ABSTRACT
The relationship between dance and its socio-historical context is complex, for dance does not simply 'reflect' the value systems, customs and habits of a society but actively constructs them. It produces as well as re-produces; speaks about society, and to it. Helen Thomas' proposal for a sociology of dance that 'elucidates not only how dance is understandable as a feature of the socio-cultural context of its creation, but also how it constitutes reflexively a significant resource for understanding that context itself (1995: 30) can also be extended to a study of its history.
