Undergraduate Research in Dance
Undergraduate Research in Dance: A Guide for Students supplies tools for scaffolding research skills, alongside examples of undergraduate research in dance scholarship. This second edition has been updated throughout for current students, with new chapters on mentoring and dance studies.Dance can be studied as an expressive embodied art form with physical, cognitive, and affective domains, and as an integral part of society, history, and vast areas of interdisciplinary content. To this end, the guidance provided by this book will equip future dance professionals with the means to move the field of dance forward. Chapters 1-9 guide students through the fundamentals of research methods, providing a foundation to help students get started in understanding research protocols and processes. A new chapter 10 provides guidelines for mentoring undergraduate students in dance. Chapters 11-21 detail forms of undergraduate research in a rich diversity of fields within dance that are taught in many collegiate dance programs including dance therapy, history, science, psychology, education, and technology, in addition to public scholarship, choreography, and interdisciplinary topics. A new chapter on dance studies has been added to this second edition. The book also includes annotated online resources, and many of its chapters are supported by examples of abstracts of capstone projects, senior theses, and conference presentations by undergraduate researchers across the United States and globally.Suitable for both professors and students, this book is an ideal reference book for dance studies as well as humanities and arts courses intersecting with dance.
Dancing Mind, Minding Dance
Dancing Mind, Minding Dance encompasses a collection of pivotal texts published by scholar and researcher Doug Risner, whose work over the past three decades has emphasized the significance of social relevance and personal resonance in dance education. Drawing upon Risner's breakthrough research and visionary scholarship, the book contextualizes critical issues of dance making in the rehearsal process, dance curriculum and pedagogy in 21st-century postsecondary dance education, the role of dance teaching artists in schools and community environments, and dance, gender, and sexual identity, especially the feminization of dance and the marginalization of males who dance.This book concludes with Risner's prophetic vision for employing reflective practice in order to address social justice and inclusion and humanizing pedagogies in dance and dance education throughout all sectors of dance training and preparation. Beginning with his first book, Stigma and Perseverance in the Lives of Boys Who Dance (2009), Risner has distinguished himself as the leading education researcher, scholar, and practitioner to improve young dancers' education and training and in humanistic ways. The book will appeal to dance educators and teachers, dance education scholars and researchers, choreographers, parents and care-givers of dance students, and those who work as teaching artists, arts administrators, private sector dance studio directors and teachers, as well as arts education researchers and scholars broadly. The chapters in this book, except for a few, were originally published in various Taylor & Francis journals.
The Essence of Me
This book is about: Spirituality, the healing of oneself and the community, and understanding culture and the mind.
A Choreographer's Handbook
On choreography: 'Choreography is a negotiation with the patterns your body is thinking.'On rules: 'Try breaking the rules on a need to break the rules basis.'The updated and revised edition of 'A Choreographer's Handbook' invites the reader to investigate how and why to make a dance performance. In an inspiring and unusually empowering sequence of stories, questions, ideas and paradoxes, internationally renowned choreographer Jonathan Burrows explains how it's possible to navigate a course through this complex process.It is a stunning reflection on a personal practice and professional journey, and draws upon many years of workshop discussions, led by Burrows.Burrows' open and honest prose gives the reader access to a range of principles, exercises, meditations and ideas on choreography that allow artists and dance-makers to find their own aesthetic process.It is a book for anyone interested in making performance, at whatever level and in whichever style.
Reflections of Dance Along the Brahmaputra
This volume brings a critical lens to dance and culture within North East India. Through case studies, first-hand accounts, and interviews, it explores unique folk dances of Indigenous communities of North East India that reflect diverse journeys, lifestyles, and connections within their ethnic groups, marking almost every ritual and festival. Dance for people of North East India, as elsewhere, is also a way of declaring, establishing, celebrating, and asserting humans' relationship with nature. The book draws attention to the origins and special circumstances of dances from North East India. It discusses a range of important folk-dance forms alongside classical dance forms in North East India, with a focus on Sattriya dance. The chapters examine how these dance forms play an important role in the region's socio-cultural, economic, and political life, intertwining religion and the arts through music, dance, and drama. Further, they also explore how folk dance cultures in North East India have never been relegated to the background, never considered secondary, aesthetically, or otherwise, but have become expressions of political and cultural identity. An evocative work, this volume will be of interest to students and researchers of pedagogy, choreography, community dance practice, theatre and performance studies, social and cultural studies, aesthetics, interdisciplinary arts, and more. It will be an invaluable resource for artists and practitioners working in dance schools and communities.
The Embodiment and Transmission of Ghanaian Kete Royal Dance
This book is an Afrocentric exploration of the royal Indigenous dance known as the Kete dance-music, as an analytical path for reassessing African movement systems in the 21st century. It validates the agency of the Black dancing body as a critical element for the generation and use of Indigenous knowledge systems of the Africans/diaspora and explores critical perspectives on the role dancing plays in the cultural emancipation of African knowledge systems globally.
