Elswit, Kate and Bench, Harmony (2022) Visceral Data for Dance Histories: Katherine Dunham’s People, Places, and Pieces. TDR/The Drama Review, 66 (1). pp. 37-61. ISSN 1054-2043

Abstract

Between 1947-60, choreographer Katherine Dunham spent over 5000 days in hundreds of cities on six continents. During that time, almost 200 dancers, drummers, and singers travelled with her, performing over 200 repertory pieces. This essay engages with Dunham as a case study to explore the questions and problems that make data analysis and visualization meaningful for dance historical inquiry. Using a granular approach, we build datasets that elaborate the historical contours of the Dunham company as a porous and dynamic movement community as it traveled extensively through the world. Through this historical dance data, we sketch possible lines of transmission for embodied knowledge, and consider how repertory itself further circulated that knowledge. Dunham’s expansive work lends itself to digital approaches that illuminate the complex ways history is iterated across bodies, and how the specific questions raised by dance history underpin a visceral approach to the digital humanities.

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Official URL:	https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-drama-...
Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Digital Arts and Humanities Movement Technology for Performance Dance History of Theatre, Dance and Performance Transnational and Transcultural Performance Choreography
Depositing User:	Kate Elswit
Date Deposited:	03 Mar 2022 06:53
Last Modified:	24 May 2023 16:51
URI:	https://crco.cssd.ac.uk/id/eprint/1734

Available Versions of this Item

• Visceral Data for Dance Histories: Katherine Dunham’s People, Places, and Pieces, 1947-60. (deposited 16 Aug 2021 06:37)
  • Visceral Data for Dance Histories: Katherine Dunham’s People, Places, and Pieces. (deposited 14 Feb 2022 10:27)
    • Visceral Data for Dance Histories: Katherine Dunham’s People, Places, and Pieces. (deposited 03 Mar 2022 06:53) [Currently Displayed]