Introduction

Dance, Performance and Visual Art: Intersections with Material Culture offers a research framework for investigating the varied ways in which dance, movement, and performance intersect with visual media—painting, sculpture, video, digital design, and photography. The cross-fertilization produces new encounters and forms of knowledge that reflect national, cultural, social, political, and historical issues. The chapters are all written by experts in their field, whether they are anthropologists, artists, dance studies researchers, ethnochoreologists, historians, or theorists from European, Far Eastern, Near East, and Oceania cultures. Their chapters examine in various ways the critical discourses and practices that arise from their interactions, in which each field is situated. The focus on an interdisciplinary approach is located at the intersections of material culture studies and contributes to this discourse, presented in our anthology in three different sections. We aim to create further discussion and thought towards a new understanding of the interrelationships between dance, performance, and visual art.