In a discursive context where Europe is associated with modernity and ‘progress’, salsa dancing is often claimed to offer ‘difference’ in terms of the gender roles it propagates. The multi-million salsa industry sells the dance practice as ‘sexy’, ‘hot’ and as the epitome of heterosexuality. This thesis explores gender and sexuality discourses among salsa dancers in Switzerland and England. Drawing on unstructured in-depth interviews with heterosexual and lesbian/gay salsa dancers, it traces culturalist understandings of salsa genders that defer heteronormativity and ‘strict’ gender roles to ‘Latin American culture’. Based on queer-feminist, postcolonial and race critical theory, this thesis offers an analysis of how gendered and sexualised formations come into being on the salsa scene. It will do so by deconstructing Latin American gender stereotypes, narratives of passion and heterosexual romance as well as heteronormalising processes that inform the salsa dance studio. Overall, it will argue that claims to gender and sexuality on the salsa scene are racialised in the way that they reflect broader discourses of race in contemporary Europe. This thesis presents the first analysis of salsa dance practices in Europe that is led by postcolonial and queer-feminist theory. Beyond an analysis of salsa from this perspective, it aims to contribute to the study of postcolonial racisms in Switzerland and England. Additionally, it makes a case for the study of Latinidad in Europe and the gendered and sexualised stereotypes associated with it.

This thesis looks at the place of dancing in all aspects of social life in the north east of England during the eighteenth century, and in this context the 'north east of England' is taken to cover the whole of Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham. The thesis studies the type of dances popular with all classes of society at this period and the ways in which knowledge of dancing and dances was promulgated. This includes dancing in the theatres; in schools which included dancing in their curriculum and dancing masters offering specialist teaching in dance and social etiquette, as well as the traditional dances popular with the common people. It aims to compare the dance activities of the north east with those of London and hopes to establish what similarities and differences existed between the two.

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This thesis examines the ban on bar dancing in Mumbai and Maharashtra as an outcome of politics of gender and caste in a globalising India. By redeploying the historical erotic dancing in a globalising India, the dance bars emerged as the new market providing Bollywood-type entertainment with dance, music, and hospitality to the new consumer class. The Dance Bar market offered employment opportunities to poor women to earn a livelihood and proved to be an exceptional market where female labour was paid very well. By deploying their caste capital, i.e., the hereditary skills of dancing, drama and use of sexuality, the traditional dancing women occupied and ruled the dance bar market. To this extent, the bargirls may be viewed as a ‘performing caste’ continuing their hereditary caste occupations in a globalising capitalist market. However, while their relationship to the customer was defined through the market and they earned money, status and power through their occupation, the bargirls challenged, transformed and redefined the caste hierarchy by the use of ‘caste capital’. The demand for the ban on dancing in the bars came up through cultural discourses of protection of youth, family, Indian culture and the dignity of women, in which bargirls were projected as bad women earning too much money by cheating their customers and encouraging illegal activities in the dance bars. The ban diminished the freedom, earning potential and unique identity of the bar dancers, pushing them back into their original caste/class positionality. The legal ban can be studied as the effect of politics of caste and gender in Maharashtra intervening into the global market.

This thesis examines historical developments in Scottish dance over the past two hundred years and considers how they combined to shape the current traditional dance and music culture in Scotland. This work examines the effects of increasing regulation and standardisation during the twentieth century through an assessment of the experiences, viewpoints and opinions of present-day practitioners. The business practice and increasing professionalisation of nineteenth-century dancing masters active in the North-East of Scotland, and that of A. Cosmo Mitchell in particular, is considered in relation to the formation of the regulatory societies. The introduction of standardisation is examined through a comparison of nineteenth- and twentiethcentury published sources for the 'Highland Fling'. Tensions and contrasts in traditional dance and music are assessed by a consideration of the approach taken by influential traditional music education establishments such as Fèisean nan Gàidheal and by examining the relationship between Highland dancing and Highland piping. Reactions to regulation such as the (re)introduction of percussive step dance to Scotland and the growth in popularity of informal, 'called' ceilidh dancing are evaluated. The relationship between traditional dance and music in Scotland today is considered in the light of recurring themes such as professionalisation, regulation, authority, reactions to the status quo and the revival of an approach to or concept of dance rather than the revival of an historically verifiable style.

