Associate professor of performing arts Linda Sabo recently presented a paper at the Society of Dance History Scholars Conference 2010, "Dance and Spectacle," held July 8-11 at the University of Surrey in Guildford, United Kingdom.
Sabo’s presentation was called “Romanticism versus Realism or Choosing How Things Should be Over How They Are: The Historical Use of Spectacle to Subvert the Effects of Social Crisis.”
It analyzes two Busby Berkeley spectacles from the film Gold Diggers of 1933 to better understand that musical’s negotiation of contradictory writing and performance styles not just to entertain, but to address sociocultural issues of its time as well as suggest Utopian visions of a better future.