Core Strength & Stability for Dancers
'Core Strength & Stability for Dancers' is the must-have reference for any dancer. With over 300 colour photos showing step-by-step exercises, correct technique, and explanations of what to look for with correct movement and technique. This reference guide is essential to give you the competitive advantage. It provides proven, practical exercises to help prevent injuries, improve stability in all areas of the body, strengthen the essential core musculature, and increase performance potential. It is a tool no dancer can be without. Core stability is explained, with detailed instruction on correct activation of the essential core stabilisers, including the pelvic floor. Hundreds of photos are depicted and explained. Strength and stability are the primary focus, and there is also a section on stretching and a brief introduction to cross training. While the material in this reference guide is targeted at dancers, many exercises can be transferred to other activities such as Pilates, yoga, rehab instructors, fitness instructors, and fitness enthusiasts. A variety of exercise tools are used, with an explanation on how to use them properly. Any dancer that wants to dance with minimal risk of injury and maximum potential needs this book. The demanding load on their body of day-in-and-day-out practice and performance requires core strength and stability. This book gives them the strength and stability edge.
Dance and Light
Dance and Light examines the interconnected relationship between movement and design, the fluid partnership that exists between the two disciplines, and the approaches that designers can take to enhance dance performances through lighting design.The book demystifies lighting for the dancer and helps designers understand how the dancer/choreographer thinks about their art form, providing insight into the choreographer's process and exploring how designers can make the most of their resources. The author shares anecdotes and ideas from an almost 50-year career as a lighting designer, along with practical examples and insights from colleagues, and stresses the importance of clear communication between designers, choreographers, and dancers. Attention is also given to the choreographer who wants to learn what light can do to help enhance their work on stage.Written in short, stand-alone chapters that allow readers to quickly navigate to areas of interest, Dance and Light is a valuable resource for lighting design classes wishing to add a section on dance lighting, as well as for choreography classes who want to better equip young artists for a significant collaborative partnership.
Historical Perspectives on Dance in Africa
Embedded within the dances of Africa are repositories of historical narratives, invaluable insights on the mindset of ancient and contemporary peoples, and revelations and budding hints of developing cultural phenomena. Such information greatly contributes to and facilitates deeper understanding of undeciphered African artifacts. It informs diverse disciplines, including African history, African studies, world history, among other fields. Uncovering previously unknown artifacts is futile if their meaning continues to be a mystery. Historical Perspectives on Dance in Africa introduces students, scholars, and the general public to previously under-researched African dances and their meanings, and the cultural history that gave birth to them.
Historical Perspectives on Dance in Africa
Embedded within the dances of Africa are repositories of historical narratives, invaluable insights on the mindset of ancient and contemporary peoples, and revelations and budding hints of developing cultural phenomena. Such information greatly contributes to and facilitates deeper understanding of undeciphered African artifacts. It informs diverse disciplines, including African history, African studies, world history, archaeology, cultural studies, performance studies, and dance history, among other fields. Uncovering previously unknown artifacts is futile if their meaning continues to be a mystery. Historical Perspectives on Dance in Africa introduces students, scholars, and the general public to previously under-researched African dances and their meanings, and the cultural history that gave birth to them.
Dictionary of Ballet Terms
Comprehensive yet conveniently sized for pocket or purse, A Dictionary of Ballet Terms will be a welcome companion at performances--whether in the orchestra or up in "seventh heaven"--and in every other situation involving the exquisite art of ballet. "The clearest, simplest, and least pretentious guide to classic dance vocabulary that has ever been produced."--Clive Barnes
Tap Dancing at a Glance
You can learn tap dancing easily! This fantastic book's thirty-nine lessons will guide you to mastering the steps you've seen on stage. Each lesson is illustrated through the use of posed photographs and includes rhythm notation to aid your practice. Will the help of these lessons and some determined practice you'll be tap dancing within a month or two. Originally published in 1930, we are republishing this vintage guide now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with its original artwork and text.
I Am Dance
Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, author and photographer Hal Banfield brings this photographic series to life in the pages of his debut book. Capturing the grace, beauty, and strength of black dancers in motion, I Am Dance: Words and Images of the Black Dancer shines a spotlight on dancers from the concert to the commercial world of dance, with intimate stories from dancers, in their own words, about the space they hold in the world of dance, what dance means to them primarily and what being a dancer of color represents to them, especially. I Am Dance is an encounter with dancers that will leave you with not just beautiful images to behold, but also shares with you a love and appreciation for the art of dance, with insight into the passion, heart and revelations of dancers of color.
Kathak
The book thoroughly examines the influence of Bharat Muni's Natyashastra, an ancient treatize of dramatic arts, on present-day KathakIt explores time and rhythm in Kathak in detail with examplesThe author is a professional Kathak dancer and has been studying and performing Kathak for the past 46 years. She brings her experience about the practical aspects of Kathak in this bookThe reader will be able to see how different aspects of Kathak are fused together to create a performanceKathak: The Dance of Storytellers explores the philosophical and practical aspects of Kathak dance - its origin, development, and techniques. Investigating this compelling dance style from cultural and historical perspectives, the book delves into the essential principles of Kathak, its schools and major artists, the format of Kathak performance, repertoire, Kathak music, predominant trends in training, and the system of practice through the lens of theory and application. A rare resource, the text is a comprehensive read for dancers, teachers, and Kathak lovers.Due to the increase of Kathak performances along with dance classes in the west, Kathak practitioners living outside India will immensely benefit from this book.
Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes
In the history of twentieth-century ballet, no company has had so profound and far-reaching an influence as the Ballets Russes. Under the direction of impresario extraordinaire Serge Diaghilev (1872-1929), the Ballets Russes radically transformed the nature of ballet--its subject matter, movement idiom, choreographic style, stage space, music, scenic design, costume, even the dancer's physical appearance. From 1909 to 1929, it nurtured some of the greatest choreographers in dance history--Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, and Balanchine--and created such classics as Les Sylphides, Firebird, Petrouchka, L'Apr癡s-midi d'un Faune, Les Noces, and Apollo. Diaghilev brought together some of the leading artists of his time, including composers Stravinsky, Debussy, and Prokofiev; artists Picasso, Braque, and Matisse, and poets Hoffmansthal and Cocteau. Diaghilev's Ballets Russes is the most authoritative history of the company ever written and the first to examine it as a totality--its art, enterprise, and audience. Combining social and cultural history with illuminating discussions of dance, drama, music, art, economics, and public reception, Lynn Garafola paints an extraordinary portrait of the company that shaped ballet into what it is today.
Merce Cunningham
On the occasion of Merce Cunningham's centennial comes this handsome new edition of his classic and long-out-of-print artist's book Changes: Notes on Choreography, first published in 1968 by Dick Higgins' Something Else Press. The book presents a revealing exposition of Cunningham's compositional process by way of his working notebooks, containing in-progress notations of individual dances with extensive speculations about the choreographic and artistic problems he was facing. Illustrated with over 170 photographs and printed in color and black and white, the book was described by its original publisher as "the most comprehensive book on choreography to emerge from the new dance ... [which] will come to stand with Eisenstein's and Stanislavsky's classics on the artistic process." By the time these notebooks were published, Cunningham had already led the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for 15 years, and had collaborated with Cage and others on milestones such as Variations V (1966) and RainForest (1968), the latter with Andy Warhol, David Tudor and Jasper Johns. Along with his essay collection Dancing in Space and Time (1978), Changes is one of the most significant publications on Cunningham's enduring contributions to dance, which developed through collaboration with John Cage to incorporate formal innovation with regard to chance, silence and stillness.
Broadway, Balanchine, and Beyond
In this memoir of a roller-coaster career on the New York stage, former actor and dancer Bettijane Sills offers a highly personal look at the art and practice of George Balanchine, one of ballet's greatest choreographers, and the inner workings of his world-renowned company during its golden years. Sills recounts her years as a child actor in television and on Broadway, a career choice largely driven by her mother, and describes her transition into pursuing her true passion: dance. She was a student in Balanchine's School of American Ballet throughout her childhood and teen years, until her dream was achieved. She was invited to join New York City Ballet in 1961 as a member of the corps de ballet and worked her way up to the level of soloist. Winningly honest and intimate, Sills lets readers peek behind the curtains to see a world that most people have never experienced firsthand. She tells stories of taking classes with Balanchine, dancing in the original casts of some of his most iconic productions, working with a number of the company's most famous dancers, and participating in the company's first Soviet Union tour during the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis. She walks us through her years in New York City Ballet first as a member of the corps de ballet, then a soloist dancing some principal roles, finally as one of the "older" dancers teaching her roles to newcomers while being encouraged to retire. She reveals the unglamorous parts of tour life, jealousy among company members, and Balanchine's complex relationships with women. She talks about Balanchine's insistence on thinness in his dancers and her own struggles with dieting. Her fluctuations in weight influenced her roles and Balanchine's support for her--a cycle that contributed to the end of her dancing career. Now a professor of dance who has educated hundreds of students on Balanchine's style and legacy, Sills reflects on the highs and lows of a career indelibly influenced by fear of failure and fear of success--by the bright lights of theater and the man who shaped American ballet.
Ballet
Uncover the most mesmerizing moments in ballet history with this scintillating visual guide. Written with ballet legend Viviana Durante, this book will introduce you to the most famous performers and enthrall you with fascinating stories. Discover more than 70 celebrated dances, from The Nutcracker and Swan Lake to The Rite of Spring. Learn about renowned companies such as The Royal Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet. Explore the lives of ballet dancers across the centuries, such as Margot Fonteyn, Carlos Acosta, and Darcey Bussell, and meet composers and choreographers, including the likes of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Matthew Bourne. Tracing the history of ballet all the way from its origins at court and the first institutes to the contemporary scene, this comprehensive yet accessible volume offers an unrivaled overview of this dance form. Rarely seen photographs covering key figures, pieces, and performances, alongside compelling facts about each dance - the sources they draw from, their production history, and their reception over time - make for a sumptuous visual treat and an essential gift for all dance and ballet enthusiasts.
Freedom's Dance
In this pivotal book, the captivating and kinetic images of noted photographer Eric Waters are paired with a collection of insightful essays by preeminent authors and cultural leaders to offer the first complete look at the Social, Aid and Pleasure Club (SAPC) parade culture in New Or-leans. Ranging from ideological approaches to the contributions of musicians, development of specific rituals by various clubs, and parade accessories such as elaborately decorated fans and sashes, Freedom's Dance provides an unparalleled photographic and textual overview of the SAPC Second Line, tracking its origins in African traditions and subsequent development in black New Orleans culture. Karen Celestan's vibrant narrative is supplemented with interviews of longtime culture-bearers such as Oliver "Squirk" Hunter, Lois Andrews (mother of Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews and James Andrews), Fred Johnson, Gregory Davis, and Lionel Batiste, while interdisciplinary essays by leading scholars detail the rituals, historic perspective, and purpose of the Second Line. Freedom's Dance defines this unique pub-lic-private phenomenon and captures every aspect of the Second Line, from SAPC members' rollicking introductions at their annual parade to a funeral procession on its way to the crypt. Visually dazzling and critically important, Freedom's Dance serves as both a celebration and a deep exploration of this understudied but immediately recognizable aspect of the African American tradition in the Big Easy.