In recent years, flamenco has been consolidated as a prominent symbol of regional identity in Andalusia, the southernmost region of Spain. In the late 1970s, Spain began to decentralise into seventeen autonomous regions. As a result, each region has been encouraged to foreground its own culture vis-à-vis national culture. Although associated with Spain in general, flamenco has fulfilled the role of regional identity building in Andalusia. Increasingly, the Andalusian Government has focused attention on the development of flamenco within and outside of the region. In this thesis, I explore this relationship between flamenco and regional identity in Andalusia. In doing so, I draw upon the theoretical tenets of political geography. Through scholarly exchange, I argue that political geographers and ethnomusicologists can learn much about the relationship between music and regional identity. I use flamenco as a pertinent case study of this relationship in the European context. In particular, I discuss the role that governmental institutions play in the ‘regionalisation’ (Schrijver 2006) of flamenco (that is, the institutional development of flamenco as an ‘official’ symbol of regional identity). However, I argue that at times the regionalisation process can be disputed and subverted. Accordingly, I contend that regionalism (that is, the bottom-up identification with a region) in Andalusia is a fragmented concept. By examining the contexts, the discourses and the styles associated with flamenco, I present alternative readings of regionalism in Andalusia. Drawing upon virtual ethnography and traditional ethnography in Granada, I examine the reception and the production of flamenco at a local level as well as at a regional level. Arguably, some flamenco scholars present a somewhat rigid understanding of the relationship between flamenco and regional identity. By offering different readings of regionalism through flamenco, I reveal the complex and contested relationship between flamenco and identity in southern Spain.

The following investigation develops a critique of Competitive Ballroom Dancing as a social phenomenon from an anthropological perspective and that of a non-dancer. In order to do this the thesis is concerned with interrelating dance with anthropology. The concepts of how people express themselves and communicate in society provide the study with the scope to explore certain issues. The first aspect shows how a person would prepare to be a dancer in competition, this involves, among other things, learning to dance, finding a suitable partner and the overall appearance of the dancer. Secondly looking at competition, which involves sport and dance, judgement and perception of how the dancers and spectators view it. The embodied content of the competitive dancer is seen as an important issue, since it can affect how the dancers dance and how the dance is perceived, despite the fact that competitive ballroom dancing is such a highly formal, structured and rule-governed form of dance. Ritual and performance theories integrating emic and etic tendencies are juxtaposed with what appears to happen in this form of dance. In addition various types of altered state of mind are examined, in view of comments made by dancers about how they feel when dancing. Furthermore this thesis explores an understanding of how important this form of dancing is to its participants and how the activity can be a life-long pursuit whether as a dancer or subsequently as a spectator. It also illustrates the extent to which younger people enjoy an activity where there is great emphasis on being fit and how they have come to link it with sport.

This thesis examines tap dance practice and performance in England. The study is based on a multi-sited ethnography of two tap dance communities in Manchester and London. Participants in the communities ranged in ages from eighteen to eighty and were from a variety of social backgrounds. The investigation focusses on the tap jam, an informal performance event that showcases improvised tap dance to live music. Many individuals disclosed that they joined the tap communities despite possessing limited knowledge and experience of tap improvisation. Improvisation in tap dance is traditionally studied within the context of performance technique and the historical evolution of tap practice in the United States. American tap practitioners and historians such as Hill (2010), Knowles (2002), Frank (1994), and Stearns and Stearns (1968) state that tap improvisation contributes to unique performance styles but do not clarify how these identities are achieved by tap dancers. In order to understand how performance styles are generated, a symbolic interactionist approach is applied to the act of tap improvisation in the two communities. Viewing tap improvisation through a symbolic interactionist framework revealed that the tap jams are a shared social process that does not limit participation based on dance training or socio-cultural background. The improvised performances at the tap jam created performance identities that focussed on the individual rather than on an English interpretation of tap dance. The thesis delivers an analysis and discussion of how the tap community members cultivate these identities within a social context, exploring how tap dance is evolving beyond American identity and practice.