Ballet in Western Culture
Ballet in Western Culture is a history of the development of ballet designed for dance history courses. After a brief discussion of the origins of dance through the middle ages, the author then traces the beginnings of ballet to Renaissance spectacle in Italy and the beginnings of ballet in France. In the second part of the book, the maturation of ballet as a style is studied, from the 1600s through the 1800s, in France, Russia, and other major European countries. Finally, the last part of the book focuses on the changes in ballet through the 20th century, including major movements in the U.S. and Europe. Nicely illustrated with historic prints and photos, the book is easy to read and ideally suited to the dance history student, addressing both historical issues and the evolution of ballet technique.
Martha Graham
"A much-needed update to Horosko's earlier book on Graham, offering an insightful look into the world of Martha Graham from those who worked very closely with her throughout the years."--Elizabeth Bergmann, dance director, Harvard UniversityMarian Horosko brings together new and previously published interviews of Martha Graham's "family" of dancers, teachers, choreographers, and actors and interweaves them with provocative biographical material about the life and influence of the creator of classic modern dance.Spanning the past seventy-five years, the interviews testify to the remarkable legacy that inspired the careers of many in the dance world, among them dancers from the contemporary generation who inherited her technique but never saw her perform. The interviews of teachers, all former Graham students, reflect their passion for maintaining Graham's few fixed principles and her emotional integrity. Some of the foremost actors of Graham's time (she died in 1991) describe their stormy encounters with her in the process of her attempts to teach them that "movement doesn't lie." Although not a textbook--no textbook describing the exercises exists--this book offers the only syllabus in print of Graham's work. Drawn from a private film of a class for her advanced and professional company members in the 1960s, it includes comments from Graham and testifies to her use of imagery in teaching.Photographs that capture the dancers' physical configuration document the development of Graham's choreographic legacy, which expanded and changed as she created each new work, more than 200 in all. These images, along with the interviews and commentary, plot the evolution of Graham's methodology and vocabulary of movement, on which classical modern dance continues to rely.Marian Horosko, a former member of the New York City Ballet, is the author or editor of five books on dance.
Dance Pathologies
A history of dance's pathologization may startle readers who find in dance performance grace, discipline, geometry, poetry, and the body's transcendence of itself. Exploring dance's historical links to the medical and scientific connotations of a "pathology," this book asks what has subtended the idealization of dance in the West. It investigates the nineteenth-century response, in the intersections of dance, literature, and medicine, to the complex and long-standing connections between illness, madness, poetry, and performance. In the nineteenth century, medicine becomes a major cultural index to measure the body's meanings. As a particularly performative form of madness, nineteenth-century hysteria preserved the traditional connection to dance in medical descriptions of "choreas." In its withholding of speech and its use of body code, dance, like hysteria, functions as a form of symptomatic expression. Yet by working like a symptom, dance performance can also be read as a commentary on symptomatology and as a condition of possibility for such alternative approaches to mental illness as psychoanalysis. By redeeming as art what is "lost" in hysteria, dance expresses non-hysterically what only hysteria had been able to express: the somatic translation of idea, the physicalization of meaning. Medicine's discovery of "idea" manifesting itself in the body in mental illness strikingly parallels a literary fascination with the ability of nineteenth-century dance to manifest "idea," suggesting that the evolution of medical thinking about mind-body relations as they malfunction in madness, as well as changes in the cultural reception of danced representations of these relations, might be paradigmatic shifts caused by the same cultural factors: concern about the body as a site of meaning and about vision as a theater of knowledge.
Step-By-Step Ballet Class
Seven lessons follow a young dancer's development, from basic positions and postures to more advanced levels.
Jazz Dance
"The phrase jazz dance has a special meaning for professionals who dance to jazz music (they use it to describe non-tap body movement); and another meaning for studios coast to coast teaching 'Modern Jazz Dance' (a blend of Euro-American styles that owes little to jazz and less to jazz rhythms). However, we are dealing here with what may eventually be referred to as jazz dance, and we could not think of a more suitable title. "The characteristic that distinguishes American vernacular dance--as does jazz music--is swing, which can be heard, felt, and seen, but defined only with great difficulty. . . ." --from the Introduction
Classical Ballet Technique
"Classical Ballet Technique is an invaluable guide for students, teachers, and ballet lovers. It not only covers the broad spectrum of ballet vocabulary but also gives sound, practical advice to aspiring dancers. The clarity of the writing, in a field notorious for its opaqueness, is in itself a major achievement."--Merrill Ashley, Principal Dancer, New York City Ballet"An excellent, comprehensive guide to ballet pedagogy valuable to teachers and students alike. For many years Gretchen's has been a major voice in the dance community, and this extensive work details the study of classical ballet from her unique and expert point of view. I applaud her, and I heartily recommend Classical Ballet Technique."--David Howard, International Ballet Master and Master Teacher"Gretchen Warren has undertaken a monumental task and has completed it with distinction. Obviously a labor of love, this book's attention to detail and the clarity of its text and photos make it a valuable contribution to the lexicon of ballet. I recommend it to every serious student and teacher."--Thalia Mara, Founding Director, Ballet Repertory Company and National Academy of Ballet; Artistic Director, U.S.A. International Ballet Competition"Congratulations to Ms. Warren for her authoritative book on classical ballet. Thanks are in order too from the many professional teachers, dancers, and students of the art form who will benefit from this book-an essential addition to any dance lover's library."--Lawrence Rhodes, Artistic Director, Les Grands Ballets CanadiensGretchen Ward Warren studied at London's Royal Ballet and the National Ballet School of Washington, D.C. She was soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet for eleven years and ballet mistress of American Ballet Theatre II from 1978 to 1983. She is professor of dance at the University of South Florida and frequently appears as a master teacher on the national and international circuits. Susan Cook has photographed the performing arts for the past fifteen years. Her work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, and many dance books. Her own books of photographs include In a Rehearsal Room and The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Basic Ballet
All the basic movements in classical ballet, illustrated with 275 detailed photographs. This unique handbook shows all the basic positions, steps, and movements in classical ballet, arranged in the sequence of lessons usually followed over six years of training. An invaluable practice manual for dance students, it is also a wonderful companion to the dance for ballet enthusiasts or anyone who wants a better understanding and appreciation of the art.
