Bodies swayed to music: dance culture in Ireland

McLaughlin, N

doi:10.1080/0967088042000192130

Cited by 3 publications

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“…Exceptions are O’Connor’s work on jazz and ballroom dance (2003, 2005, 2014), limited radio and television commemoration of showband culture ( A Little Bit Showband Part 1 ; Irish Showbands, 2012) and occasional representations in literature such as Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture (2008) and William Trevor’s 1976 short story, The Ballroom of Romance (followed by a 1982 RTE television production). The enormous popularity of electronic dance music since the 1990s has allowed for some remedying of this situation (Bell, 1993; Braine, 2003; Folklore from the Dance Floor, 2012; McLoughlin, 2006; Tarpey, 2011), but significant gaps remain in the history of social dance in Ireland.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A dancing agency: Jazz, modern and ballroom dancers in Ireland between 1940 and 1960

Shanagher¹

2016

Irish Journal of Sociology

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Studies of social dance in Ireland between the 1930s and 1950s have generally focused on either the disciplined body of ‘Irish dance’ or on the process of disciplining those who favoured non-traditional dance forms. As a result, important aspects of social dance have been obscured. This article assesses the importance of non-traditional forms such as jazz by foregrounding the agency of its participants. It draws primarily on an ethnography of dance culture in Co. Roscommon. The approach has also been inflected by a reflexive dimension that positions the researcher within the research frame. Drawing on developments in dance anthropology, such reflexivity can operate as a useful epistemological tool that problematises the notion of objective research. The main research findings are (1) that dancers during the period, in the face of considerable opposition from cultural nationalists, participated in the construction of a vibrant, cosmopolitan and transgressive dance culture and (2) that dancing pleasures related to music, ‘communitas’ and ‘flow’ formed a central element of these dancing experiences. By according the voices of dance participants – including that of the researcher – a central place, this article places the emphasis squarely on ‘a dancing agency’.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%