Glamour Addiction: Inside the American Ballroom Dance Industry (review)

Glamour Addiction is a terrific title for a book, redolent of the seductive mixture of the popular, the personal, and the pathological that can lend cultural studies scholarship its whiff of prurient appeal. The first insider study of the "machine" that is the ballroom dance industry in the United States (1), McMains's monograph deploys the research trope of the participant-observer in both exposé of and homage to a subculture replete with fierce competition, dubious finances, and extraordinary physical artistry and skill. Describing herself as a "[g]lamour addict struggling to stay clean" (xi), McMains portrays frankly her ambivalence toward a world she sees as highly alluring, yet ultimately deceptive. Acknowledging that stardom eluded her as a professional ballroom competitor, McMains nevertheless provides an objective and insightful analysis of a business that capitalizes on illusion and desire.

In her preface, McMains offers an autobiographical narrative tracing her youthful captivation by ballroom dance and its aura of sensuality, romance, and sophistication. She chronicles her self-transformation to embody the image of the professional ballroom dancer, her indoctrination in the role of dance studio instructor, her exhaustive efforts to rise through competitive tiers, and her ultimate recognition of the "pain" in the "continual pressure to strive for something" she and her dance partner "would never achieve": pre-eminence as competitors (xvii). This section also offers glimpses of a second story, one that McMains doesn't emphasize though she nevertheless allows her book to reveal: her simultaneous training as both a dancer and a dance scholar and her subsequent entry into an academic world that is also competitive and exacting, hierarchical and highly structured, and that may, or may not, come to embrace her within its ranks.

The "Introduction" to Glamour Addiction reflects other kinds of dualities. McMains recognizes that her study needs to speak to multiple audiences: not only to traditional dance scholars who may not be very familiar with this milieu of social dance, but also to those outside her field with an interest in American popular culture (including perhaps nonacademics) intrigued by the proliferation of such Idol-esque ballroom vehicles as So You Think You Can Dance and the spate of recent ballroom films. McMains notes the strategic renaming of competitive ballroom dancing as "DanceSport" just prior to its official designation as an Olympic event in the late 1980s; the fusion of artistry and athleticism central to this recognition resonates with the strategic invitations to prominent athletes to participate in the increasingly popular television program that pairs professional dancers with high-profile amateurs, Dancing with the Stars. McMains focuses closely on the distinctions within the US branch of the ballroom industry— particularly in class position and educational background—between consumers and teachers/competitors. She elaborates upon these differences in her chapter "The Glamour Machine" through her unflattering yet detailed analysis of the pro–am relationship, where teachers may capitalize on the desires of their students for personal attention (or even intimacy) or stand within the competitive arena for their own financial advantage.

McMains's expertise as a dance historian lends real strength to the second chapter, which looks at the emergence of social dance as a business in the early twentieth century. The section titled "The Arthur Murray Empire" merits special note for its cogent examination of this magnate's rise to financial and cultural prominence, from his first forays in mail-order dance instruction to his later franchised dance studios, publishing and recording arms, and television programs. The author also explains well how the United States developed its own forms of social dances related to, though distinct from, the British forms that became the foundation for what is now known as "international" style ballroom—the standard for worldwide competition. This section additionally covers the codification of dance forms and styles for the competitive arena, emphasizing the interplay of racial, ethnic, and class considerations underlying this process within the upper echelons of the ballroom dance industry.

In the chapter titled "Brownface," McMains...