RÉSUMÉ
Blurring the conventional distinction between modern dance and ballet, African American dance, gymnastics and dancing as popular entertainment, Alien Bodies looks at the way the dance of the 1920s and 1930s mediated the experience of modernity. Through an examination of work by key dancers and choreographers including Josephine Baker, Jean Borlin, George Balanchine, Katherine Dunham, Martha Graham, and Doris Humphrey, Alien Bodies shows that during the jazz age dance became a privileged site for defining the lived experiences of modernity and contributed to the creation of new desires and identities.