The Pas de Deux
Dance.That was their instruction.But fate tripped them up, and they fell in love.Under the fluorescent sun of '80s Hollywood, aging ballerina Peridot "Peri" Jones and her new partner, seventeen-year-old Mark Maroulis, Jr., ignite a chemistry onstage that brings a dying ballet company back to life.Although wary of their age difference, they begin a highly charged love affair offstage. They keep the romance a secret because artistic director Mr. D considers Peri to be his. When Mr. D discovers their relationship, he wrenches Mark and Peri far apart. Will they be able to dance themselves back together?Lyrical and poignant, the story unfolds through the structure of a classical ballet grand pas de deux. Trigger Warning: The Pas de Deux alludes to a nonconsensual, predatory relationship between Mr. D and Peri.
Cook Up A Dance
This book is intended for teachers of dance improvisation. The authors share their method for using the history of music and visual arts to provide a wider context for the art of dance, and to explore themes that may be incorporated into dance improvisation. The book is organized as a cookbook. After an introduction explaining the premise, seven 'recipes' are included, linking compatible musical and visual artists to introduce themes that will inspire ideas about movement. Students will learn about artists as varied as Debussy, Duke Ellington, Monet and Georgia O'Keeffe, and will use what they learn to create movement together.
Bandoneon
Bandoneon: Working with Pina Bausch is a new translation of Raimund Hoghe's original rehearsal diary that documented the legendary Tanztheater Wuppertal's work on Bandoneon (1980), illustrated with photos of the production by Ulli Weiss, and personal images and notes from the dancers.This unique book records the method Pina Bausch developed and used, as seen by one of her close collaborators, Raimund Hoghe, who worked as dramaturg for the company for a decade (1979-1989). It follows the work from the first day in rehearsals to its premiere, chronicling the process with artistic sensibility - Bausch's famous questions, the dancers' responses and Hoghe's own reflections as the piece develops.This important document sees its first English language publication, and is succinctly translated from the German by Penny Black. The diary is accompanied by an Introduction and A Portrait by Katalin Trencs矇nyi, following Hoghe's journey from being a journalist to becoming an internationally acknowledged dancer-choreographer.Bandoneon: Working with Pina Bausch is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the work of Pina Bausch and Raimund Hoghe.
What the Eye Hears
The first authoritative history of tap dancing, one of the great art forms--along with jazz and musical comedy--created in AmericaWhat the Eye Hears offers an authoritative account of the great American art of tap dancing. Brian Seibert, a dance critic for The New York Times, begins by exploring tap's origins as a hybrid of the jig and clog dancing and dances brought from Africa by slaves. He tracks tap's transfer to the stage through blackface minstrelsy and charts its growth as a cousin to jazz in the vaudeville circuits. Seibert chronicles tap's spread to ubiquity on Broadway and in Hollywood, analyzes its decline after World War II, and celebrates its rediscovery and reinvention by new generations of American and international performers. In the process, we discover how the history of tap dancing is central to any meaningful account of American popular culture. This is a story with a huge cast of characters, from Master Juba through Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Gene Kelly and Paul Draper to Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. Seibert traces the stylistic development of tap through individual practitioners and illuminates the cultural exchange between blacks and whites, the interplay of imitation and theft, as well as the moving story of African Americans in show business, wielding enormous influence as they grapple with the pain and pride of a complicated legacy. What the Eye Hears teaches us to see and hear the entire history of tap in its every step.
The Art of Movement
A stunning celebration of movement and dance in hundreds of breathtaking photographs by the creative team behind NYC Dance Project. The Art of Movement is an exquisite collection of photographs by well-known dance photographers Ken Browar and Deborah Ory that capture the movement, flow, energy, and grace of many of the most accomplished dancers in the world. Featured are more than 70 dancers from companies including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Martha Graham Dance Company, Boston Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Abraham in Motion, and many more. Accompanying the photographs are intimate and inspiring words from the dancers, as well as from choreographers and artistic directors on what dance means to them.
Experiencing the Art of Pas De Deux
An intimate look at the artistic complexities of partnering "Wonderfully complete and instructive, written by two artists who have lived what they write about and are sharing their life experience from a deep and very human viewpoint. Bravo!"--Donald Mahler, former director, Metropolitan Opera Ballet "Perfect for inspiring dancers who want to learn more about the art of partnering."--Lauren Jonas, cofounder and artistic director, Diablo Ballet "An effective and lively resource to add to a dancer and teacher's partnering skills toolkit."--Dean Speer, author of On Technique Mastering the pas de deux--or "step of two"--requires more than just physical proficiency; it demands genuine commitment between dancers. Respect, patience, and etiquette matter just as much as technique. The best partners communicate effectively through breath, eye contact, and musical cues. In Experiencing the Art of Pas de Deux, professional dance couple Jennifer Kronenberg and Carlos Miguel Guerra demystify the physical, emotional, and artistic intricacies behind the art of two dancing as one. Experienced principal dancers and ballet instructors, Kronenberg and Guerra disclose key components of partnering work often overlooked in classes, such as how to build and maintain the connections necessary for a trusting relationship and thus a successful team. Their combined explanations illuminate choreographic work from both a male and female perspective and detail the responsibilities of each partner. With step-by-step instructions for proper posture, lifts, jumps, turns, and even dance conditioning, each chapter's lesson includes personal anecdotes, offering a more intimate look at how partners can support one another during practices and performances. Additionally, QR code-accessible videos provide brief demonstrations that more fully illustrate newer and complex movements. Offering expert technical pointers and honing in on the secrets to forming successful interpersonal bonds, Kronenberg and Guerra's firsthand look at this "art form within an art form" will allow dancers in every genre to discover the inner workings of the finest and most memorable partnerships.
