Fogarty & Evans/Movies, Moves and Music, 1. The Sonic World of Dance Films

Much scholarship on dance film neglects the significant role of music and sound contained within these films. This disconnect is related to the ongoing absence of the instrumental role of music in dance analysis. Dance scholars have taken music seriously from a variety of diverse perspectives (e.g. Jordan, 2000; Garcia, 2009; Johnson, 2012; Dodds and Cook, 2013). Yet, in dance studies broadly organized, there is a lack of musical focus on ‘entertainment’ dance films as a result, in part, of the general dearth of research about dance within ‘commercial’ entertainment and the music industries. This is compounded by the centrality of music in the latter. In this chapter, music and sound are considered to be central to the significance of dance in both popular dance films and the avant-garde traditions of screen dance.