Rennie McDougall On How Social And Historical Forces Molded Twentieth Century Dance

Rennie McDougall’s Nonstop Bodies: How Dance Shaped New York City gives readers a thrilling new perspective on twentieth century New York City by investigating the different choreographers, dancers, and dance movements that flourished there during that time. McDougall guides the reader through various dance movements, from the marathon dances of the Prohibition era to the Lindy Hop to the Rockettes and beyond. All the while, he catalogues the dense web of lineages that developed among specific dances and artists, allowing readers to see relationships among disparate dance forms that might not be immediately apparent. McDougall also dives into how social and historical forces directly molded the evolving dance forms, and the unique position New York City held to create countless connections between dancers and choreographers not only in the moment, but across time as well.