Talking Dance
The South China Sea has a rich and turbulent history. Today territorial disputes in the region including China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia make it potentially one of the most dangerous points of conflict in Asia and millions of people have crossed its waters in search of safer shores. This new book reveals the ways in which the peoples of the South China Sea region have used dance as a means of contending with the immense political, economic and cultural rifts that have affected their lives. Drawing on the stories of indigenous dancers in southern China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, it offers unique insights into the ways in which people have used creative movement as a means of understanding the divisions and alienation that conflict, diaspora and globalization have brought and as a first step towards reclaiming their identities and their worlds."
Moving Liturgy
What does it mean to be a visual aid in worship? Moving Liturgy: Dance in Christian Worship provides readers with powerful ideas to bring prayers, parables, hymns, and scripture passages to life in the most direct way--storytelling in dance and movement through the body--the best visual aid! This book offers practical and artistic information for anyone interested in learning about, or re-affirming, the use of dance and movement in worship. Jane Wellford has worked extensively in the arts of liturgical dance and drama in collaboration with clergy, musicians, conductors, visual artists, dancers, and entire congregations. Successful ideas for worship, as well as creative possibilities, are all included in this book. I believe that worship should be made multi-sensory, exciting, and as connected to real life experiences as possible. The more senses that are involved in worship, the more likely the message will be received. When we hear the word of God shared through words or music, see it come to life through dance, drama, or other visual arts, experience it through speaking the prayers, confessions, or creeds, and sing it through hymns or chants, we are more actively engaged in the experience of worship.
Staging Ghana
The Ghana Dance Ensemble takes Ghana's national culture and interprets it in performance using authentic dance forms adapted for local or foreign audiences. Often, says Paul Schauert, the aims of the ensemble and the aims of the individual performers work in opposition. Schauert discusses the history of the dance troupe and its role in Ghana's post-independence nation-building strategy and illustrates how the nation's culture makes its way onto the stage. He argues that as dancers negotiate the terrain of what is or is not authentic, they also find ways to express their personal aspirations, discovering, within the framework of nationalism or collective identity, that there is considerable room to reform national ideals through individual virtuosity.
Attending to Movement
This edited collection draws on the conference, Attending to Movement: Somatic Perspectives on Living in this World, run at C-DaRE, the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University, 12 - 14 July, 2013. Somatic practitioners, dance artists and scholars from a wide range of subject domains cross discipline borders and investigate the approaches that embodied thinking and action can offer to philosophical and socio-cultural inquiry. The book celebrates and builds upon the work of visionary dance artist, teacher and scholar Gill Clarke (1954 -2011), who championed the value of somatic approaches within and beyond dance education and creative practice. This collection of papers covers the themes of: Somatics in the wider social context Pedagogy/Education Intercultural Dialogues Lived lineages Interplay of practice and writing Partial Contents As my attention is wandering: A score for somatic enquiry - Carolyn Roy Not Without My Body: The Struggle of Dancers and Choreographers in the Middle East - Nadra Assaf Disorganising Principles: Corporeal Fragmentation and the Possibilities for Repair - Jennifer Roche Attending to ethics and aesthetics in dance - Fiona Bannon & Duncan Holt At dusk, the collaborative spills and cycles of L219 - Cath Cullinane, Natalie Garrett Brown, Christian Kipp & Amy Voris The Art of Making Choices: The Feldenkrais Method as a soma-critique - Thomas Kampe Motion Capture and The Dancer: Visuality, Temporality and the Dancing Image - Sarah Whatley The fool's journey and poisonous mushrooms - Adam Benjamin 'The daily round the common task': Embodied Practice and the Dance of the Everyday - Hilary Kneale Re-sourcing the body: embodied presence and self-care in working with others - Penny Collinson Thinking, Reflecting and Contemplating With the Body - Lalitaraja (Joachim Chandler) Mythbusting: Using the Alexander Technique to free yourself from detrimental misconceptions in the performing arts - Jennifer Mackerras & Jane Toms A Moving and Touching Career in Dance and Chiropractic - Duncan Holt Attending to movement: the need to make dance that was different to that which went before - Sara Reed Towards a constructive interaction between somatic education and introspective verbalization - Nicole Harbonnier-Topin & Helen Simard Choreographic Mobilities: Embodied Migratory Acts Across the US-Mexico Border - Juan Manuel Aldape Munoz Readership Designed as a guide and stimulus for: teachers, students and practitioners of dance and somatic practices researchers and academics in these fields.
Ballroom!
An all-access pass to a glamorous and fascinating world "Sharon Savoy's exciting dance story is truly educational, informative, and inspirational. It reminds us all that passion and dedication will attract the circumstances and guidance necessary to see a heartfelt desire come true."--Denis Tremblay, two-time winner, Blackpool Dance Festival British Professional Rising Star Latin Championships Dreams are made and broken every year in the dazzling Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, England. Fierce competition, brutal politics, and stunning artistry are all on the program at the world's most prestigious competition, known to ballroom dance enthusiasts simply as "Blackpool." Sharon Savoy's lifelong love affair with dance manifested itself early on. At the tender age of 16 she left home to train under George Balanchine at the School of American Ballet in New York. An accomplished ballerina, her desire to dance more expressively and with a partner led her on the path that culminated on the competition ballroom circuit. There, her passion and artistry led her to become a four-time champion in exhibition style. But, as with all obsessions, her success came with a cost. In this spellbinding book, Savoy offers a backstage pass to a world where rhinestones and high heels accompany explosive athleticism and staggering talent. With emotionally absorbing and energy-packed prose, she provides an insider's close-up view of all the players who compose this glamorous world that is part dance, part sport, and part art. Sharon Savoy won her first World Exhibition title at Madison Square Garden in 1984 and twenty years later ended her competitive ballroom exhibition career by winning the 2004 World Exhibition Dance Championships. She is a four-time Blackpool Exhibition Champion, a three-time World Champion, and three-time Star Search winner. She has performed in film, at the Kennedy Center, during the Sydney Olympics, and around the world.
