LibGuides: Dance: Background Information

Research Librarian

She/Her

Email Me

Contact:

Meredith Wisner
Research & Instruction Librarian for the Arts
Office: 306 Milstein

Mon & Tues: Zoom only
Wed - Fri: In-person/Zoom

212.854.7652

Subjects: Architecture, Art History, Dance, Film Studies, First-Year Writing, Music, Theatre

Get an NYPL Card!

As a Barnard student you can sign up for New York Public Library (NYPL) card! They're free!

Online (You’ll need to stop by a branch to get the actual card)
At any NYPL branch (bring your student ID)
Or with a Barnard Personal Librarian! PLs all have NYPL cards in our offices (your card won’t be active for about a week)

The NYPL has more than 6 million items circulating, including books, e-books, audiobooks, music, and movies. Thank you to our friends at the George Bruce branch for working with us to make on-campus card signups happen! The NYPL has 92 locations in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. The closest branches to Barnard are the Morningside Heights and George Bruce branches.

Dance Research Guide

Research Guide for Dance

This guide brings together materials useful for conducting research in dance.
Use the side navigation to find:

Sources for background information in dance
How to find books in Columbia libraries and beyond
Articles and reviews specific to dance research
Streaming media sources
Primary sources and data research in dance
Recommendations for citing and writing

[Image] V. Sladon, Dance performance in Minor Latham Playhouse, photograph. 1970. Barnard Archives and Special Collections.

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Undergraduate Research in Dance by Lynnette Young Overby; Gregory Young; Jenny Olin Shanahan
Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 1138484113
Publication Date: 2019-01-21
Guides students through the fundamentals of research methods, providing a foundation to help students get started in understanding research protocols and processes. Students will learn skills such as how to choose a research topic, refine research questions, conduct literature reviews, cite sources, synthesize and analyze data, develop conclusions and results, and present their findings. Details forms of undergraduate research in a rich diversity of fields within dance that are taught in many collegiate dance programs including dance therapy, history, science, psychology, education, and technology, in addition to public scholarship, choreography, and interdisciplinary topics. The book also includes a final chapter which provides annotated online resources, and many of its chapters are supported by examples of abstracts of capstone projects, senior theses, and conference presentations by undergraduate researchers.

Encyclopedia of Aesthetics
Scholarly resource for the conceptual side of the arts, excellent for backgrounds & theory. A comprehensive survey of major concepts, thinkers, and debates about the meaning, uses, and value of all the arts—from painting and sculpture to literature, music, theater, dance, television, film, and popular culture.
International Dictionary of Modern Dance
Provides thorough coverage of artists, works, companies, periods, performances, schools, collections and selected forms, and trends and innovations in modern dance. However, last updated in 1998, so it's better for more historical research on modern dance.
The International Encyclopedia of Dance
A searchable database with articles on all aspects of dance, including theatrical, ritual, dance-drama, folk, traditional, ethnic, and social dance. Cultural and national overviews are accompanied by entries on dance forms, music and costumes, performances, and biographies of dancers and choreographers. Entries are also A-Z browsable.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance
This encyclopedia provides authoritative and up-to-date information about theatre and performance from ancient Greek theatre to the latest developments in London, Paris, New York, and around the globe. In addition to performances in playhouses, it covers dance, opera, radio, film, television, and popular performance, including carnivals, circus, and public executions. Entries range from short definitions of terms to lengthy considerations of genres and movements, such as feminism and psychoanalytic criticism. Entries on cities and regions place performance in its local social and political context. Searches can be done by keyword or through a browsable A-Z list. Written in accessible language.

Developing Keywords

Why use keywords?

Keywords are terms that describe the topic you are researching. Keywords can be a people, places, things, ideas, or concepts. We need keywords to effectively search in library academic databases (like CLIO or Jstor). Unlike internet browsers, which have developed to understand full questions written in natural language, academic databases use keywords to locate resources.

There are no perfect searches when using keywords, which is why it's useful to brainstorm lots of related terms and/or synonyms to locate what you are looking for. For example, we might use the word "teenager" to describe a particular population, but the term "youth" might be used in a database instead. You can also find new keywords once you begin searching in the content section and subject sections of a catalog entry.

Dance