Research Guides: Dance: Find Books

Search the Library Catalog

The library catalog is where you can search for books, videos, DVD's, etc.

Browsing the Stacks

Browsing the library stacks can be helpful when researching dance topics.

GV1607-1619: Dance history by era

GV1621-1728: Dance history by region

GV1781-1795: Theatrical dance

GV1786.32-1790: Ballet

Beyond ECU

WorldCat
Search for books, audio, video and more at other libraries. Borrow them via Interlibrary Loan.
Interlibrary Loan Flowchart
See our visual flowchart of the interlibrary loan process

InterLibrary Loan

Use InterLibrary Loan and Document Delivery services to request articles, books, media, and more from other libraries when ECU libraries do not have what you need.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

International Encyclopedia of Dance
With nearly 2,000 articles written by scholars from fifty countries, the Encyclopedia covers the full spectrum of dance—theatrical, ritual, dance-drama, folk, traditional, ethnic, and social dance. Cultural and national overviews are accompanied by entries on dance forms, music and costumes, performances, and biographies of dancers and choreographers.
Oxford Dictionary of Dance
The work covers all aspects of the diverse dance world from classical ballet to modern, from flamenco to hip-hop, from tap to South Asian dance forms and includes detailed entries on technical terms, steps, styles, works, and countries, in addition to many biographies of dancers, choreographers, and companies.
International Dictionary of Modern Dance
Focuses on the beginnings and evolution of modern dance, and discusses modern dance in relation to other modern art forms. Highlights key events in the history of modern dance. More than 200 photographs augment the text. Lists key print, video and electronic sources without duplicating citations found at the end of entries.
Credo Reference (Online)
Includes access to The Cambridge Guide to Theatre
Dance (Oxford Music Online)
Entry for "Dance"
Modern Dance (Oxford Music Online)
Entry for "Modern Dance"
Ballet (Oxford Music Online)
Entry for "Ballet"
More Dance Dictionaries/Encyclopedias
More print and electronic dance dictionaries and encyclopedias via OneSearch.

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive online resource containing articles about traditional dance from around the world. The 10-volume encyclopedia is also available in the Reference section of the Music Library.

Dance (Oxford Bibliographies)
Oxford Bibliographies is a great tool to find sources to use for your paper. It is a database of annotated bibliographies by subject. There is one annotated bibliography entry for Dance.

Plot Summaries

Ballet Guide: Background Listings, Credits and Descriptions of More Than Five Hundred of the World's Major Ballets
A brief history of the ballet is followed by an alphabetically arranged listing of more than 500 major ballets giving the plot, staging, choreographer, composer, date and place of the first performance, and the dancers that originally appeared in the work.
101 Stories of the Great Ballets (Balanchine)
Authored by one of the ballet's most respected experts, this volume includes scene-by-scene retellings of the most popular classic and contemporary ballets, as performed by the world's leading dance companies.