Dance as Radical Action: A Riveting Journey through Dance, Activism, and Global Politics

Dana Mills’s latest book, Dance and Activism: A Century of Radical Dance Across the World, makes an important contribution to ongoing conversations within the field of dance studies about the political nature of dance. The book explores the mobilization of dance as a language and method for activism and radical hope, extending and refining the intimate relationship between dance and politics outlined in Mills’s previous work. With this book, Mills takes us a step further by interrogating dance as an artistic language that galvanizes, and is driven by, radical action. As stated in the preface, the book investigates “what it means to be radical in dance; how do our new forms of activism relate to those that occurred in the course of the twentieth century, and what is the responsibility and the mission of the twentieth century dancer-activist?” (p. x). Mills’s research is informed by “the many spectres [that] are haunting the world. Violence, sexism, racism, white supremacy” (p. 166). Motivated by these political urgencies, she reflects upon the role of the arts, and dance specifically, as a tool for activism and solidarity in turbulent times of rising tensions and divisions (p. x). Drawing from a century of radical dance, Mills curates a set of case studies spanning from 1920 to 2020. Moving beyond the traditional centralization of the Anglo-American world in both dance studies and international politics, Mills’s analysis maps dance works ranging from New York City’s Lower East Side in the 1920s to the 2014 war on Gaza, from the Syrian war to reproductive justice protests across the world. Throughout the chapters, Mills foregrounds how dancer-activists and activist-dancers have responded powerfully and creatively to issues that have been at the forefront of global politics since the beginning of the twentieth century and continue in our current moment. The book’s reach is truly interdisciplinary. Mills has a clear grounding in dance studies through the rich analysis of dance performances; the critical reflection on genres, canons, and dance institutions; and the tributes to key