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Dancing at the crossroads used to be young people's opportunity to meet and enjoy themselves on mild summer evenings in the countryside in Ireland until this practice was banned by law, the Public Dance Halls Act in 1935. Now a key metaphor in Irish cultural and political life, "dancing at the crossroads" also crystallizes the argument of this book: Irish dance, from Riverdance (the commercial show) and competitive dancing to dance theatre, conveys that Ireland is to be found in a crossroads situation with a firm base in a distinctly Irish tradition which is also becoming a prominent part of European modernity.
"Wulff does convincing and interesting work in making the argument that all Irish dance is influenced by links to the land and/or notions of Irishness, tradition, authenticity, and collective identity...[that] becomes increasingly complicated given issues of immigration, colonization, diasporic communities, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism." · H-Net Reviews
"There is an admirable reconception of performance, which moves away from the usual tightly bodily based formulas towards an appreciation of storytelling and characterization... These re-thinkings have significant implications for seeing tradition as a resource and/or as a mode of engagement." · JRAI
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Into the Rhythm of the Dance
Chapter 2. Tradition Reinvented
Chapter 3. Memories in Motion
Chapter 4. The Link to the Land
Chapter 5. Storytelling Dance
Chapter 6. Winning the World
Chapter 7. The Riverdance Moment
Chapter 8. Rooted Cosmopolitanism
Afterword: Yo-yo Fieldwork
Bibliography
Index