Ringleaders of Redemption: How Medieval Dance Became Sacred

by Kathryn Dickason

Overview

In popular thought, Christianity is often figured as being opposed to dance. Conventional scholarship traces this controversy back to the Middle Ages. Throughout the medieval era, the Latin Church denounced and prohibited dancing in religious and secular realms, often aligning it with demonic intervention, lust, pride, and sacrilege. Historical sources, however, suggest that medieval dance was a complex and ambivalent phenomenon. During the High and Late Middle Ages, Western theologians, liturgists, and mystics not only tolerated dance; they transformed it into a dynamic component of religious thought and practice. This book investigates how dance became a legitimate form of devotion in Christian culture. Sacred dance functioned to gloss scripture, frame spiritual experience, and imagine the afterlife. Invoking numerous manuscript and visual sources (biblical commentaries, sermons, saints' lives, ecclesiastical statutes, mystical treatises, vernacular literature, and iconography), this book highlights how medieval dance helped shape religious identity and social stratification. Moreover, this book shows the political dimension of dance, which worked in the service of Christendom, conversion, and social cohesion. In Ringleaders of Redemption, Kathryn Dickason reveals a long tradition of sacred dance in Christianity, one that the professionalization and secularization of Renaissance dance obscured, and one that the Reformation silenced and suppressed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197527290
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/14/2020
Series:	Oxford Studies in Historical Theology
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	91 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Kathryn Dickason is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities and the School of Religion at the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: Gracing the Idols 1. Dance Typologies: The Medieval Bible 2. Ghost Dancers: The Saints 3. Dance of the Hours: The Liturgy Part II: Grace before its Master 4. Discipline and Redemption: Dances of Penitence 5. Partnering Divinity: Mystical Dancers 6. Romancing the Dance 7. Decadence and Death Epilogue: Mastering Grace Notes Index

Editorial Reviews

"Dickason's work, with her broad scope and innovative perspective, has rewritten and expanded our knowledge of medieval dance and religion." — Lynneth Miller Renberg, Journal of British Studies

"This book is a major contribution to the history of Christian spirutalities, the study of mysticism, dance history, and liturgical studies." — SA Kujawa-Holbrook, Book Reviews

"Dickason's book is thorough and well researched. As disparate as the attitudes towards dance depicted are, there is ultimately one significant underlying theme. Dance is giving over control of your body's movements to a rhythm set by another. To the medieval mind, this might have either sacred or diabolic significance, depending on whether the rhythm was holy or profane." — Clement William Grene, Reviews in Religion and Theology

"Ringleaders of Redemption offers a rich overview of medieval dance history and historiography that newly argues for the religious authorization and sacralization of dance in medieval arts, literature, and culture." — Mary Channen Caldwell, Church History

"[A] rich and much-needed book of resources for any student or scholar interested in the emerging field of research concerning the historical aspects of the Church and the Christian traditions of dancing in the Latin West ... Dickason's book is a goldmine of resources." — Dance Research

"[Ringleaders of Redemption] is an excellent supplement for scholars researching western medieval dance and performance, as the book shows a new perspective on dance understood as ritual. In addition, scholars interested in anthropology, religious studies, and medieval culture, even without a strong background in dance studies, will find this publication interesting and thought-provoking." — Zofia Załęska, Dance Chronicle

"In Ringleaders of Redemption: How Medieval Dance Became Sacred Kathryn Dickason thoroughly demolishes the oft-held assumption that dance had no part in medieval Christianity. She examines the role dance played in the cult of saints, how it was incorporated into the liturgy itself, and into church dramas, as well as exploring religious commentaries that adopted a range of attitudes towards dancing from praise to condemnation. All of these sources reveal the complex relationship that existed between dance and medieval Christian theology and practices. With a mine of information and many beautiful, coloured illustrations, this book leaves everyone with a great deal to think about." — Jennifer Nevile, Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales

"Ringleader of Redemption is an intriguing study of dance on the Christian church, with a focus on medieval Europe. The book includes an impressive amount of art history that extends the previous scholarship on the topic, and author Kathryn Dickason provides some thought-provoking theological interpretation for the various iterations of dance in medieval Christianity." — Cia Sautter, Reading Religion

"Those interested in the history of dance and the Christian church will find this text fascinating, and though it's a work of deep scholarship, Dickason's writing is lively and accessible." — Glen Starkey, New Times

"Kathryn Dickason's Ringleaders of Redemption is a rich and much-needed resource for any student or scholar interested in the emerging field of research concerning the historical aspects of the church and Christian traditions of dancing in the Latin West...The book gathers a comprehensive set of primary historical sources concerned with dance and presents an examination of much of the earlier research conducted about various forms and contexts of dancing that can be found from the medieval period. It also contains a rich source of visual materials-artwork-presenting dance and dancing in the medieval context. One hopes that this book will become the standard source of reference for both scholars of religion and the arts." — Speculum

"Ringleaders of Redemption highlights the transversality of dance in the medieval world, exploring the discourses that were expressed around and through it. The different positions and valorizations that these discourses show bring us closer to important controversies that ran through European Christianity in the Middle Ages. Kathryn Dickason's study constitutes a major contribution not only to the history of dance, but also to that of medieval Christianity and European culture." — Renaissance Quarterly

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