Failsafe
Failsafe: A Choreography by Scott Thurston offers an entrancing fusion of movement and language, inviting readers into a kinetic journey where poetry and dance entwine. Each phrase pulses with energy, unraveling the body in motion, while the rhythm of words mimics the fluidity of limbs in flight. Thurston's exploration of kinepoetics-his distinctive practice marrying dance with poetry-guides readers to experience the very act of becoming, where the body's gestures craft meaning as dynamic as any dance. This work beckons both dancers and readers to lose themselves in the perpetual transitions of space, time, and self.
Beyonc矇 and Beyond
This book examines three years of Beyonc矇's career as a pop mega star using critical race, feminist and performance studies methodologies.The book explores how the careful choreography of Beyonc矇's image, voice and public persona, coupled with her intelligent use of audio and visual mediums, makes her one of the most influential entertainers of the 21st century. Keleta-Mae proposes that 2013 to 2016 was a pivotal period in Beyonc矇's career and looks at three artistic projects that she created during that time: her self-titled debut visual album Beyonc矇, her video and live performance of "Formation," and her second visual album Lemonade. By examining the progression of Beyonc矇's career during this period, and the impact it had culturally and socially, the author demonstrates how Beyonc矇 brought 21st century feminism into the mainstream through layered explorations of female blackness.Ideal for scholars and students of performance in the social and political spheres, and of course fans of Beyonc矇 herself, this book examines the mega superstar's transition into a creator of art that engages with Black culture and Black life with increased thoughtfulness.
Rooted Jazz Dance
National Dance Education Organization Ruth Lovell Murray Book AwardUNCG Susan W. Stinson Book Award for Dance EducationStrategies for recovering the Africanist roots of jazz dance in teaching and practiceAn African American art form, jazz dance has an inaccurate historical narrative that often sets Euro-American aesthetics and values at the inception of the jazz dance genealogy. The roots were systemically erased and remain widely marginalized and untaught, and the devaluation of its Africanist origins and lineage has largely gone unchallenged. Decolonizing contemporary jazz dance practice, this book examines the state of jazz dance theory, pedagogy, and choreography in the twenty-first century, recovering and affirming the lifeblood of jazz in Africanist aesthetics and Black American culture. Rooted Jazz Dance brings together jazz dance scholars, practitioners, choreographers, and educators from across the United States and Canada with the goal of changing the course of practice in future generations. Contributors delve into the Africanist elements within jazz dance and discuss the role of Whiteness, including Eurocentric technique and ideology, in marginalizing African American vernacular dance, which has resulted in the prominence of Eurocentric jazz styles and the systemic erosion of the roots. These chapters offer strategies for teaching rooted jazz dance, examples for changing dance curricula, and artist perspectives on choreographing and performing jazz. Above all, they emphasize the importance of centering Africanist and African American principles, aesthetics, and values. Arguing that the history of jazz dance is closely tied to the history of racism in the United States, these essays challenge a century of misappropriation and lean into difficult conversations of reparations for jazz dance. This volume overcomes a major roadblock to racial justice in the dance field by amplifying the people and culture responsible for the jazz language. Contributors: LaTasha Barnes Lindsay Guarino Natasha Powell Carlos R.A. Jones Rubim de Toledo Kim Fuller Wendy Oliver Joanne Baker Karen Clemente Vicki Adams Willis Julie Kerr-Berry Pat Taylor Cory Bowles Melanie George Paula J Peters Patricia Cohen Brandi Coleman Kimberley Cooper Monique Marie Haley Jamie Freeman Cormack Adrienne Hawkins Karen Hubbard Lynnette Young Overby Jessie Metcalf McCullough E. Moncell DurdenPublication of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Jill Johnston in Motion
Performer, activist, and writer Jill Johnston was a major queer presence in the history of dance and 1970s feminism. She was the first critic to identify postmodernism's arrival in American dance and was a fierce advocate for the importance of lesbians within feminism. In Jill Johnston in Motion, Clare Croft tracks Johnston's entwined innovations and contributions to dance and art criticism and activism. She examines Johnston's journalism and criticism--in particular her Village Voice columns published between 1960 and 1980--and her books of memoir and biography. At the same time, Croft attends to Johnston's appearances as both dancer and audience member and her physical and often spectacular participation at feminist protests. By bringing together Johnston's criticism and activism, her writing and her physicality, Croft emphasizes the effect that the arts, particularly dance, had on Johnston's feminist thinking in the 1970s and traces lesbian feminism's roots in avant-garde art practice.
