ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the main concerns of the book. It situates the author in relation to dance and masculinity and positions the book in relation to feminist critiques of dance as art, and of the dance industry. It discusses the way male dancers were initially secondary figures in the field of modern dance as this was developed by female dance innovators, and it notes the more recent reversal of this. It makes the case that male dancers have nevertheless sometimes been able to develop alternative ways of performing and representing masculinities that can trouble or subvert hegemonic norms. It explains that the book does not present a survey of male dance in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, nor does it set out to define or celebrate the achievements of men as professional dancers. Instead it examines a selection of significant developments in the representation of masculinities in Western theatre dance during the last hundred years. A critical reading of these is proposed which grounds them in the social and political contexts within which they were created. It concludes with an overview of the structure of the rest of the book chapter by chapter, and its belief in the enduring possibility of representing new, diverse, alternative, non-discriminatory perceptions of the differences between men and women in theatre dance.
