Our shopping cart is currently down. To place an order, please contact our distributor, UTP Distribution, directly at utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca.
Moving Lessons
Moving Lessons
Margaret H’Doubler and the Beginning of Dance in American Education
Moving Lessons is an insightful and sophisticated look at the origins and influence of dance in American universities, focusing on Margaret H’Doubler (1889–1982), who established the first university courses and the first degree program in dance. Janice Ross shows how H’Doubler changed the way Americans thought not just about female physicality but also about higher education for women. In this second edition, Ross adds new details on H’Doubler’s radical pedagogy—including her use of a skeleton as a teaching tool in the classroom—and reflections on recent developments in dance studies and education.
This detailed portrait of a singular woman will be of interest to dance, education, and women’s studies collections.’—Library Journal‘Ross sketches the end of the constraints of the Victorian age and the feminist liberation through changes in fashion, health practices and physical education for women.’—Dance Magazine
‘Highly recommended reading for its breadth of research and depth of analysis. Ross’s scholarship is impressive.’—Journal of Dance Education
‘Mak[es] the case that H’Doubler’s life work led to an educational environment where empowerment of body, creative vision, and their synthesis through movement became a real option for American students. . . . A provocative and thoroughly engaging book.’—Dance Research Journal
‘Engaging and well-researched. . . . The book is not only a history and biography but also a testimonial to Margaret H’Doubler’s determination and tenacity.’—Theatre Journal
‘Ross’ second edition deepens our knowledge of Margaret H’Doubler, who founded the first dance-degree program in the U.S. in 1926 at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.’—Dance Teacher
Janice L. Ross is professor of theater and performance studies at Stanford University. She is the author of Like a Bomb Going Off: Leonid Yakobson and Ballet as Resistance in Soviet Russia and Anna Halprin: Experience as Dance.
