Research Guides: Dance: A Guide to Research and Resources: Dance Encyclopedias & Resources

Locating Printed & Electronic Books

All books cited in this guide are available in either electronic or printed form, with some in both options. To connect to an e-book, click the citation link, and then click on the link under Online in the catalog record, which leads to the book on a publisher or vendor website. In most cases, access is available only to authorized Princeton users. To locate printed books in the Mendel collection, click on "Where to find it" beneath "Location" in the catalog record. E-books sometimes bear dates later than the print but do not necessarily offer corrected or revised texts of the print version.

Encyclopedias

The Oxford Dictionary of Dance by Debra Craine & Judith Mackrell
Call Number: Stacks (MUS) GV1585 .C78 2010 (print version)
Publication Date: 2010
The Oxford Dictionary of Dance has over 2,600 entries on all aspects of dance performance including detailed entries on technical terms, steps, styles, works and countries, in addition to many biographies of dancers, choreographers, and companies.
International Encyclopedia of Dance by Selma Jeanne Cohen (editor)
Call Number: Reference (SV) GV1585 .I586 1998 (print version)
Publication Date: 2004
Containing nearly 2,000 articles, the International Encyclopedia of Dance has been the definitive source on this expressive art form, documenting all types of dance around the world and throughout history.
The Queer Encyclopedia of Music, Dance, and Musical Theater by Claude J. Summers
Call Number: Stacks (MUS) ML100 .Q44 2004
Publication Date: 2004
Volume of over 200 articles by scholars of GLBTQ composers, singers, musicians, dancers, and choreographers across eras and styles.

Online Resources

Appreciating Ballet's Music
Online book by Katherine Teck consisting of essays and a resource guide with links to performances

Ballet Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Ballet Dictionary
Offers definitions of French terms for steps, positions, movements, and other technical terms. Compiled by the American Ballet Theatre.

The Encyclopedia of World Ballet by Mary Ellen Snodgrass
Call Number: Reference (SV) GV1585 .S66 2015 (print version)
Publication Date: 2015
Surveys the emergence of ballet from ancient Asian models to the present, providing overviews of rhythmic movement as a subject of art, photography, and cinema.

Research Companions

The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Competition (Online) by Sherril Dodds (editor)
Call Number: GV1588.6 .O84 2019 (print version)
Publication Date: 2018
Asks how competition affects the presentation andexperience of dance and, in response, how dancing bodies negotiate, critique, and resist the aesthetic and social structures of the competition paradigm.
The Oxford Handbook of Improvisation in Dance (Online) by Vida L. Midgelow (editor)
Call Number: GV1781.2 .O94 2019 (print version)
Publication Date: 2019
Chapters include: Life Worlds and Ethics; Attunement and Perception; Habit, Freedom, and Resistance; Memory and Transmission; Agency and Transformation; Interconnectivity, Emergence, and Technologies; Ecology and Environments; Techniques, Strategies, and Histories
The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Politics (Online) by Rebekah J. Kowal , et al. (editors)
Call Number: GV1588.45 .O94 2017 (print version)
Publication Date: 2017
Examines dance through the lense of political philosophy, interests in social movements, and approaches to bodily difference such as disability, postcolonial, critical race, and queer studies.
The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Wellbeing (Online) by Vicky Karkou, et al. (editors)
Call Number: GV1588.5 .O84 2017 (print version)
Publication Date: 2017
Examines dance and related movement practices from the perspectives of neuroscience and health, community and education, and psychology and sociology to contribute towards an understanding of wellbeing, offer new insights into existing practices, and create a space where sufficient exchange is enabled.
The Oxford Handbook of Dance and the Popular Screen (Online) by Melissa Blanco Borelli (editor)
Call Number: GV1779 .O95 2014 (print version)
Publication Date: 2014
Sets the agenda for the study of dance in popular moving images - films, television shows, commercials, music videos, and YouTube - and offers new ways to understand the multi-layered meanings of the dancing body by engaging with methodologies from critical dance studies, performance studies, and film/media analysis.
The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Ethnicity by Anthony Shay & Barbara Sellers-Young(editors)
Call Number: GV1588.6 .O84 2016 (print version)
Publication Date: 2016; January 2013 (e-version)
Sections include: Dance in the Construction of Ethnic Identity, Dance as a Display of Ethnicity and Nationalism, Creating New Identities through the Dances of the "Other," and Dance as Form of Ethnic Resistance.
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Dance and Philosophy by Rebecca L. Farinas & Julie Van Camp (editors)
Call Number: GV1588 .B56 2021
Publication Date: 2021
Covers the topics of Philosophy practice and how it corresponds to dance; Movement, embodiment and temporality; Philosophy and dance traditions in everyday life; The intersection between dance and technology; and Critical reflections on dance.