Re-shoeing Terpsichore: contextualising modernity and concert dance

Analyses of 20th and 21st century concert dance are increasingly using art movements, rather than dance genres to contextualise praxes. Situationism, Mannerism and Constructivism are more articulate points of reference than Modern, Somatic and Contemporary dance. Since the mid 20 th century, discourses of dance have moved towards culturally relativist readings (and re-writings) ofdance praxis. Colonial labels such as 'African dance' were refined by geography (e.g. West Africa) and participant group (e.g. Yoruba). Yet this extensive revisionism has developed a tendency for post-colonial inversion where by discreet 'western' concert dance cultures are being labelled with catch-all terms (i.e. post-modern). If the arts are a field of cultural production, then art movements should be considered (sub)cultures in their own right. As such, retaining the cultural integrity of specific concert dance genres is not privileging 'high art' or subjugating 'ethnic' and 'social' dance, but good critical / cultural study. The harmonisation of dance genre labels with art movement taxonomies (where appropriate) will remove some of the conceptual and (meta)linguistic barriers to effective interdisciplinary praxis. Within dance discourse itself, there is an urgent need for a categorisation that facilitates the delineation of 'new' forms. Looking for the shared principles and practices of dance practitioners will also resolve the conceptual conflicts within the current system (e.g. Post Post-Modernism).