![[cupola]](/img/cupola.jpg)
History of Dance
Online Catalog
Use the Online Catalog to locate books, microforms, films, and other materials in the Reynolds Library. Search by Author or Title in the Basic search or by keywords or phrases in the Guided Keyword search.
Dance materials are concentrated on Reynolds 7, at GV1580-1799.4. This section is divided by history and by types of dance:
- GV1621-1641 - Dancing-History-Americas
- GV1781-1790 - Theatrical Dancing, Ballet
Other subject areas to consider are:
- ML3400+ - Music and Dance
- RC489 D3 - Dance Therapy
- TR817.5+ - Dance Photography
Each book record in the online catalog also contains Library of Congress Subject Headings, which can help you locate books on a similar topic. Click on the subject heading in the online catalog to go to a list of books that share that subject heading. Some examples of subject headings include:
- Dance History
- Dance United States History
- Ballet dancing
- Ballet history
- Ballet United States
- Jazz dance
- Afro Americans Dancing History
- Afro-American dance
- Modern dance
- Modern dance history
The names of individual dances, dancers, choreographers or companies are also included as subject headings:
- American Ballet Theatre
- Flamenco
- Cunningham, Merce
- Diaghilev, Serge
Reference Resources
Use Reference Resources to get background information on an dancer, piece of choreography or terminology. Many of these sources include bibliographies which list additional books and journal articles that would be useful for further research on the topic. All Reference materials are shelved on Wilson 4. These are selections from the available resources:
- Appreciating Dance Ref GV1601 L54 2002
- Biographical Dictionary of Dance Ref GV1785 A1 C58 1982
- Dance Words Ref GV1585 P74 1995
- Fifty Contemporary Choreographers Ref GV1785.A1 B74 1999
- Film Choreographers and Dance Directors Ref GV1779 B55 1997 (1893-1995)
- International Dictionary of Ballet (2 vols.) Ref GV1585 I57 1993
- International Dictionary of Modern Dance Ref GV1585 B46 1998
-
International Encyclopedia of Dance
(6 vols.) Ref GV1585 I586 1998
(good overview articles)
- New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Ref ML100.N48 2000 and online
- Oxford Dictionary of Dance Ref GV1585 C73 2000 and online
Bibliographies
- Black Dance: An Annotated Bibliography Z7514 D2 A33 1989
- Dancers and Choreographers GV1785 A1 G47 1995
- Research in Dance, A Guide to Resources Ref GV1594 B67 1994
Print Indexes
- Bibliographic Guide to Dance (New York Public Library) Ref Z7514 D2 N462
- Biography Index (for people; 1946-present) Ref CT100 B56
- Humanities Index Ref AI3 H8x
-
Index to Dance Periodicals
Ref GV1594 I64
annual guide that organizes references to current periodical literature on dance and dance-related topics, 1993-2001.
Online Databases
Use electronic databases to find journal articles, book chapters and reviews. The library has over 200 databases for finding journal articles. In the left sidebar, expand the Subject List under Arts and Humanities and go to Performing Arts to find databases relevent to Dance.
Remember, these databases include articles from scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers. If your professor requires that you use scholarly journal articles for your project, take a look at this checklist to see if your articles are appropriate! When in doubt, ASK your professor or a librarian!
Arts Databases
-
Art Index (for dance costume, dance in relation to art and vice versa, exhibitions involving dance)
"Provides citations from over 250 publications such as periodicals, yearbooks, museum bulletins, exhibition listings, interviews, and film reviews. Also indexes reproductions of works of art that appear in indexed periodicals. Subjects covered include: advertising art, antiques, archaeology, architecture and architectural history, art history, crafts, decorative arts, folk art, graphic arts, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture, motion pictures and film, museology, non-western art, painting, photography, pottery, sculpture, television, and textiles."
-
Communication and Mass Media Complete (full-text)
"Covers communication and mass media. CMMC incorporates CommSearch and Mass Media Articles Index."
-
Oxford Art Online
"Covers art and culture from prehistory to the 1990s. Its multicultural approach offers detailed analyses of civilizations from Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific. Provides a guide to the visual arts: painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, drawing, and printmaking, as well as the decorative arts."
-
Oxford Music Online
"Covers all aspects of music worldwide, including composers, performers, other persons involved with music, terminology, musical genres and forms, orchestras, institutions, and cities and towns with significant musical traditions."
-
International Index of the Performing Arts-IIPA (with abstracts)
"Indexes and abstracts over 130 international performing arts periodicals from 9 countries, as well as performing arts articles and obituaries appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Covers nearly all aspects of the world of the performing arts, from the most scholarly studies to the latest crazes."
-
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
"An international listing of scholarly writings, with summaries, on music and related disciplines. Includes citations to journal articles, books, dissertations, films, videos, conference proceedings, etc."
-
Web of Science (Arts and Humanities Citation Index)
"Contains three ISI Citation Databases (Sciences, Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences), which together index over 8,000 peer-reviewed journals. It provides bibliographic data, author abstracts, and cited references. Useful for searching databases for articles that cite a known author or work. Citation searching also allows a researcher to use a given work as a subject term in order to identify more recent articles about the same topic."
Full-text, Multi-subject Databases
(index journal, magazine, and newspaper articles)
-
Academic Search Premier
"Provides abstracts, indexing, and full-text for journals covering the social sciences, humanities, education, and more."
-
JSTOR
"A full-text database of archived issues of academic journals. Since JSTOR is a backfiles project, a typical coverage range is the beginning of a journal until three or five years ago."
-
Project MUSE
"Provides access to the full text of over 100 scholarly journals in the arts and humanities and social sciences."
-
ProQuest
"Contains articles covering the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and business. Databases include Research Library, Ethnic NewsWatch, and ProQuest Religion."
Historical Databases
-
America: History and Life
"America: History and Life provides abstracts and citations from reviews and dissertations about the history and culture of the United States and Canada from the earliest recorded times to the present. See Historical Abstracts for world history."
-
Historical Abstracts (history other than the U.S. and Canada)
"Historical Abstracts provides indexing and abstracts for journal articles, books, and dissertations covering the history of the world from 1450 -- except the U.S. and Canada. For similar coverage of the U.S. and Canada, use America History and Life."
Sport
-
Physical Education Index
"Topics include physical education curricula, sports medicine, dance, sport law, kinesiology, motor learning, recreation, standardized fitness tests, sports equipment, business and marketing, coaching and training, sport sociology/psychology, health education and physical therapy."
-
SPORT Discus (covers sport, fitness and dance)
"Citations and some abstracts from periodicals, books, conference proceedings, dissertations and theses, research papers, etc. SPORTDiscus covers the areas of: sport, physical fitness, sport science and recreation."
Locating a Journal
Find out if the Library subscribes to the journal you need through the Journals page. If we subscribe to the journal, the catalog will display information regarding print and/or electronic versions of the journal. You can also use the "subject browse" feature to view journals by subject are (selected journals only).
Remember, if Reynolds Library does not have the journal (or book) that you need, request it via Interlibrary Loan. Current dance periodicals are located in the Reference Department, shelved by call number.
Back to topWebsites
After you have consulted books and journal articles, you may also want to use web resources. Take a look at this page as you evalute the websites you find. These sites contain reliable information:
- American Ballet Theatre Library
- Cyberdance! (ballet)
- Free to Dance (African-American dancers and choreographers)
- Great Performances-Dance
- Infomine (Search within Visual & Performing Arts)
- Internet Broadway Database (IBDB)
- Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
- Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
- New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- Renaissance Dance
- Society of Dance History Scholars
- Voice of the Shuttle
Citing Your Sources
The latest editions of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian) are available in exchange for an ID at the Reference Desk in the Library.
Back to topNeed Help?
Good luck in your search! If you are not finding enough information, ask:
- Kaeley McMahan, Reference, 758-4661, AIM:kaeleymc
- Request a Personal Research Session
- call the Reference Desk for help at ext. 5475