Abstract

This book traces the intellectual history of twentieth century dance theory from its dependence on aesthetics for its model of conceptualization to its emergence as an autonomous field, primarily dependent on dance practice and experience. This history is traced through the analysis of writing on dance by dance theorists Elizabeth Selden, Margaret H'Doubler, John Martin, Rudolf Laban and aestheticians Susanne K. Langer, R.G. Collingwood, Nelson Goodman, and eleven other aestheticians who discussed dance in their aesthetic analyses of the arts. The analysis is organized by the author's Framework of Topics Intrinsic to Dance Theory which was inductively derived from all the writings and the author's extensive experience in dance.