June 16, 2008

SOCIETY OF DANCE HISTORY SCHOLARS (SDHS) ANNOUNCES ANNUAL AWARDS FOR OUTSTANDING
SCHOLARSHIP

Jacqueline Shea Murphy wins the de la Torre Bueno Prize® for outstanding book
of the year in Dance Studies

The Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) is pleased to announce the 2008
winners of awards for exemplary scholarship in the field of dance studies. The
awards were conferred at a ceremony Saturday evening during the society's annual
conference. Entitled Looking Back/Moving Forward, the conference was held from
June 12 to 15 at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.

The de la Torre Bueno Prize® went to Jacqueline Shea Murphy for The People Have
Never Stopped Dancing: Native American Modern Dance History (University of Minnesota
Press, 2007). Her book is a path breaking historical and ethnographic study of
Native American dances from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries.
As part of their citation, the judges noted: “This revelatory text allows readers
to appreciate the extensive range and prominence of dance in Native American
cultures as an aspect of larger constellations of social, spiritual, and artistic
practices.” Jacqueline Shea Murphy is an associate professor in the Dance Department
at the University of California, Riverside.

The de la Torre Bueno Prize® is awarded annually to an outstanding book published
in the English language that advances the field of dance studies. Named after
José Rollins de la Torre Bueno, the first university press editor to develop
a list of titles in dance studies, the Bueno Prize has recognized scholarly excellence
in the field since 1973. The de la Torre Bueno Prize® carries a purse of $1,000.

Two authors received special citations: Janice Ross for Anna Halprin: Experience
as Dance (University of California Press, 2007), a biography of the pioneering
West Coast dancer; and Sydney Hutchinson for From Quebradita to Duranguense:
Dance in Mexican American Youth Culture (University of Arizona Press, 2007),
a study of Mexican American popular music and dance forms. Janice Ross is an
associate professor in the Drama Department, Stanford University. Sydney Hutchinson
is a research associate at the University of
Arizona's Southwest Center as well as a doctoral candidate in
ethnomusicology at New York University,

The Gertrude Lippincott Award for an outstanding English-language article published
in dance studies was shared by two authors: Priya Srinivasan for "The Bodies
Beneath the Smoke or What's Behind the Cigarette Poster: Unearthing Kinesthetic
Connections in American Dance History" (published in Discourse in Dance, Ramsey
Burt and Susan Leigh Foster, editors, Volume 4 Issue 1 2007, pp. 7-48); and Rebekah
Kowal for "Dance Travels: 'Walking With Pearl'" (published in Performance Research,
12(2), pp. 85-94, 2007). Priya Srinivasan is an assistant professor in the Dance
Department, University of California, Riverside. Rebekah Kowal is an assistant
professor in the Dance Department, University of Iowa.

The Gertrude Lippincott Award is named in honor of its donor, a devoted teacher
of modern dance in the Midwest and mentor to many students. The award carries
a cash purse of $500.

Selma Jeanne Cohen Awards, which recognize excellence in dance scholarship by
SDHS members who are graduate students, went to Elizabeth Arden Thomas of Stanford
University, Victoria Phillips Geduld of Columbia University, and Victoria Fortuna
of Northwestern University.

The Selma Jeanne Cohen Awards were inaugurated by the Society of Dance History
Scholars at its 1995 conference. The Selma Jeanne Cohen Award aims to encourage
graduate student members of SDHS by recognizing excellence in dance scholarship.
Up to three awards are offered at each conference. Each award includes an invitation
to present a paper at the annual conference, waiver of the registration fee for
that conference, and a grant to help defray costs of attending the conference.
Awards are based on the originality of the research, the rigor of the argument,
and the clarity of the writing.

In 2006 the Society of Dance History Scholars initiated Graduate Student Travel
Grants, aimed at encouraging broad graduate student participation in its annual
conference. This year a grant was awarded to Nyama McCarthy Brown of Temple University
to attend the SDHS conference.

In addition to the presentation of annual awards, George Dorris and Richard Long
were named Honorary Fellows of SDHS at Saturday's ceremony. George Dorris was
honored for his work as one of the founders of SDHS and as co-founder and co-editor
of the important scholarly journal, Dance Chronicle. His citation read, in part:
“George Dorris has worked steadily and tirelessly for his entire career in the
service of the field of dance history.” Richard Long's citation included the
following remarks: “As a longstanding member of SDHS and a renowned scholar of
the arts, Professor Long has inspired and supported the careers of innumerable
members of the academy in Dance Studies, American Studies, and African American
letters. His 1989 book The Black Tradition in American Dance has set a standard
for historiography that honors the past and points to vibrant future possibilities.”

The judges' complete citations for the de la Torre Bueno and Lippincott prizes
follow:

de la Torre Bueno Prize®: Jacqueline Shea Murphy, The People Have Never Stopped
Dancing: Native American Modern Dance Histories.
Jacqueline Shea Murphy demonstrates a rich depth of archival research and detailed
ethnographic observation in her pioneering study of Native American dances ranging
from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries. The author explores identity
politics attached to Native American dance practice as a response to forms of
corporeal control enacted by anti-dance edicts from the 1880s through the 1930s
and continues to discuss the influences of Native American dance on early modern
dancers. The comprehensive historical examination develops into a fascinating
analytical discussion of contemporary Native American Stage dance. The many facets
of discovery revealed in this study articulately bridge the politics of Native
American dance with the dynamics of American history, notions of race, gender,
identity and social memory. Written with a command of the historical and theoretical
literature of Native Studies, this revelatory text allows readers to appreciate
the extensive range and prominence of dance in Native American cultures as an
aspect of larger constellations of social, spiritual, and artistic practices.

Special citation: Janice Ross,Anna Halprin: Experience as Dance.
Janice Ross's biography is an intelligent and loving response to the pioneering
experiments and dance works of an exceedingly important artist, Anna Halprin.
This study advances the possibilities of biographical writing within dance studies
as it ties together archival research, extensive interviews, and a keen critical
voice into a warmly toned whole. Written with authority and care, the text reminds
the reader of the human roots that gave birth to an essential branch of dance
postmodernism. With a focus on educational, social and aesthetic influences on
Halprin's work, Ross sketches an impressive portrait of the outstanding artist
and unfolds her life's trajectory that affirms a passionate involvement with
dance. The biography is enriched with attention to the body's stories, whether
in love, illness, or age, and the ways in which personal physical experience
underpins performance, opening up pathways into dance as therapy.

Special citation: Sydney Hutchinson, From Quebradita to Duranguense: Dance in
Mexican American Youth Culture.
In exploring the emerging socio-cultural implications of Mexican American popular
music and dance forms, ethno-musicologist Sydney Hutchinson provides an insightful
and enjoyable exploration of an otherwise ignored youth culture. By addressing
the popular phenomenon as critically relevant to dance studies, the text places
youth imperatives at the center of a world teeming with social interaction worthy
of attention, and in the process, brings forward important discussions of race,
class, gender, sexuality, age, and location. Through her descriptive analysis,
Hutchinson evokes vivid images of the varied pleasures of dancing to the overlapping
repertoires of the popular forms of Mexican music. Her careful arrangement of
musicological analyses, ethnographic rendering, historical overview, and gently-crafted
depiction of theoretical implications surrounding the dance offer a model of
balance for dance writing.

The Gertrude Lippincott Award, shared by two authors:

Priya Srinivasan, "The Bodies Beneath the Smoke or What's Behind the Cigarette
Poster: Unearthing Kinesthetic Connections in American Dance History.”
Priya Srinivasan's compelling reassessment of well-known modern dance history
presents the perspective of previously eliminated or marginalized original sources.
Ruth St. Dennis' use of Nautch women dancers and other Indian male immigrants
as both unacknowledged informants and dancing bodies is revisited in "The Bodies
Beneath the Smoke Or What's Behind the Cigarette Poster: Unearthing Kinesthetic
Connections in American Dance History." Srinivasan's essay makes possible a
truly inclusive understanding of the whole, including the artist, the informants,
and the period. Her writing is a creative blend of thorough research, detailed
analysis, and several eloquent and informative voices. She effectively theorizes
the embodied materiality of colonial appropriation in St. Denis' Nautch and exposes
important roots of modern dance in popular cultural idioms.

Rebekah Kowal, "Dance Travels: 'Walking With Pearl.'"
Rebekah Kowal has presented a thorough review of Jowole Zolar's Walking with
Pearl: The African Diaries, while also providing information about Dr. Pearl
Primus and her exploits in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Kowal's "Dance Travels:
Walking with Pearl" makes an outstanding contribution to dance history through
a riveting and complex historical comparison. Her essay is a journey into the
significance of an historical figure in modern dance history through the analysis
and critique of another contemporary modern choreographer's work. The past and
present are woven intriguingly in a precisely organized and complex critique.
Kowal's writing is an elegant rendering of history, while unfolding a stunning
choreography that reflects dance history also. Her nuanced framing and analysis
elegantly enfolds Zollar and Primus in a shuttle between contemporary and historical
African American dance travels.

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