Introduction

There have been important developments in the relationship of dance to the screen since the earliest days of photography. But it was not until the latter part of the twentieth century that it became apparent that there was an identifiable collective body of work that might be formally called screendance. It’s a tradition that continues from pioneers like Maya Deren and Yvonne Rainier, to the experimental films of Norman McLaren and much later dance works incorporating virtual reality. Since the start of the new millennium screendance, through dancefilm festivals and museum and gallery exhibitions, as well as a significant body of research from established scholars and PhD candidates, has become an international movement. This introduction creates a context for thinking about screendance as global scholarship and provides a model for a contemporary approach to writing that is simultaneously historical, practical, and theoretical.