Preface

Extract

With this tribute to Dr. Juana de Laban, Dance Research Journal acknowledges the part that the whole life of the scholar plays in one's contribution to a field. In this particular case, we are trying to show the multiplicity of experiences that Juana de Laban brought to her profession. Although well-recognized as a teacher and a scholar, Juana's early life and her professional dancing career remained a mystery to many of her colleagues, friends, and students. The field of dance research, new by the standards of many disciplines, has been the product of a number of dedicated individuals, many of whom are still living. How we can responsibly document their lives, and in the process, the discipline of dance studies, is a question to which these articles on Juana de Laban attempt a response.