London 1908: a synchronic view of dance history

Significantly informed by Foucault's (1966) notion of synchronicity in the construction of knowledge, the research for this article disrupts conventional diachronic accounts of performance history. By slicing across rather than through time it reveals not only the artistic but also the cultural 'conditions of possibility' which gave rise to stylistically diverse but socially congruent events which all occurred during one single year. It offers, therefore, a model for new ways of researching, teaching and learning the performing arts, or any field where genre and chronology are key organising concepts. The cross-genre approach prohibited a single-track or specialist trajectory. Modern Dance, ballet and dance in popular culture such as pantomime were juxtaposed and all were informed by research in to the social history of the period.

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