This work provides a direct line into the most pressing issues in contemporary dance scholarship, as well as discussion of the ways in which which dance contributes to and creates culture. Instead of representing a single viewpoint, the essays in this volume reflect a range of perspectives. The contributors confront basic questions of definition and interpretation within dance studies, while at the same time examining broader issues, such as the body, gender, class, race, nationalism and cross-cultural exchange. Specific essays address such topics as the black male body in dance, gender and subversions in the dances of Mark Morris, race and nationalism in Martha Graham's American Document, and the history of oriental dance. The text should be of interest to historians and critics in a variety of fields. It offers students, scholars and critics of performance and culture an overview of the debates swirling within dance, as well as research articles in dance history, theory and criticism.