Suitable for readers in dance, performance studies, African studies, or anthropology, this book looks at dance in Senegal, which has a high profile on the African and international dance scenes. The author writes in scholarly but accessible prose in an ethnographic style. She looks at major influences on Senegalese dance including French colonial and Senegalese state patronage, international opportunities and needs that came with the end of state funding in the 1980s, and the traditional social dance events of everyday Senegalese life. In a series of focused but loosely connected chapters, the book discusses the play of influences that move urban choreographers, dancers, and companies toward styles and identities that may include African or Senegalese identity on the global arts circuit, dance as diplomacy, dance as art, dance as community, dance as entertainment, dance and live music as performance, European contemporary modern dance, pop music, young people's social debuts, traditional regional dance forms like sabar, and individual threads of connection. The author focuses on what she learns from dancers and choreographers-professional and otherwise-speaking as self-aware participants in culture, fashioning moving images of identity. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)