Ballerina
Throughout her history, the ballerina has been perceived as the embodiment of beauty and perfection -- she is the feminine ideal. But the reality is another story. Beginning with the earliest ballerinas, who often led double lives as concubines, Deirdre Kelly goes on to review the troubled lives of 19th-century ballerinas, who lived in poverty and worked under torturous and even life-threatening conditions. In the 20th century, George Balanchine created a contradictory ballet culture that simultaneously idealized and oppressed ballerinas, and many of his dancers suffered from anorexia and bulimia or underwent cosmetic surgery to achieve the ideal ethereal form. At the beginning of the 21st century, ballerinas are still underpaid, vulnerable to arbitrary discrimination and dismissal, and expected to bear pain stoically -- but much of this is beginning to change. As Kelly examines the lives of some of the world's best ballerinas, she argues for a rethinking of the world's most graceful dance form -- a rethinking that would position the ballerina at its heart, where she belongs. Highlighting the work of such great ballerinas such as Anna Pavlova, Isadora Duncan, Suzanne Farrell, Gelsey Kirkland, and Evelyn Hart Kelly illustrates how the world of ballet is slowly evolving.
Feelings Are Facts
Memoir by the avant-garde dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker recounting her childhood years, sexual misadventures, and artistic explorations.If you're interested in Plato, you're reading the wrong book. If you're interested in difficult childhoods, sexual misadventures, aesthetics, cultural history, and the reasons that a club sandwich and other meals--including breakfast--have remained in the memory of the present writer, keep reading.--from Feelings Are Facts In this memoir, dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer traces her personal and artistic coming of age. Feelings Are Facts (the title comes from a dictum by Rainer's one-time psychotherapist) uses diary entries, letters, program notes, excerpts from film scripts, snapshots, and film-frame enlargements to present a vivid portrait of an extraordinary artist and woman in postwar America. Rainer tells of a California childhood in which she was farmed out by her parents to foster families and orphanages, of sexual and intellectual initiations in San Francisco and Berkeley, and of artistic discoveries and accomplishments in the New York City dance world. Rainer studied with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham in the late 1950s and early 1960s, cofounded the Judson Dance Theater in 1962, hobnobbed with New York artists including Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Morris (her lover and partner for several years), and Yoko Ono, and became involved with feminist and antiwar causes in the 1970s and 1980s. Rainer writes about how she constructed her dances--including The Mind Is a Muscle and its famous section, Trio A, as well as the recent After Many a Summer Dies the Swan--and about turning from dance to film and back to dance. And she writes about meeting her longtime partner Martha Gever and discovering the pleasures of domestic life.
The Body of the People
The Body of the People is the first comprehensive study of dance and choreography in East Germany. More than twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Jens Richard Giersdorf investigates a national dance history in the German Democratic Republic, from its founding as a Communist state that supplanted the Soviet zone of occupation in 1949 through the aftermath of its collapse forty years later, examining complex themes of nationhood, ideology, resistance, and diaspora through an innovative mix of archival research, critical theory, personal narrative, and performance analysis. Giersdorf looks closely at uniquely East German dance forms--including mass exercise events, national folk dances, Marxist-Leninist visions staged by the dance ensemble of the armed forces, the vast amateur dance culture, East Germany's version of Tanztheater, and socialist alternatives to rock 'n' roll--to demonstrate how dance was used both as a form of corporeal utopia and of embodied socialist propaganda and indoctrination. The Body of the People also explores the artists working in the shadow of official culture who used dance and movement to critique and resist state power, notably Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, Arila Siegert, and Fine Kwiatkowski. Giersdorf considers a myriad of embodied responses to the Communist state even after reunification, analyzing the embodiment of the fall of the Berlin Wall in the works of Jo Fabian and Sasha Waltz, and the diasporic traces of East German culture abroad, exemplified by the Chilean choreographer Patricio Bunster.
Tales of the Jazz Age
Tales of the Jazz Age is a collection of eleven short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Divided into three separate parts, according to subject matter, it includes one of his better-known short stories, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Several of the stories had also been published earlier, independently, in either The Metropolitan, Saturday Evening Post, Smart Set, Collier's, Chicago Tribune, or Vanity Fair.
