Dance with me : ballroom dancing and the promise of instant intimacy /

This highly entertaining ethnographic account of ballroom dancing in the US is also serious scholarship on the staging of emotion in both the vernacular and professional milieus of social and competitive dancing. Focusing on ballroom and Latin dancing, sociologist Ericksen (Temple) describes dance competitions, classes, and parties as opportunities for the "purchase of intimacy." The author contributes to a growing literature on the commodification of emotion and intimate economies. Indispensable photographs accompany vivid descriptions and in-depth interviews with dancers and dance instructors who traffic in the realms of social and celebrity dancing. This wonderful combination of text and image results in a nuanced portrait of the performance of heterosexual intimacy in the "emotional labor of dance." For all audiences interested in the historical and social contexts surrounding ballroom dancing. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. S. Ferzacca University of Lethbridge