Whether in the private parlor, public hall, commercial "dance palace,"
        or sleazy dive, dance has long been opposed by those who viewed it as
        immoral--more precisely as being a danger to the purity of those who practiced
        it, particularly women. In Adversaries of Dance, Ann Wagner presents
        a major study of opposition to dance over a period of four centuries in
        what is now the United States.
      Wagner bases her work on the thesis that the tradition of opposition
        to dance "derived from white, male, Protestant clergy and evangelists
        who argued from a narrow and selective interpretation of biblical passages,"
        and that the opposition thrived when denominational dogma held greater
        power over people's lives and when women's social roles were strictly
        limited.
      Central to Wagner's work, which will be welcomed by scholars of both
        religion and dance, are issues of gender, race, and socioeconomic status.
      "There are no other works that even begin to approach this definitive
        accomplishment." --Amanda Porterfield, author of Female
        Piety in Puritan New England