What comes to mind when we hear the phrase "contemporary dance"? An art form in which professional dancers move expressively, conveying thoughts and feelings in motion? But contemporary dance has long gone beyond this definition. Theatrical-somatic sessions and exhibition-parties, critical twerk on stage and dances in museums, choreographic Internet apartment concerts and fake festivals - this is what the experimental dance scene in Russia looks like today.

"Strange Dances" is a book that addresses unconventional Russian dance in an attempt to map its origins, values, methods and institutional situation; to feel its connection with the Western history of dance, but also to show its specificity. What is dance performance and who are dance artists? What is modern dance, postmodern dance, non-dance and what is their relationship to post-Soviet history? How do dance works flicker between somatic practice and criticism? How to dance together and politicize the somatic nature of dance? What do feminist dance performances and dances on the Internet say? The book seeks answers to these and other questions, turning to the works of Moscow and St. Petersburg choreographers of the 2010s, as well as to many examples from American and European dance.