Body of a Dancer
2011 Finalist for ForeWord Review's Book of the Year Award in Autobiography/Memoir"A remarkably clear-eyed descent into New York's surreal world of modern dance peopled by the obsessed, dispossessed, sexy, suicidal, brutal, broke, and absurd."--Lance Olsen, author of Nietzsche's KissesThe award-winning writer Ren矇e E. D'Aoust draws from her experiences as a modern dancer in New York during the nineties. Her luminous prose spotlights this passionate, often brutal world. Trained at the prestigious Martha Graham Center, D'Aoust intertwines accounts of her own and other dancers' lives with essays on modern dance history. A dancer's body, scarred, strained, and tough, bears witness to the discipline demanded by the art form. Body of a Dancer provides a powerful, acidly comic record of what it is to love, and eventually leave, a life centered on dance."D'Aoust describes in great candor and plainspoken wit all the idiosyncrasies of dancers and their necessary sacrifices: ""Leave home, leave country, forget secondary education, forget any guarantee of a stable income, destroy na簿ve innocence about the body""--Shelf Awareness"With exquisite description, absolute honesty, and a clear compelling voice, Body of a Dancer offers an unforgettable account of one artist's bittersweet journey."--Dinty W. MooreRen矇e E. D'Aoust's essays have been featured as notable essays in Best American Essays in 2006, 2007, and 2009. Her nonfiction work has been included in the anthology Reading Dance, edited by Robert Gottlieb and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. D'Aoust is the recipient of an NEA Dance Criticism
Apollo's Angels
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, LOS ANGELES TIMES, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY For more than four hundred years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully told, Apollo's Angels--the first cultural history of ballet ever written--is a groundbreaking work. From ballet's origins in the Renaissance and the codification of its basic steps and positions under France's Louis XIV (himself an avid dancer), the art form wound its way through the courts of Europe, from Paris and Milan to Vienna and St. Petersburg. In the twentieth century, 矇migr矇 dancers taught their art to a generation in the United States and in Western Europe, setting off a new and radical transformation of dance. Jennifer Homans, a historian, critic, and former professional ballerina, wields a knowledge of dance born of dedicated practice. Her admiration and love for the ballet, as Entertainment Weekly notes, brings "a dancer's grace and sure-footed agility to the page."
Dance, God’s Gift to You!
"The aroma of God is being sensed throughout the earth, awakening those who God has ordained to carry forth the anointing of the dance in the earth." In the 21st century church, God is calling ministers of the dance in record numbers to fulfill His purpose-revealing His glory in the earth. This calling has prompted a myriad of questions in the minds of leaders and laypersons in the body of Christ. In Dance, God's Gift to You, Dr. Crawford presents a fresh, clear biblical understanding of how God views the dance, elaborating on how and why dance should be used in the worship experience. This book will answer many questions and help open the eyes of your understanding to: - The origin and purpose of the dance - How dance is used as a powerful weapon against the enemy - How dance is used to restore and bring order out of chaos - Why God takes pleasure in the dance - How to pursue the presence of God through the dance - The healing qualities of the dance - What God expects of His ministers of the dance May this book stir the gift of dance in you and cause you to "move out" in obedience to the call of God on your life! Dr. Caretha Franks Crawford is the founding pastor and apostle of The Gateway to Wholeness Church Ministries Largo, Md. She travels internationally preaching and teaching the gospel. Dr. Crawford is also the founder and CAO of In Pursuit of His Presence Worship Institute. She has a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education from Winston-Salem State University and has earned Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees. She is the CEO and publisher of Kingdom Greetings 4U(R), a line of handmade Christian greeting cards.
Choreographing Empathy
"This is an urgently needed book - as the question of choreographing behavior enters into realms outside of the aesthetic domains of theatrical dance, Susan Foster writes a thoroughly compelling argument." - Andr矇 Lepecki, New York University"May well prove to be one of Susan Foster's most important works." - Ramsay Burt, De Montford University, UKWhat do we feel when we watch dancing? Do we "dance along" inwardly? Do we sense what the dancer's body is feeling? Do we imagine what it might feel like to perform those same moves? If we do, how do these responses influence how we experience dancing and how we derive significance from it?Choreographing Empathy challenges the idea of a direct psychophysical connection between the body of a dancer and that of their observer. In this groundbreaking investigation, Susan Foster argues that the connection is in fact highly mediated and influenced by ever-changing sociocultural mores. Foster examines the relationships between three central components in the experience of watching a dance - the choreography, the kinesthetic sensations it puts forward, and the empathetic connection that it proposes to viewers. Tracing the changing definitions of choreography, kinesthesia, and empathy from the 1700s to the present day, she shows how the observation, study, and discussion of dance have changed over time. Understanding this development is key to understanding corporeality and its involvement in the body politic.
Performative Body Spaces
The human body as cultural object always has and is a performing subject, which binds the political with the theatrical, shows the construction of ethnicity and technology, unveils private and public spaces, transgresses race and gender, and finally becomes a medium that overcomes the borders of art and life. Since there cannot be a universal definition of the human body due to its culturally performative role as a producer of interactive social spaces, this volume discusses body images from diverse cultural, historical, and disciplinary perspectives, such as art history, human kinetics and performance studies. The fourteen case studies reach from Asian to European studies, from 19th century French culture to 20th century German literature, from Polish Holocaust memoirs to contemporary dance performances, from Japanese avant-garde theatre to Makeover Reality TV shows. This volume is of interest for performance studies artists as well. By focusing on the intersection of body and space, all contributions aim to bridge the gap between art practices and theories of performativity. The innovative impulse of this approach lies in the belief that there is no distinction between performing, discussing, and theorizing the human body, and thus fosters a unique transdisciplinary and international collaboration around the theme performative body spaces. (I. Biopolitical Choreographies, II. Transcultural Topographies, III. Corporal Mediations, IV. Controlled Interfaces.)
Dancing Around the World With Mike and Barbara Bivona
From Buenos Aires to Paris to New Orleans, Mike and Barbara Bivona have traveled and danced throughout the world. And in this memoir and travelogue, these two dance aficionadas Ballroom dancers for more than twenty years, the Bivonas have traveled extensively while honing their dancing skills and meeting fellow dancers. Dancing Around the World with Mike and Barbara Bivona provides detailed accounts of their experiences in Argentina, Paris, Hawaii, Italy, the Catskill Mountains of New York, the Caribbean, and South Florida, as well as other destinations. This account not only includes dancing details, but also shares the history and flavor of the exciting locales they have visited. Augmented with photographs, Dancing Around the World with Mike and Barbara Bivona also includes background information on the art of ballroom dancing, a few dance lessons, biography of select dancers who have performed on the television show Dancing with the Stars, current ballroom dancing philosophy, and information about the intellectual benefits gained from dancing.
