The Irish Dancing: Cultural Politics and Identities 1900-2000

This book engages with the role of dance in Irish culture and society over the course of the twentieth century. It adopts a perspective that sees dance as a prism through which to view key aspects of Irish society over the period under review. In terms of its academic provenance, it can be located broadly in the fields of Irish Cultural History/Sociology and Irish Cultural Studies. It selects a number of key moments or eras to explore the role of dance in constructing and reflecting a number of specific cultural identities, namely national identity, gender, ethnic, postmodern and global. Each chapter focuses on one specific kind of cultural identity though themes of gender and social class run through many of the chapters.