Nonstop Bodies How Dance Shaped New York City

A sweeping cultural history of the dancing that defined New York City

Throughout the twentieth century, in theaters, ballrooms, and nightclubs, dancers blazed trails of resistance and revolution. From the exuberant endurance of dance marathons during Prohibition to the militant precision of the Rockettes through WWII and the strait-laced fifties; from the aloof abstraction of the Judson Dance Theater to the explosive energy of hip hop in the South Bronx; from the elated mingling of discos to the commercialized physicality of Broadway, dance was both a reflection of culture and a backbone for social change.

In charting the stories and interconnected histories of these different dances, Nonstop Bodies: How Dance Shaped New York City reveals how each was fundamentally shaped by the social and historical forces of the time, as movements rumbling through the rest of the country came to a head in the singular density and diversity of New York City.

The iconic contractions of Martha Graham share a lineage with the West African dances being transported to New York stages by Katherine Dunham; the innovations of George Balanchine took inspiration from the acrobatic feats of the Nicholas Brothers and other dancers honing their skills in Harlem's ballrooms; the evolutions in partnered dancing at the Palladium found their way into the Broadway choreography of Jerome Robbins while preceding the individualized revelries of the disco.

Writer Rennie McDougall argues not only that dance can act as a mirror to the larger narratives of New York and the nation, but that the city itself has proven uniquely capable of creating innovations in how we move and dance together. Nonstop Bodies is more than a history—it is an exploration of movement that captures the ways in which dance has acted as both a catalyst and reflection of the city’s culture, politics, and heart. 

Rennie McDougall is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York. His writing has appeared in T Magazine, The Village Voice, Lapham's Quarterly, Gay Magazine/Medium, frieze.com, hyperallergic.com, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Brooklyn Rail, Slate, The Observer (UK), The Monthly (Aus) and The Lifted Brow (Aus), among others. He received an Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism in 2018 and was named a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow for Non-fiction literature in 2023. Nonstop Bodies is his first book.

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