Kinesthetic City: Dance and Movement in Chinese Urban Spaces

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SanSan Kwan (Assistant Professor of Dance, Assistant Professor of Dance, University of California - Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA)

Kinesthetic City

Dance and Movement in Chinese Urban Spaces

SanSan Kwan (Assistant Professor of Dance, Assistant Professor of Dance, University of California - Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA)

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
15 December 2012

Choreography; World music; Cultural studies

In Kinesthetic City, author SanSan Kwan explores the contentious nature of Chineseness in diaspora through the lens of moving bodies as they relate to place, time, and identity.

She locates her study in five Chinese urban sites--Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, New York's Chinatown, and the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles--at momentous historical turning points to parse out key similarities and differences in the construction of Chineseness.

The moving bodies she considers are not only those in performances by some of the most well-known Chinese dance companies in these cities, but also her own as she navigates urban Chinese spaces.

By focusing primarily on kinesthesia--the body's awareness of motion--to gather information rather than more traditional modes of sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste, she highlights the importance of motion in the determination of space.

In examining in these specific places at these precise historical moments, Kwan illuminates how moving bodies contribute to the production of those places and those moments.

For Kwan, Chinese communities in diaspora provide particularly salient examples of how when and where our bodies are help to determine who we are.

Whether engaged in otherwise unremarkable walking or in highly choreographed acts of political protest, human movement exists in dialogue with the kinesthetic of these city spaces, helping Chinese communities make meaning of themselves away from mainland China.

As a whole, Kinesthetic City offers dance studies ways to extend movement analysis to study not only concert, folk or social dance, but also quotidian movement and urban flow.

By: SanSan Kwan (Assistant Professor of Dance Assistant Professor of Dance University of California - Berkeley Berkeley CA USA)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 157mm, Width: 231mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 300g
ISBN: 9780199921539
ISBN 10: 0199921539
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 15 December 2012
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface: Shanghai and Jin Xing Dance Theatre: Concealment and Emergence in the Process of Becoming Introduction: Feeling Each Other Move: Choreography as Subject and Method in a Study of the City Chapter 1: Jagged Presence in the Liquid City: Choreographing Hong Kong's Handover Chapter 2: Vibrating with Taipei: Cloud Gate Dance Theater and National Kinesthesia Chapter 3: America's Chinatown: Choreographing Illegible Collectivity Epilogue: Kinesthetic City Index

SanSan Kwan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She has also taught at California State University, Los Angeles and the University of California, Riverside. She is co-editor, with Kenneth Speirs, of Mixing It Up: Multiracial Subjects. Her articles have appeared in The Drama Review and Performance Research, among other publications.

Reviews for Kinesthetic City: Dance and Movement in Chinese Urban Spaces

Kwan writes with a keen sensitivity to the micro-level kinesthetic forces of bodies in motion and the macro-level historical forces that shape place. The result is a series of nuanced and thoughtful readings of the politics of movement, location, and identity. --Anthea Kraut, Associate Professor, Department of Dance, University of California, Riverside SanSan Kwan gracefully captures both the experiential dimensions and the larger significance of movement and dance. Her engaging study of choreography and urban space inspires us to think about Chinese identity in original, dynamic, and generative ways. --Josephine Lee, University of Minnesota A fascinating portrayal of the texture of the Chinese city recounted from anovel standpoint, grounded both in an impeccable engagement with theory and a profoundly humane understanding of how the ordinary experience of the city is created. --Academia.edu