Ethnochoreology

Part of a series on the
Anthropology of art, media, music, dance and film
Basic concepts Color symbolism Visual culture Body culture Material culture New media
Case studies Art Art of the Americas Indigenous Australian art Oceanic art Film Nanook of the North The Ax Fight Nǃai, the Story of a ǃKung Woman Incidents of Travel in Chichen Itza The Doon School Quintet
Museums National Anthropological Archives Centro Cultural Mexiquense Museum of Anthropology at UBC Museum of Anthropology, Cambridge Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Robert Hull Fleming Museum List of museums
Related articles Ethnographic film Video ethnography Ethnocinema List of ethnographic films Margaret Mead Film Festival Cantometrics Museum anthropology Salvage ethnography Tribal art/Folk art
Major theorists Tim Asch Gregory Bateson Franz Boas Pierre Bourdieu John Collier Frances Densmore Robert J. Flaherty Robert Gardner Alfred Gell Robert Hugh Layton Claude Lévi-Strauss Alan Lomax John Marshall Margaret Mead Alan Merriam Bruno Nettl Hortense Powdermaker Jean Rouch David MacDougall
Social and cultural anthropology
v t e

Ethnochoreology (also dance ethnology, dance anthropology) is the study of dance through the application of a number of disciplines such as anthropology, musicology, ethnomusicology, and ethnography. The word itself is relatively recent and etymologically means "the study of ethnic dance", though this is not exclusive of research on more formalized dance forms, such as classical ballet, for example. Thus, ethnochoreology reflects the relatively recent attempt to apply academic thought to why people dance and what it means.

Ethnochoreology is not just the study or cataloguing of the thousands of external forms of dances—the dance moves, music, costumes, etc.— in various parts of the world, but the attempt to come to grips with dance as existing within the social events of a given community as well as within the cultural history of a community. Dance is not just a static representation of history, not just a repository of meaning, but a producer of meaning each time it is produced—not just a living mirror of a culture, but a shaping part of culture, a power within the culture: "The power of dance rests in acts of performance by dancers and spectators alike, in the process of making sense of dance… and in linking dance experience to other sets of ideas and social experiences."^[1]

Dance whether social, ritual or even theatrical, is inherent in a complex web of relationships. He interprets the socially predetermined and meaningful ways of movement and, of course, the history of dance groups in specific societies. In this way dance is "a social text" complex, multifaceted and constantly evolving.^[2] Additionally, dance as a social practice acts according to space and time, becoming expressions of everyday life and the respective social structure that comes in contact. Moreover, dance, apart from allowing people to express themselves, is a focal social, cultural process related to human identity, contributes to "structure and diffuse cultural meaning"^[3] and can cultivate an interactive and practical narrative imbued with political views.^[4]

Ethnochoreology, dance ethnology, and dance anthropology are closely related fields of study, with slightly varying and often overlapping histories and methodologies.