Ethnochoreology

Ethnochoreology (also dance ethnology, dance anthropology) is the study of dance through the application of a number of disciplines such as anthropology, musicology, ethnomusicology, and ethnography. The word itself is relatively recent and etymologically means “the study of ethnic dance”, though this is not exclusive of research on more formalized dance forms, such as classical ballet, for example. Thus, ethnochoreology reflects the relatively recent attempt to apply academic thought to why people dance and what it means.

Part of a series on the
Anthropology of art,
media, music, dance
and film
Social and cultural anthropology

Ethnochoreology is not just the study or cataloguing of the thousands of external forms of dances—the dance moves, music, costumes, etc.— in various parts of the world, but the attempt to come to grips with dance as existing within the social events of a given community as well as within the cultural history of a community. Dance is not just a static representation of history, not just a repository of meaning, but a producer of meaning each time it is produced—not just a living mirror of a culture, but a shaping part of culture, a power within the culture:

“The power of dance rests in acts of performance by dancers and spectators alike, in the process of making sense of dance… and in linking dance experience to other sets of ideas and social experiences.”[1]

In 1962, the International Council for Traditional Music established a working group that laid the foundations of the field and defined ethnochoreology as a science. Anca Giurchescu, who would later serve as chair of the Study Group on Ethnochoreology from 1998 to 2006, was a member of the 1962 committee.[2][3]

See also

References
  1. John Blacking. (1984) “Dance as Cultural System and Human Capability: An Anthropological Perspective.” in Dance, A Multicultural Perspective. Report of the Third Study of Dance Conference, ed. J. Adshead, 4-21, Guildford, University of Surrey.
  2. Felföldi, László (2015). "Anca Giurchescu (1930–2015)". folkMAGazin (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Táncház Alapítvány. 22 (4): 14. ISSN 1218-912X. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  3. "Anca Giurchescu (1930–2015)" (PDF). Bulletin of the ICTM. London, UK: International Council for Traditional Music. 129: 5–6. October 2015. ISSN 2304-4039. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 March 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
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