ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on a consideration of certain aspects of developments in dance research that have taken place over the past several years that bear witness to a shift of interests towards the social, cultural sciences, and humanities. The aim is to assess the value and/or the problems that arise from the growing predilection in what might be called “new” dance studies1 (evidence of which is readily available in this collection) to graft discourses stemming from literary and/or cultural studies, particularly those informed by poststructuralism and postmodernism, onto the analysis of dance. In the course of this, the paper will also consider what it is about these discourses that makes them so appealing to dance writers. This will entail some lengthy diversions away from dance towards a discussion of certain points of reference that seem to underpin the discourses. The paper will center on writing that addresses western theatrical dance, although the aforementioned discourses have also had an impact on dance analyses that are not centered on performance (see, for example, Cowan 1990, Novack 1990, Sklar 1991).2
