Theatres of the Body

Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia

Lynn Matluck Brooks

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English

Temple University Press,U.S.
18 July 2025

Dance; History of the Americas; Local history

Theatres of the Body is Lynn Matluck Brooks’ critical examination of danced stage productions in antebellum Philadelphia. Starting in the 1820s, Brooks explores visual art and social and theatrical dancing across different classes, focusing on the work of E. W. Clay. Continuing through the 1830s, she looks at pantomime ballets and blackface minstrelsy through a political lens, asking questions regarding citizenship, slavery, and freedom. At the time, the city boasted the largest number of native-born ballet dancers in the young nation. Philadelphia also became a creative home to blackface star T. D. Rice, who helped popularize that performance genre.

Reviewing print culture in the 1840s, Brooks shows how newspapers, magazines, and popular fiction provided documentation of dancing in Philadelphia as well as the responses of dance commentators, practitioners, and moralists. Theatres of the Body also considers the interplay of science with dance in the 1850s, which impacted both dance practices and reception.

Providing an expansive historiography of these significant contributions to dance in the United States, Brooks deepens our understanding of antebellum culture and history.

By: Lynn Matluck Brooks
Imprint: Temple University Press,U.S.
Country of Publication: United States [Currently unable to ship to USA: see Shipping Info]
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781439923047
ISBN 10: 1439923043
Pages: 300
Publication Date: 18 July 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Lynn Matluck Brooks is Arthur and Katherine Shadek Professor of Humanities, Emerita, at Franklin & Marshall College. She is the author of John Durang: Man of the American Stage, The Art of Dancing in Seventeenth-Century Spain: Juan de Esquivel Navarro and His World, and The Dances of the Processions of Seville in Spain's Golden Age and the editor of Women’s Work: Making Dance in Europe before 1800. She was also editor of Dance Research Journal, Dance Chronicle, and thINKingDANCE.org.

Reviews for Theatres of the Body: Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia

""It's a rich study of theatrical and social dance in Philadelphia in a selected period of history. Brooks includes detailed accounts of Philadelphia's theaters and dance halls, the productions that were mounted, and the careers of major dance stars, both in ballet and blackface. At the same time, it offers a broader view of that historical period, supplying context through insights into life across social strata, through the lens of entertainment and pastimes, reaching beyond mere dates and major figures.""--Broad Street Review