When The Phenomenology of Dance was first published in 1966, Maxine Sheets-Johnstone asked: “When we look at a dance, what do we see?” Her questions, about the nature of our experience of dance and the nature of dance as a formed and performed art, are still provocative and acutely significant today. Sheets-Johnstone considers dance as an aesthetic mode of expression, and integrates theories of dance into philosophical discussions of the nature of movement.
 
Back in print after nearly 20 years, The Phenomenology of Dance provides an informed approach to teaching dance and to dance education, appreciation, criticism, and choreography. In addition to the foreword by Merce Cunningham from the original edition, and the preface from the second edition, this fiftieth anniversary edition includes an in-depth introduction that critically and constructively addresses present-day scholarship on movement and dance.

Maxine Sheets-Johnstone is an Independent Scholar and Courtesy Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. She is the author of over 70 articles in art, humanities, and science journals and the author of nine books, including The Roots of Thinking (Temple), The Primacy of Movement, and The Corporeal Turn: An Interdisciplinary Reader.