ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the second part of this book. The second part of the book deals with some of the details of historical work, in researching and communicating the results of research. It highlights the role of ideology in allowing some voices to be heard and suppressing others. The book examines the convention of dividing sources into 'primary' and 'secondary' as if some sources hold unmediated truths. It considers the goal of archiving and history-making, with and for the local dance community, as an aspect of artistic empowerment and political activism which must not be divorced from the community itself, whose members are themselves embodied historical sources. Different theoretical frameworks bring to light new interpretations of our dance contexts. The plotting of a dance historical narrative can take a number of temporal pathways, focusing on short to very long time spans.
