Facial Choreographies: Performing the Face in Popular Dance
The face contributes a vital, yet often overlooked, component of dance performance. Facial Choreographies: Performing the Face in Popular Dance examines what the face does in dance and what it may mean. Author Sherril Dodds focuses on popular presentational dance, which permits the face to be one of excess and spectacle, as well as disclosure or deception. The concept of facial choreography resists the idea that the expressive countenance in dance is simply by chance, and instead conceives its movement as purposeful, creative, and communicative.

The book centers on three facial case studies: global celebrity Michael Jackson, whose face has occupied a site of fervent controversy; Maddie Ziegler, child star of the reality television series Dance Moms and de facto face of pop star Sia; and a community of hip hop dancers who engage in fiercely contested dance battles. Chapters are organized according to action-expressions, actively working even in times of stillness: SMILE, LOOK, FROWN, CRY, SCREAM, and LAUGH. Across each case study, the book explores pedagogies of facial composition, the purpose of codified expressions, and how dancers re-choreograph their faces as a critical unworking of what a dancing visage might represent. Facial choreographies engender opportunity for startling creativity, the articulation of identity, a cathartic expression of emotions and attitudes, and the capacity to dismantle previously held assumptions. As the dancing face tauntingly slips between visual, sensory, and kinetic registers it ensures that nothing can be taken at face value.
1143953389
Facial Choreographies: Performing the Face in Popular Dance
The face contributes a vital, yet often overlooked, component of dance performance. Facial Choreographies: Performing the Face in Popular Dance examines what the face does in dance and what it may mean. Author Sherril Dodds focuses on popular presentational dance, which permits the face to be one of excess and spectacle, as well as disclosure or deception. The concept of facial choreography resists the idea that the expressive countenance in dance is simply by chance, and instead conceives its movement as purposeful, creative, and communicative.

The book centers on three facial case studies: global celebrity Michael Jackson, whose face has occupied a site of fervent controversy; Maddie Ziegler, child star of the reality television series Dance Moms and de facto face of pop star Sia; and a community of hip hop dancers who engage in fiercely contested dance battles. Chapters are organized according to action-expressions, actively working even in times of stillness: SMILE, LOOK, FROWN, CRY, SCREAM, and LAUGH. Across each case study, the book explores pedagogies of facial composition, the purpose of codified expressions, and how dancers re-choreograph their faces as a critical unworking of what a dancing visage might represent. Facial choreographies engender opportunity for startling creativity, the articulation of identity, a cathartic expression of emotions and attitudes, and the capacity to dismantle previously held assumptions. As the dancing face tauntingly slips between visual, sensory, and kinetic registers it ensures that nothing can be taken at face value.
39.95 In Stock
Facial Choreographies: Performing the Face in Popular Dance

Facial Choreographies: Performing the Face in Popular Dance

by Sherril Dodds
Facial Choreographies: Performing the Face in Popular Dance

Facial Choreographies: Performing the Face in Popular Dance

by Sherril Dodds

Paperback

$39.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    In stock. Ships in 3-7 days. Typically arrives in 3 weeks.
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview

The face contributes a vital, yet often overlooked, component of dance performance. Facial Choreographies: Performing the Face in Popular Dance examines what the face does in dance and what it may mean. Author Sherril Dodds focuses on popular presentational dance, which permits the face to be one of excess and spectacle, as well as disclosure or deception. The concept of facial choreography resists the idea that the expressive countenance in dance is simply by chance, and instead conceives its movement as purposeful, creative, and communicative.

The book centers on three facial case studies: global celebrity Michael Jackson, whose face has occupied a site of fervent controversy; Maddie Ziegler, child star of the reality television series Dance Moms and de facto face of pop star Sia; and a community of hip hop dancers who engage in fiercely contested dance battles. Chapters are organized according to action-expressions, actively working even in times of stillness: SMILE, LOOK, FROWN, CRY, SCREAM, and LAUGH. Across each case study, the book explores pedagogies of facial composition, the purpose of codified expressions, and how dancers re-choreograph their faces as a critical unworking of what a dancing visage might represent. Facial choreographies engender opportunity for startling creativity, the articulation of identity, a cathartic expression of emotions and attitudes, and the capacity to dismantle previously held assumptions. As the dancing face tauntingly slips between visual, sensory, and kinetic registers it ensures that nothing can be taken at face value.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780197620373
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 12/12/2023
Pages: 264
Product dimensions: 8.90(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Sherril Dodds is Professor of Dance at Temple University. Her books include Dance on Screen, Dancing on the Canon, Bodies of Sound (co-edited with Susan C. Cook), The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Competition, and The Bloomsbury Companion to Dance Studies. She has been a visiting scholar at Trondheim University in Norway, Griffith University in Australia, Stanford University in the USA, and Blaise-Pascal University in France. She was awarded the 2015 Gertrude Lippincott prize for her article, “The Choreographic Interface: Dancing Facial Expression in Hip Hop and Neo-burlesque Striptease.”

Table of Contents

About Face
The Face in Performance
Performing the Habitual Face
The Work of Facial Choreography

SMILE
Michael Jackson and the Pedagogy of a Smile
The Tenacity of the Minstrel Smile
Maddie Ziegler and the Billion-Dollar Smile
Smiling Towards Happiness

LOOK
(En)Visioning the World
Performances of Looking in Hip Hop
Feeling the Gaze in Battles
Check out the B-Girls

FROWN
Michael Jackson and The Intention to be Bad
Frowning and Facial Signifyin(g)
Mythologies of Mean Mugging in Breaking
Mugsy, Bugsy, and Keeping it Real

CRY
The Surrogate Face of a Reluctant Celebrity
Sia and Big Girls Cry
Maddie Ziegler and her Affective Cry
A Cry of Outrage

SCREAM
Re-Facing Michael Jackson
Defacement, Freakery, And Race
A Choreographic Scream
Michael Jackson: The Commodity and the Cut

LAUGH
The Viral Face of Maddie Ziegler
Maddie, Eddie, and a Wookie
Laughter and Derision in Hip Hop Battles
Tickling the Cypher Crowd
Face the Facts

Bibliography
Index
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews