This groundbreaking collection combines ethnographic and historic strategies to reveal how dance plays crucial cultural roles in various regions of the world, including Tonga, Java, Bosnia-Herzegovina, New Mexico, India, Korea, Macedonia, and England. The essays find a balance between past and present and examine how dance and bodily practices are core identity and cultural creators. Reaching beyond the typically Eurocentric view of dance, Dancing from Past to Present opens a world of debate over the role dance plays in forming and expressing cultural identities around the world.

这本开创性的文集结合了人种学和历史战略，揭示了舞蹈如何在世界各个地区发挥关键的文化作用，包括汤加、爪哇、波斯尼亚-黑塞哥维那、新墨西哥、印度、韩国、马其顿和英国。这些文章在过去和现在之间找到了平衡，并研究了舞蹈和身体实践是如何成为核心身份和文化创造者的。从过去到现在的舞蹈》超越了典型的欧洲中心主义的舞蹈观，打开了一个关于舞蹈在形成和表达世界各地的文化身份方面所起作用的辩论世界。