This book is a treasure chest of personages and practiceseveryone from Kandinsky to Blok, from Scriabin to Shklovsky, and multiple souls in between; everything from Dalcroze Eurythmics to the Foxtrot. It offers dynamic new ways to view the cultural history of this time. It all but exhorts its readers to go out and dance themselves. Many sources were crunched to make this books chapters, and many exciting roads lead out of them into future projects. * The Russian Review * This volume examines kinesthesiathe sense of movementas a foundation of personal knowledge and cultural innovation, claiming primacy of kinesthesia over the other senses in that it affords unmediated contact with the world. Grounding their analysis of this sixth sense in historical context, Sirotkina and Smith reference the attraction of late-19th-century Europeans to ancient Hellenic life, citing a joyful universalism that particularly appealed to late czarist and revolutionary-era Russians. Evidencing the spirit of exuberant modernism, movementparticularly danceis seen as central to avant-garde culture, infusing poetry, mysticism, literary analysis, graphic art, and theater. Andrei Belys acute sensitivity to gesture becomes his verse, and Vladimir Mayakovsky is seen to compose posters, like poems, with his whole body. The celebrated artistic union of Sergei Yesenin and Isadora Duncan comes to life as a shining instance of the primacy of movement across the arts, and Vsevolod Meyerhold develops his biomechanical exercises for training actors. The concluding chapter projects the avant-gardists primacy of movement to present-day validation of kinesthetic experience as a vital source of knowledge. The translation is labored in places, but the extensive notes and suggestions for further reading compensate and make the book invaluable. Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *
