UW Libraries - Drama :: Dance Research

Dance Research

Subject Headings

The Library of Congress Subject Headings is a thesaurus, which helps you find words to use when you search by subject.

Subdivisions

Broad subjects are subdivided by topic, form, geographically and/or chronologically. Most library catalogues and indexes use a subject approach similar to the Library of Congress. When a subject is broad, it is subdivided in the following ways:

topical

limits to a special subtopic, e.g. Women -- Employment

form

indicates the form in which material is organized or presented, e.g., congresses, dictionaries, periodicals

chronological

Dance 17th Century
Dance 18th Century

geographical

Dance Canada
Dance Canada History :
Dance Canada Northern -- see also --Gwichin Dance
Dance Music United States 19th Century :
Dance Music United States 20th Century Bibliography :
Dance Music Venezuela

Subdivision Combinations

You can have both historical and geographic subdivisions:

Dance England
Dance England History
Dance England History 16th Century
Dance England History 17th Century
Dance England London

Or subdivisions which combine form with another subdivision:

Dance History 20th Century Bibliography
Dance History 20th Century Exhibitions
Dance History Periodicals

Dance Criticism Periodicals
Dance Criticism Russia Federation
Dance Criticism United States History
Dance Dictionaries French
Dance Lawrence D H David Herbert 1885 1930 Knowledge

How You Know If the Subject Term You Use Is a Good One

--See also
means your term is good and you can also try their suggested terms

-- See also Choreography
-- See also Gesture in dance
Movement Notation -- See also the narrower term Dance notation
Dance Companies -- See also the narrower term Ballet companies

Search for or -- See
means your term doesn't work and you need to try their suggested terms

Dance Cherokee
-- Search for Cherokee Dance
Dance Gesture
Dance Gesture -- See Gesture in dance
Dance Hopi
-- Search for Hopi Dance

Browsing the Dance Subject Search

Dance Subject Search

Note there are over sixty subjects related to Dance. The list is in alphabetic order and you can follow the Links to any subject of interest.

Dance Accidents And Injuries Prevention
Dance Aesthetics
Dance Anthropological Aspects
Dance Bibliography
Dance Bibliography Catalogs
Dance Bibliography Periodicals

See and See Also References are identified on the List:

Dance Movement Therapy -- see --Dance Therapy
Dance Notation -- see also --Labanotation
Dance Periodicals

If you click on Dance Periodicals you can browse the list of periodicals. Remember this list includes periodicals currently published as well as titles, which are ceased. Be aware that not all dance periodicals are classed under "dance periodicals"; ballet periodicals have their own subject heading, "ballet periodicals". You can also access the Dance Electronic Journals page and search within the electronic copies of a few dance journals.

If you find a book you like. Return to the online catalog and check the subject headings used.
It's always a good idea to track subject headings of any book you find of value.

Try following the links to one of the subjects below:

dance anthropological aspects
Dance criticism Notice that a keyword search gives you more results
Dance Research
Dance Reviews
dance sociological aspects
Dance Study And Teaching
Dance Therapy
Dance Psychological Aspects
Dancers Psychology
Movement Education
Perceptual Motor Learning

Comparing Subject Searching with Keyword Searching

Keyword searching provides more flexibility than searching by subject headings but you may sacrifice precision, i.e., you may get a number of false hits. However, you can use phrases and strategies such as proximity searching or you can limit your searches by language, year, publication type, library location, etc. to try and increase the precision of your search.

Subject searches use set terminology as determined by the Library of Congress Subject Headings.

A keyword search of (dance or dancing or dancers) and aesthetics in the UW Libraries Online Catalog provides over 70 results; a subject search of Dance Aesthetics currently provides only one.

However, a large number of the keyword searches are not relevant to the topic of aesthetics in dance.
Another problem may be the use of the word aesthetics itself. By performing a subject search for aesthetics, you can see that there is a see also statement which leads to you a list of related and narrower terms.
- One of the see also terms is Critism and another useful term is Movement, Aesthetics of. Criticism can be appended to most subject headings, for example, Dance--Criticism; or you could perform a subject search for Movement, Aesthetics of and see what kinds of results you get.

Searching for Information on the UW Online system Back to top

University Libraries: Information Gateway

Search the UW Libraries Catalog

University Libraries Gateway: Dance Resources

Subject Search for Dance

You get different results when you search the

Subject Search for "Dance Periodicals" and
when you change your search to Journals and search by L.C. Subject of Dance, search journal titles by the
Subject of Dance

How to read a citation:
Dance criticism -- Periodicals
Please notice:

The library started getting DCA News in 1997
It is supposed to be published quarterly
but it is irregular
we are still getting this title

Dance Library Collections Back to top

American Ballroom Companion -- Library of Congress's American Memory Project Collection of over two hundred social dance manuals at the Library of Congress. ... Along with dance instruction manuals, this online presentation also includes a significant number of antidance manuals, histories, treatises on etiquette, and items from other conceptual categories. Many of the manuals also provide historical information on theatrical dance.
Select texts to view by subject, author, title, or conceptual category.
Offered along with the collection are an overview of western social dance and a selected bibliography.
The Australian Dance Collection: a Directory of Resources Index Australian dance resources available in major Australian research collections.
Cross-Cultural Dance Resources: CCDR Includes the books and pamphlets of the late Eleanor King and the late Gertrude Prokosch Kurath, both prominent in the fields of dance and dance scholarship. The library is separated into two sections, that are identified by the color of the book shelves: the Brown Library and the White Library. The Brown Library is exclusively devoted to dance. The White Library has sections that provide background materials for the Brown Library - performance arts, folklore, myth and religion, manufactured arts, ethnomusicology, anthropology, and ethnographic materials.
Dance Collection's Catalog Since your search is within the Dance Collection, you can use terms such as:
aesthetics or writing or criticism or cognitive learning
and your search focuses on dance and the term you used.
DANCE HERITAGE COALITION: DHC focuses in four areas: ACCESS to materials; the continuing DOCUMENTATION of dance employing both traditional methods and developing technologies; PRESERVATION of existing documentation; and EDUCATION regarding methods, standards, and practice for access, documentation, and preservation.
Dance Notation Bureau Library Maintains the world's most substantial collection of original Labanotated dance scores. Along with the DNB-produced scores, the Library collects and houses other materials needed to stage the dances, including music scores, audiotapes, videotapes, production information, historical information, and anything else pertinent to a dance. It is devoted to housing and preserving these materials and to making them as accessible as possible for the purposes of continued performance, classroom use, and scholarly research.
Includes theatrical and non-theatrical dance forms: In addition to scores of ballet, modern, and jazz works which were created for presentation in a theatrical setting, the Library maintains a collection of folk, historical, and social dances from around the world. These include a selection of reconstructed Renaissance and Baroque dances.
Digital Performance Archive Traces the rapid developments taking place which combine performance activity with new digital technologies -from live theatre and dance productions that incorporate digital projections, to performances that take place on the computer-screen via webcasts and interactive virtual environments. The Archive also collates examples of how computer technologies are being used to create, document or analyse performance - from software applications for choreography and theatre design to specialist websites, e-zines and CD-ROMs.

Libraries & Archives: Dance Libraries, Archives, and Collections in the United States and Canada Alphabetical list by state and and providence.

Dance Newsgroups:

alt.arts.ballet
ba.dance
rec.arts.dance
rec.folk-dancing
ucla.dance
uiuc.org.dance

Dance Resources: Back to top

International Encyclopedia of Dance
Lifeforms demo see Credo-Interactive's homepage
Performance History Database

Based on a computer program written for professional dance companies; hope to serve as the definitive tool for archiving performance history and assisting in the daily tasks of administering a dance company.

Drama Library