Ying Zhu and Daniel Belgrad
- 26. Dancing Like a Man: Competition and Gender in the New Orleans Second Line
- Rachel Carrico
- 27. Man and Money Ready: Challenge Dancing in Antebellum North America
- April F. Masten
- Afterword: Who is Competing?
- Susan Leigh Foster