The Anthropology of Dance | Anya Peterson Royce

The Anthropology of Dance by Anya Peterson Royce is a pioneering academic study examining dance as a form of human behavior, cultural expression, and social communication.

Rather than teaching dance steps or technique, Royce approaches dance through anthropology. She explores how dance reflects a society’s identity, history, religion, social organization, politics, and cultural values, and considers how movement can function as both symbol and expression.

The book discusses methods for studying dance across cultures and examines subjects such as structure and function, historical analysis, comparative research, symbolism, style, morphology, and the meaning of movement.

Royce draws on both her background in classical ballet and extensive ethnographic research, making the book particularly valuable for dance researchers, teachers, choreographers, students, and readers interested in understanding dance beyond technique.

Contents

The 2002 edition preserves the book’s 10-chapter structure, organized into three parts.

Part I – The Anthropology of Dance

1. The Dance
2. The Anthropological Perspective
3. Methods and Techniques
4. Structure and Function

Part II – Problems and Perspectives

5. The Historical Perspective
6. The Comparative Method
7. Symbol and Style

Part III – Future Directions

8. The Morphology of Dance
9. The Meaning of Dance
10. Conclusions

Bibliography
Index

The 2002 reprint also includes new introductory material updating the field since the original publication.