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GENRE, MUSIC AND SOUND SERIES: VOLUME 6
MOVIES, MOVES AND MUSIC: The Sonic World of Dance Films
Edited by Dr Pauline Manley and Dr Mark Evans
Published by Equinox, London

About the Volume

Over the last 40 years, while the musical film has faded from its 
historical high-point to a more isolated and quirky phenomenon, the dance 
film has displayed refulgent growth and surprising resilience. A phenomena 
of modern movie-making, the dance film has spawned profitable global 
enterprises (Billy Elliot), has fashioned youthful angst as sociological 
voice (Saturday Night Fever, Footloose and Dirty Dancing) and acted as a 
marker of post-modern ironic camp (Strictly Ballroom). This modern genre 
has influenced cinema as a whole in the ways bodies are made dimensional, 
in the way rhythm and energy are communicated, and in the filmic capacity 
to create narrative worlds without words.

Emerging as a distinct (sub) genre in the 1970s, dance film has been 
crafting its own meta-narrative and aesthetic paradigms that, nonetheless, 
display extraordinary variety. Ranging from the experimental, 'you are 
there' sonic explorations of Robert Altman's The Company and the brutal 
energy of David La Chappelle's Rize to the lighter 'backstage musical' form 
displayed in Centre Stage and Save the Last Dance, this genre has garnered 
both commercial and artistic success.

Meanwhile, Bollywood has become a juggernaut, creating transportable memory 
for diasporic Indian communities across the world. This is an entire 
industry based on the 'dance number', where films are pitched around the 
choreography, where the actors are not expected to sing, but they must dance.

This series of essays will investigate the relationship between movement 
and sound as it is revealed, manipulated and crafted in the dance film 
genre. It will consider the role of all aspects of sound in the dance film, 
including the dancer generated sounds inherent in Tap, Flamenco, Irish 
Dance and Krumping. Drawing on significant post-War dance films from around 
world, this volume will finally address this mainstream genre, where image 
and sound meet in a crucial symbiosis.

Requirements:

Please send a 250 word abstract to the e-mail address listed below. 
Abstracts would be due by August 15 2010.  Final articles would be due mid 
January 2011.

This volume will focus on the feature dance film rather music video or 
musicals. We are especially interested in avant-garde, hip hop, Bollywood 
and commercial 'backstage' dance films, but articles which fall outside 
these categories are also encouraged.

Finalised articles should be between 6000-8000 words.

Please note that acceptance of the proposal does not guarantee publication 
and all chapters will be subject to normal processes of peer review. Please 
send proposals and further enquiries to

Dr Pauline Manley
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]

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