Ethnochoreology as a mediating perspective in Irish dance studies

Abstract

This paper addresses the ethnochoreological perspective in dance research and suggests that this perspecive assists in mediating conservative dualist approaches to dance studies in Ireland which traditionally focused on either formal descriptive accounts of dances or contextual, historical accounts. The author provides a brief overview to the development of dance anthropological and ethnochoreological approaches to dance research in the West and focuses on its development in Ireland. She addresses the notion of Cartesian dualism and other culturally constructed oppositions, such as gender, and argues for ethnochoreology as a perspective that allows for wider cultural understandings of ourselves and others through dance and human movement.