Analysing Performance

A wide-ranging collection of specially commissioned essays by contributors of international standing about key aspects of the performing arts Analysing performance is a wide-ranging collection of specially commissioned essays by contributors of international standing about key aspects of the performing arts.Each chapter tackles the theory and practice of contemporary performance work, and enables students and teachers to see what is at stake in analysing dance, drama, music and videos. The commitment to cross-disciplinary approaches mirrors the breakdown of boundaries between these art forms in today's multi-media world. How do postmodernist, feminist or psychoanalytic readings construct performance worlds? What is the impact of multiculturalism on the language of theatre? What are the dynamics between AIDS, representation and live art? How does one talk about 'the body' in contemporary dance forms? Each chapter in this important critical reader tackles the theory and practice of modern performance work, and enables students and teachers to see what is at stake in analysing dance, drama, music and videos using contemporary critical theories. Including Elizabeth Wright on psychoanalysis, Baz Kershaw on the politics of performance, Jatinder Verma on multiculturalism, E. Ann Kaplan on MTV and video, Lizabeth Goodman on feminism and AIDS, Stephen Connor on postmodernism and many others.