Academic studies related to the topic of theatrical and liturgical dance have remained predominantly within the circles of dance scholarship. Traditionally, such studies have been divided into two categories of analysis: dance history and criticism, which have premised their evaluations according to chronological and classic aesthetic criteria; or ethnography and anthropology, which have inquired into the cultural formations and functions of dance. The former has emphasized typically the West and the latter non-Western cultures. The publication of the International Encyclopedia of Dance (1998) and the televised presentation of the eight-part series Dancing! (1992), with its companion volume, generated both scholarly and public interest in the global and multi-cultural correspondences among dance traditions. Since 1987, the central investigations by dance scholars have moved beyond the "how, what, where, and why" of dance to those related to dance as a communicator of meaning...