Dance Subject Guide

This subject guide covers dance resources available at the Johnston Memorial Library, including full-text journals, magazine, and newspaper articles,  dance websites, and printed materials in the Reference Collection. This is not a comprehensive subject guide, but rather a selective list of materials that are most useful for locating information in this field. Library location and call  number are provided for print publications. 
 

Full-Text Databases

  • Cambridge Journals Online. CJO indexes includes over 125 specialized journals from renowned research societies and associations in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Each journal in CJO has its own home page with links to the current and back volumes, as well as brief description of the journal's purpose, format, and content.
  • Infotrac OneFile. A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics: business, computers, current events, dance, economics, education, environmental issues, health care, hobbies, humanities, law, literature and art, politics, science, social science, sports, technology, and many general interest topics. Millions of full-text articles many with images. Updated daily.
  • Project Muse. Project Muse provides online, worldwide, institutional subscription access to the full-text of over 100 scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences and mathematics.

Journal Indexes and Abstracts

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Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

  • Biographical Dictionary of Dance. by Barbara Naomi Cohen. Schirmer Books,1982. This work covers the last four centuries of dance history in Europe and Americas, embracing a wide range of dance and theatrical genres. REF GV 1785.1 C58. Located in Reference Dept., 1st floor of the library.
  • International Dictionary of Ballet. by Martha Bremser. St. James Press, 1993, 2 v. Includes some 750 entries arranged in a single alphabetical sequence. REF GV 1585.I57. Located in Reference Dept., 1st floor of the library.
  • International Encyclopedia of Dance. by Selma Jeanne Cohen. Oxford University Press, 1998, 6.v. Choreographers, balletomanes, dance historians, Fred Astaire fanatics--all will covet this encyclopedia for its handy assessment of great works and global dance styles, the unrepeatable feats and the motivating ideas of earlier generations. REF GV 1565.I586. Located in Reference Dept., 1st floor of the library.
  • Oxford Dictionary of Dance. by Debra Craine. Oxford University Press, 2000. The This single-volume dictionary offers amazingly comprehensive coverage of the world of dance. Within its 25,000 entries, readers can find everything from a three-line explanation of "fado" to a three-page essay about Russia, the USSR, and ballet. REF GV 1585.C78. Located in Reference Dept., 1st floor of the library.

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Internet Websites

  • ARTSLYNX/DANCE. A meta site for finding web sites on dance. This is a well-organized site with many categories of dance links.
  • Critical Dance.com. This is an inclusive site, administered by the dance community, dedicated to all types of performance dance, but especially ballet and modern. This site includes a moderated bulletin board, reviews, features, interviews, and links to select dance pages.
  • CYBERDANCE. This is a collection of over 3,500 links to classical ballet and modern dance resources on the internet.
  • Dance Notation Bureau. This site works to advance the use of dance notation to preserve dances. Dance steps or scores are recorded and preserved using the symbol system called Labanotation which is described on the site.
  • DANCE HERITAGE COALITION. According to the site, the DHC focuses in four areas: Access to materials; the continuing documentation of dance employing both traditional methods and developing technologies; preservation of existing documentation; and, education regarding methods, standards, and practice for access, documentation, and preservation.
  • DANCE LINKS. Comprehensive source for internet links to dance sites. In addition to general dance sites, lists categories of dance sites such as ballet companies, modern and contemporary dance companies, dance presenters and performance listings, newsgroups, dance publications, dance organizations, dance coalitions, funding resources, university dance, dance schools, and dancers.
  • DANCE NOTATION BUREAU (DNB). The Dance Notation Bureau's mission is to advance the art of dance through the use of a system of notation. This site features information on notation basics; sources for assistance in studying Labanotation, notating dances, and staging from the Labanotation score. There is also a section for teachers containing materials that can be downloaded and used in the classroom, plus a bulletin board that allows discussions of notation issues.
  • NATIONAL DANCE EDUCATION ORGANIZATION (NDEO). The National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) is an organization established to advance dance education centered in the arts. The Journal of Dance Education (JODE) is the official publication of the organization.
  • Voice of Dance. A kind of fun site that has news of the dance world, transcripts of interviews and brief biographies of dancers and choreographers, video clips of dancers and choreographers, links to difference types of dance companies, and many other things.
  • VOICE OF THE SHUTTLE. A collection of resources for humanities research. Includes links to information on general humanities resources, and to other disciplines among which one may find links to anthropology, archaeology, architecture, area and regional studies, art and art history, classical studies, history, linguistics, literature, music and dance, philosophy, religious studies, and women's studies, for example.

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ŠVSU Library and Media Services 01-03-2005.
Gloria Beck, Government Documents Librarian.