Dancing Around the World With Mike and Barbara Bivona
From Buenos Aires to Paris to New Orleans, Mike and Barbara Bivona have traveled and danced throughout the world. And in this memoir and travelogue, these two dance aficionados share their adventures and experiences. Ballroom dancers for more than twenty years, the Bivonas have traveled extensively while honing their dancing skills and meeting fellow dancers. Dancing Around the World with Mike and Barbara Bivona provides detailed accounts of their experiences in Argentina, Paris, Hawaii, Italy, the Catskill Mountains of New York, the Caribbean, and South Florida, as well as other destinations. This account not only includes dancing details, but also shares the history and flavor of the exciting locales they have visited. Augmented with photographs, Dancing Around the World with Mike and Barbara Bivona also includes background information on the art of ballroom dancing, a few dance lessons, biographies of select dancers who have performed on the television show Dancing with the Stars, current ballroom dancing philosophy, and information about the intellectual benefits gained from dancing. Preview: Daniel Trenner hosted a party at his apartment one afternoon, which lasted until eight at night. He has a huge rooftop terrace overlooking the beautiful cupolas of Buenos Aires, where we were treated to a three-piece Tango band for our dancing pleasure and a professional Tango show. The elite of the Tango world were present and politely asked many of us to dance; what a wonderful experience to be floating on a strategically located rooftop in the heart of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, being led by world famous dancers, to the music of the seductive Argentine Tango. My OH MY!!... We talked, lived, and danced Tango for eleven days, and remained in Buenos Aires for a few extra days after our group left so we could do some sightseeing. We went to the mausoleum of Eva Peron, the famous antique and street fair in San Telmo, and, of course, we went to the city of Caminito, made famous by a song of the same name by the immortal singer, Carlos Gardel. ... We loved to Tango before we went to Argentina. We fell in love with it in Buenos Aires.
The Dancer's Way
In the current dance scene, performers contend with choreography that involves extreme dance, multiple techniques, and acrobatic moves, exemplified in the popular reality television show, "So You Think You Can Dance." The dilemma for aspiring professionals is that dance class no longer provides sufficient preparation for performing at this level. Dancers who want to achieve their best, avoid injury, and perform at their peak will welcome the insight and advice in the pages of The Dancer's Way. The world-renowned New York City Ballet developed their proven wellness program to help dancers reach their potential without compromising their health. As one of the key designers of this program, former dancer and clinical psychologist Linda Hamilton, Ph.D. provides the essential principles of wellness that will help you achieve your goals in all levels and forms of dance. These include keeping yourself physically healthy, nutritionally sound, and mentally prepared as a dancer. New York City Ballet's celebrated program, here for the first time in book form, highlights every tool you'll need to stay in great shape.
Balanchine Variations
The literature on Balanchine is vast, but it is primarily biographical. Balanchine Variations is the first book to concentrate on the ballets themselves, providing critical analysis and detailed descriptions of what the dancers actually do. Beginning with Apollo (1928), Balanchine's first extant work, and ending with one of his last ballets, Ballo della Regina (1978), Nancy Goldner offers detailed insights into more than twenty individual ballets. Based on lectures given across the United States, under the auspices of the Balanchine Foundation, they are intended to illuminate his art. Goldner discusses the history of each ballet, places each in the context of Balanchine's life and sensibility. She also addresses his taste in music and whether his style can be considered particularly American. The ballets Balanchine choreographed for the New York City Ballet are danced by companies around the world, and this innovative book is sure to become an indispensable guide to dancers and spectators alike.
In the Wings
Here is New York City Ballet as it really is- the good, the not so good, and the majestically beautiful. It's a true story, and it's told by someone who can honestly claim that he was there.
Dancing into the Unknown
Tamara Tchinarova was born in Romania in 1919 and began her dance training in Paris with emigr矇 ballerinas from the Imperial Russian Ballet. She danced professionally in Europe with the touring Ballet Russes companies that emerged in the 1930s after the death of the entrepreneur Serge Diaghilev, and she went to Australia in 1936 with the Ballet Russes de Monte- Carlo, returning in 1938 with the Covent Garden Russian Ballet. In Australia during those first two tours by the Russian Ballet she made a strong impression as Action in Leonide Massine's first symphonic ballet Les Pr矇sages. She was also admired for her portrayal of Thamar in Michel Fokine's dramatic ballet, and was praised for her dancing in demi-character roles in ballets such as Le beau Danube. In 1939, at the conclusion of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet tour, along with a number of her colleagues, Tchinarova elected to stay in Australia where she met and married the actor Peter Finch and worked with him on a number of films before leaving Australia to make her home in London. But Finch had caught the eye of the glamorous actress Vivien Leigh, wife of Sir Laurence Olivier, and the love triangle that developed was to have devastating consequences. This fascinating autobiography highlights Tamara's remarkable life in Romania and her worldwide dancing career, the tempestuous marriage to Peter Finch and her involvement in his notorious affair with Leigh, through to her subsequent career as adviser and interpreter for many Russian ballet companies.
Classes in Classical Ballet
A companion guide to one of the bestselling Limelight Edition titles, this book by Asaf Messerer, a founder of what has become known as the Bolshoi School, is one of the most celebrated manuals of classic dance instruction in the world. Messerer has gained an international reputation for his classes in classical technique-models of invention and well-rounded exercise, stressing both precision and fluid artistic control. Nearly 500 photographs of principal Bolshoi dancers illustrate the positions and steps indicated, and an introductory section by Messerer outlines his basic plan and philosophy of teaching.
