Because your research projects will be approached from a number of different angles, the databases listed below represent a variety of disciplines. When you identify items of interest, try using the “FIND IT” link to help you get your hand on the cited item or search Tripod under "title" or "journal title" to see if the items are held within the Tri-Colleges. If something you need is not available on Swarthmore’s campus then it can be requested through our interlibrary loan services.
Subject Portal » Dance » Course Guides »
DANC 038 : Dance and the Sacred (SC)
Exploring:
International encyclopedia of dance
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 1998.
This six-volume set is a good starting point for dance research with great articles and bibliographies. The index is in volume 6.
The Sacred Dance Guild
An international, multicultural, interfaith, non-profit organization with a mission to "promote sacred dance as prayer, and as a means of spiritual growth, connection to the Divine, and integration of mind, body, and spirit."
Gurdjieff International Review
Informed essays and commentary on the history, writings, and teachings of George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff including information on Gurdjieff "Movements" or sacred dance.
Authentic Movement Institute
"exploring the inter-weaving of the creative, psychological and sacred through the unique body-based process of Authentic Movement."
Contemplative Dance Workshops
"Movement as spiritual practice, artistic resource, and psychological narrative."
What a Body Knows
Kimerer L. LaMothe's blog.
Google Scholar, Advanced Search
A good way to explore. Notice that some of your search results offer the "Find it @ Swarhtmore" link.
Finding Videos & Books:
TRIPOD (Tri-College Library Catalog)
Use Tripod (shared with Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges) to find recorded performances of the works you want to explore and to find books and essays on your topic. Here are some searching hints:
- Keyword Searches: Start with words used to describe your topic. Try a variety of words and include the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to explore many possibilities.
- Subject Headings Searches: Tripod uses Library of Congress subject headings. They are not always intuitive and sometimes antiquated. For example, the official term for movies or films is "motion pictures". Instead of starting with a subject heading search you may want to start with a keyword search. Browse through the list of results until you find something that looks relevant to your research. Click on the link and look through the description of the item to find "official" library terminology for the topic. You can then click on the links in Tripod labeled, "Subject" such as Dance -- Religious Aspects or Religious Dance.
- Limiting Searches: You can limit searches in two ways. Before you begin searching you can choose a specialized search such as "Videos/DVDs". Also, after getting search results you can click on the "limit/sort search" button or the "modify search" button to refine your results.
- Tri-Co Requesting: Use the "Request" button to have materials delivered to Swarthmore from Bryn Mawr or Haverford.
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 writings. The New York Public Library's catalog can help you identify materials that, if not owned in the Tri-Colleges, can be requested through interlibrary loan.
WorldCat
This is a gigantic catalog of materials owned by libraries all over the world including videos, books, and websites. WorldCat will help you identify materials that, if not owned in the Tri-Colleges, can be requested through interlibrary loan.
Dance on Video
from UC Berkeley
Finding Journal Articles:
ProQuest Research Library
Provider: ProQuest
Provides citations and full-text magazine and journal articles in a wide variety of disciplines, both scholarly and popular in scope. Covers 1971-present.
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. Covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry including dance, film, television, theater, opera, and broadcasting. Covers 1864-present.
Arts & humanities citation index
Provider: ISI
Multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities with selected, relevant items from major science and social science journals. Covers 1975- present.
ATLA religion database + ATLAS
Provider: Ovid
Provides online access to the entire core collection of more than fifty significant scholarly journals in the field of religion. Also provides citation information for journal articles, book reviews and essays for over 600 journals in the fields of religion and theology. Covers 1949-present.
Anthropology plus
Provides abstracts on journal articles, reports, commentaries and obituaries in many fields including social, cultural, physical, biological and linguistic anthropology; archaeology, ethnology, folklore and interdisciplinary studies. Covers the late 19th century-present.
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.
Getting Materials not at Swarthmore:
If something you need is not available on Swarthmore’s campus then it can be requested through our Tri-College Borrowing and Interlibrary Loan services.
Citing Sources:
Chicago manual of style
Chicago/Turabian Documentation
from the University of Wisconsin Writing Center
Guidelines for Citing Media
from Williams College