The World Dances Through Manhattan: International Influences on American Concert Dance, 1943-1960

FAIN: FT-60170-12

Rebekah J. Kowal
University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA 52242-1320)

The World Dances Through Manhattan: Dance Imports in a Globalizing World, 1943-1960 investigates the import of postwar international dance on an increasingly global stage. I seek to understand the significance of performances of foreign dance on the formation of U.S. concert dance forms, such as ballet and modern dance, and in the broader contexts of domestic race relations, state and citizen involvement in global anti-colonialist movements, and U.S. foreign relations, immigration, and trade policies. I query how a globalized perspective on embodied cultural difference during the postwar period complicates our understanding of historic formations of race and ethnicity. My project responds to the NEH's Bridging Cultures initiative and contributes to scholarship examining ways aesthetic movement practices fulfill myriad functions within a socio-cultural sphere.