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Embodied Nostalgia is a collection of interlocking case studies that focus on how social dance in musical theatre brings forth the dancer on stage as a site of embodied history, cultural memory, and nostalgia, and asks what social dance is doing performatively, dramaturgically, and critically in musical theatre.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part 1: Ragtime – The Heartbeat of the Modern Era
Chapter 1: "Juke joints supposed to be in the woods": Nostalgia for privacy and place in The Color Purple
Chapter 2: "This was a music that was theirs": Ragtime and the Breakdown of Collective Nostalgia
Chapter 3: "Till Georgie Took ‘Em Away": Counter Nostalgia and Cultural Theft in Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed
Part 2: The Charleston – Lively and Liberated
Chapter 4: "Men say it’s criminal what women will do": Thoroughly Modern Millie and Nostalgia for the "New Woman"
Chapter 5: "I need to do the Black Bottom!": Demystifying Nostalgia in The Wild Party
Chapter 6: "I don’t want to show off no more": Parody and Nostalgia Go Toe to Toe in The Drowsy Chaperone
Part Three: Swing Dance – Rally and Rebound
Chapter 7: "Good neighbors – Good neighbors": Wonderful Town and Nostalgia for Lost Communities.
Chapter 8: When Nostalgia is Your Only Hope: Steel Pier and Dance Marathons
Chapter 9: "Get in the game": Destabilizing Nostalgia in the Crisis of Identity in Allegiance
Conclusion: "Just like it was before": The Promise Continues
Index
About the author
Phoebe Rumsey is a Senior Lecturer in Musical Theatre at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. She received her PhD from The Graduate Center, CUNY.
Summary
Embodied Nostalgia is a collection of interlocking case studies that focus on how social dance in musical theatre brings forth the dancer on stage as a site of embodied history, cultural memory, and nostalgia, and asks what social dance is doing performatively, dramaturgically, and critically in musical theatre.
