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Explores the literary and cultural significance of the unruly solo dancer in the ancient Greek world.
List of contents
Introduction: Dance, Literature, and Culture; 1. The Fantastic Phaeacians: Virtuosity, Competition, and Dance in the Odyssey; 2. Io's Dance: Human Mobility and Divine Authority in Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound; 3. Dance at Work: Performance and Identity in Euripides' Ion; 4. Dance and Dissonance: The Innovative Choreography of Aristophanes' Wasps; 5. Staging Madwomen: Dance and Dramatic Form in Euripides and Aristophanes; 6. Agency, Narrative, and the Dancing Girl; 7. Dance History;Conclusion: Reading Dance with Lucian.
About the author
Sarah Olsen is an Assistant Professor of Classics at Williams College, Massachusetts. She has published on Greek literature and culture from Homer to Heliodorus, with articles on such topics as sexuality in the ancient novel, the representation of dance in Greek vase painting, and the conceptualization of kinesthetic empathy in Greek poetry and philosophy. Her recent article on female sympotic dancers, which was published in both French and English in the interdisciplinary gender studies journal Clio, received the Barbara McManus award (2019) from the Women's Classical Caucus for excellence in scholarship on women or gender in antiquity. She maintains membership in both the Society for Classical Studies and the Dance Studies Association, and she has presented work and organized panels at both venues.
Summary
This is the first investigation of solo dancers in Archaic and Classical Greek literature. It demonstrates that dancing alone signifies transgression and vulnerability in the Greek cultural imagination, and that the solo dancer is a powerful figure for literary exploration and experimentation in a wide variety of Greek genres.
