Date of Award

2011

Advisor(s)

Edward Cahill

Second Advisor

Amy Aronson

Abstract

Dancing has reached new levels of popularity in America due to its publicity in new television shows over the past seven years. These shows have changed the image and ways of dance world, but more importantly the shows have brought dance into the Public Sphere and allowed the excluded to comment on, and in a way join, the dance world. Furthermore, these shows are bringing forward commentary on subaltern counterparts of two levels. One is dance culture, and those who make dance what it is today, being acknowledged in a greater public. The other refers to subaltern counterparts of a larger society. The shows confront unsaid expectations of race, gender, and sexuality in different ways but all through the vehicle of dance. In recognizing the unsaid expectations that are being exposed and changed, as well as those that are still being left out, the greater public can achieve a new vision of dance and the subaltern counterparts within dance and America. However, it is questionable how the art of dance is being affected through these shows. Are they truly breaking barriers, or manipulating dance for a greater American audience?

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