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Subject Portal » Dance » Course Guides »
DANC 022 : History of Dance: Europe to 1900 (SC)
Finding Background Information:
International encyclopedia of dance
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 1998.
Contains good articles on early dance styles each with a bibliography for further research.
Western Social Dance: An Overview (Library of Congress)
The Library of Congress has put together an excellent dance history website called "Dance Instruction Manuals ca.1490-1920". Along with digitized copies of dance manuals, video clips of dance steps, and bibliographies, there are useful overviews which outline historical development, important choreographers, and dances of the following periods:
Burgundian Dance in the Late Middle Ages;
Renaissance Dance;
Transition From Renaissance Dance To Baroque Dance;
Baroque Dance;
Late Eighteenth-Century Social Dance;
Nineteenth Century Social Dance;
Burgundian Dance in the Late Middle Ages;
Renaissance Dance;
Transition From Renaissance Dance To Baroque Dance;
Baroque Dance;
Late Eighteenth-Century Social Dance;
Nineteenth Century Social Dance;
Society of Dance History Scholars’ Online Resources
Includes links to websites relevant to specific periods of dance history and specific genres of dance.
Le Brun's Passions of the Human Mind
Written by the premier painter to Louis XIV examining the facial expression of emotions.
Finding Videos:
Dance History Videos in the Tri-Colleges
A customized search in Tripod.
New York Baroque Dance Company
Excerpts of NYBDC past performances. Demonstrations and Lectures by the NYBDC may also be viewed at the website of the Kennedy Center.
Dance Instruction Manuals Video Directory (Library of Congress)
Describes the 75 video clips arranged by historical period that illustrate portions of the Dance Instruction Manuals. Entries provide links to the clips themselves and also to the particular pages in the manuals where that dance is discussed.
Finding Books:
Dance History Books in the Tri-Colleges
A customized Tripod search.
New York Public Library Dance Collection Catalog
The NYPL Dance Catalog lists works about all forms of dance, from all cultures, in print and other media. It includes materials in many languages and serves as an index to an international range of dance periodicals.
WorldCat
This is a gigantic catalog of materials owned by libraries all over the world listing books, journals, scores, sound recordings, videos, websites, and manuscript collections.
Finding Journal Articles:
ProQuest Research Library
Provider: ProQuest
Provides online access to an extensive collection of full-text articles from journals across a wide range of subject areas, including including dance, theatre, and music. Covers 1971-present.
Arts & humanities citation index
Provider: ISI
A multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities with selected, relevant items from major science and social science journals. References to and from journal articles can also be searched. Swarthmore has access to the AHCI from 1975 to the present through Web of Science.
JSTOR
Provides full-text and page images from many of the top journals in
most academic disciplines. Coverage is from the inception of the
journal through three to five years ago.
International index to the performing arts
Publisher: [Alexandria, Va.] : Chadwyck-Healey, Inc.,
Provides abstracts and full-text to journal articles from 1864-present.
RILM abstracts of music literature
Provider: CSA
Covers material published in music and various other fields as they relate to music. Records appear in over a hundred languages. The majority of citations include abstracts. Articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, conference proceedings, discographies, dissertations, Festschriften, films, and videos are all covered by RILM. Concert reviews, recording notes, and pedagogical manuals if they are of scholarly interest.
Getting Materials not at Swarthmore:
Evaluating Sources:
Scholarly Journals vs. Popular Magazine Articles (USTA Library)
This page compares the two types of publications on several levels, including language, structure of articles, editorial procedures, and credits.
Evaluating Information Found on the Internet (Johns Hopkins University Library)
Discusses the criteria by which scholars in most fields evaluate print information, and shows how the same criteria can be used to assess information found on the Internet.
Citing Sources:
Guidelines for style and the documentation of sources for scholarly papers in music and dance follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. The manual is not available online but thorough explanations can be found in the Chicago/Turabian Documentation section of the UW-Madison Writing Center website. Citing the notes that accompany sound recordings and scores can be tricky. Williams College has a good citation guide for non-book formats.