Flesh for Fantasy
With a recent burst of feature films, documentaries, and books on strippers, the business of exotic dancing is hotter than ever. Over the last decade there has been a steadily expanding interest in exotic dance, from its role as an "art form" to its benefits as a means of exercise. While the breadth of discussion generated on this topic has expanded, the fundamental debate remains the same: are female strippers empowering themselves or allowing themselves to be exploited? With her follow-up to Jane Sexes It Up: True Confessions of Feminist Desire, M. Lisa Johnson moves beyond the old debates and gives the reader a glimpse of what exotic dancing is like through the eyes of the stripper. The essays here cover everything from workplace policies and conditions to legal restrictions to customer behavior and the struggle to overcome the stereotypes associated with the profession.
Ballet 101
Veteran dance writer Robert Greskovic's comprehensive handbook on how to watch and appreciate the ballet is now available in this new edition. It includes a complete analysis of sixteen important and popular ballets, from Swan Lake to Twyla Tharp's Push Comes To Shove., As Mikhail Baryshnikov states in the book's foreword: "All the things that ballet fans talk about at intermission, while newcomers stand there wondering what they mean: those things are here...(Robert Greskovic) has been thinking about ballet --- watching it, reading, writing, and talking about it --- day after day for more than thirty years. He knows it through and through. Now he shares his knowledge."
Sur Quel Pied Danser?
La danse a inspir矇 la litt矇rature, et la litt矇rature a inspir矇 la danse. Mais comment fonctionne exactement l'articulation entre les deux, et quelles sont les cons矇quences de leur r矇ciprocit矇 ? Cet ouvrage analyse ce lien depuis la Renaissance jusqu'? l'矇poque moderne, de d'Aubign矇 ? Francis Ponge, de la danse macabre ? la th矇orie de Laban. La relation entre danse et litt矇rature est variable: parfois elle se fonde sur un principe esth矇tique, parfois sur un principe th矇matique, ou bien sociologique. Quelque soit la nature de ce rapport, ce livre d矇montre qu'il est durable et riche de sens. Les moyens d'expression de la danse et de la litt矇rature sont radicalement diff矇rents, aussi 矇loign矇s les uns des autres que l'on puisse imaginer. Entre l'abstraction du langage et la mat矇rialit矇 du corps, le foss矇 para簾t infranchissable. Ceci n'est qu'apparence. Mots et mouvements se compl癡tent, les uns aidant ? la compr矇hension des autres. Ce livre relate le d矇sir ? travers les si癡cles d'explorer cette inspiration mutuelle.
Sisters Of Salome
The origins of the art of exotic dancing lie in English drama and Viennese opera: Oscar Wilde's 1893 play Salome, and Richard Strauss's 1905 opera based on it, brought onto the stage a female character who captured and dominated the audience with the raw power of her naked body. Her Dance of the Seven Veils shocked and fascinated, and Salome became a pop icon on both sides of the Atlantic. Toni Bentley explores how four influential women embraced the persona of the femme fatale and transformed the misogynist image of a dangerously sexual woman into a form of personal liberation. Toni Bentley danced with George Balanchine's New York City Ballet for ten years. Her books include Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal, Holding On to the Air, Costumes by Karinska, and The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir.
Round About The Ballet
Anyone who has ever seen a live performance of ballet knows the thrill of seeing larger-than-life figures on stage dancing in ways that seem superhuman. What are these dancers like beyond the footlights? How have they acquired such artistry and technique? What are the joys and difficulties in sustaining their careers? What dreams would they like to fulfill as performers? Round About the Ballet profiles the stars of the top New York City ballet companies: American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet. Selected by Roy Round, one of the world's leading dance photographers, the dancers profiled represent the very best in ballet today. The dancers are brought to life through stories of their lives, real-life interviews, and the stunning photgraphs of Roy Round. This book is for ballet fans, dance students, and people who are curious about the performing arts.
The Cecchetti Method of Classical Ballet
This dance classic presents a complete beginning course in classical ballet. The founder of this method, Enrico Cecchetti (1850-1928), performed and taught in Russia and with Diaghilev's troupe. By elaborating on a logical progression of exercises, Cecchetti provided dance with an unprecedented unity -- balancing the adagio and allegro, re-establishing the notion of "legato," strengthening the arabesque, and developing the exercise of the pli矇s. Cyril W. Beaumont, a distinguished writer on ballet, has codified Cecchetti's program of study with the assistance of one of Cecchetti's star pupils, Stanislas Idzikowski, and with the approval of Cecchetti himself.The first chapter defines and illustrates the basic theory of the positions, body movements, and technical terms. Detailed chapters of exercises include "Exercises at the Bar," "Port de Bras," "Centre Practice," "Adagio," and "Allegro." Each exercise appears with a numbered series of instructions, and a table of daily exercises for the week is provided. The text is accompanied by 109 line illustrations, showing positions and movements of the body in detail and offering ballet lovers a perfect guide to the basics of classical ballet.
Native American Dance Steps
This well-researched book provides details of the varied steps that certain groups of Native Americans have used to express their dance ideas - from skips, jumps, and hop steps, to an Indian form of the pas de bourr矇e. Similarities to Oriental dances, classical ballet, Spanish and Russian variants, and steps in other dance forms are also considered. Examples are given of Indian dance music, words, and descriptive sounds that accompany this music, and the choreography of certain typical Indian dances of the Southwest. Authentic illustrations by a Native American artist depict dancers, while outline figures characterize steps and postures. An inportant addition to the libraries of anthropologists and students of Native American culture, this classic will be invaluable to ethnomusicologists and choreographers.