Edges of Ailey
A revelatory look at the life, work, and legacy of the legendary choreographer Alvin Ailey Alvin Ailey is one of the most celebrated choreographers of the twentieth century. The creator of iconic works such as Blues Suite, Revelations, and Cry, he is widely recognized for the dance company he founded in 1958 when he was just twenty-seven years old. Ailey imagined and cultivated a platform for modern dance through his innovative repertoire, interdisciplinary sensibility, and support of dancers and choreographers. This expansive volume situates Ailey within a broader social, creative, and cultural context, looking at the artists who influenced and collaborated with him, the spaces and scenes he frequented, the dynamic themes within his dances, and how his vision and work changed contemporary dance. Essays by artists, scholars, and critics cover topics ranging from the Black church, the South, and the Great Migration to nightclubs, musical influences, and queerness. With more than four hundred images including photographs of works Ailey choreographed, archival materials such as notebooks, sketches, letters, and never-before-published behind-the-scenes photos, and conversations about the legacy of the company with Sylvia Waters, Judith Jamison, and Masazumi Chaya as well as several contemporary dancers and scholars, this study offers an unprecedented full picture of one of the twentieth century's leading artists and the way his work continues to inspire today's generation of dancers. Distributed for the Whitney Museum of American Art Exhibition Schedule: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (September 25, 2024-February 9, 2025)
Jill Johnston in Motion
Performer, activist, and writer Jill Johnston was a major queer presence in the history of dance and 1970s feminism. She was the first critic to identify postmodernism's arrival in American dance and was a fierce advocate for the importance of lesbians within feminism. In Jill Johnston in Motion, Clare Croft tracks Johnston's entwined innovations and contributions to dance and art criticism and activism. She examines Johnston's journalism and criticism--in particular her Village Voice columns published between 1960 and 1980--and her books of memoir and biography. At the same time, Croft attends to Johnston's appearances as both dancer and audience member and her physical and often spectacular participation at feminist protests. By bringing together Johnston's criticism and activism, her writing and her physicality, Croft emphasizes the effect that the arts, particularly dance, had on Johnston's feminist thinking in the 1970s and traces lesbian feminism's roots in avant-garde art practice.
Wild Grace
"Opening a door into the rich world of modern dance." Kirkus starred review ⭐"Captivating." Publishers Weekly starred review ⭐"Refreshing." New Statesman"Compelling." Harper's Bazaar"Passionate." Sunday TelegraphThe untold tale of the extraordinary women who drove the modern dance movement, boldly confronting cultural narratives about sex and power. In Wild Grace, Sara Veale profiles nine of the pioneering North American dancers at the heart of this movement. She shows how Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller fearlessly rejected nineteenth-century paternalism and how Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus battled to recenter marginalised histories with Dunham leading America's first major Black dance troupe and Primus breaking down doors as the first Black student at New York's New Dance Group. Each of these dancers redefined the meaning of grace in their art and their lifestyle, conveying vital truths about what it means to walk the world as a woman. Veale brings to life the stories and artistry of these remarkable individuals and reveals how, in their refusal to conform, we can find urgent lessons for today.
Singular Plural Ways of Staging Together
Focusing on staging processes in contemporary dance and art performance creates new opportunities to study creative participation and co-authorship. To gain these new insights, Iris Julian analyses experimental projects initiated by two groups and a single choreographer: Collect-if by Collect-if, Deufert + Plischke and Xavier Le Roy. By exploring nuances of staging work, the concept of singular plural became the analytical guideline and resulted into three research perspectives: theatre studies, sociology and ontological reading (Jean-Luc Nancy, Michaela Ott, Gerald Raunig). This approach makes it possible to look beyond the importance that is often credited to single authorship in the arts.With a foreword by Prof. Dr. Gerald Siegmund.
Passionate Work
Corps de ballet literally means the "body" of the ballet company, and it refers to the group of dancers who are not principals. Another large group of dancers puts together portfolios of work, often across several dance companies. These categories of dancers typically don't have name recognition and yet comprise the majority of professional dancers today. The ways that they stitch together careers, through dedication, grit, and no small amount of skill - and the reasons they have for doing so without the promise of fame or fortune - are telling of broader trends that shape the precarious labor of professional dance, and creative careers more generally. In Passionate Work, dance hobbyist and sociologist, Ruth Horowitz captures their stories. When creative labor is studied, it is often thought of in opposition to more conventional work, and the primary metric that distinguishes them is passion. Professional creatives are not working in the traditional sense because they are following their passion. By tracing the careers of such dancers, Horowitz troubles the binary understanding of passion and work. A career in dance requires both, and approaching her subjects through this lens allows her to explore their strategies for sustaining passion through the ups and downs of a career. Horowitz explores how dancers evaluate the rewards and challenges of a notoriously underpaid, and uncertain profession. Horowitz considers major dimensions of a career in a performing art, documenting each stage in a dancer's life. Above all, she shines a light on the strategies used to achieve a sense of biographical continuity in a world often marked by discontinuity and rupture.
Passionate Work
Corps de ballet literally means the "body" of the ballet company, and it refers to the group of dancers who are not principals. Another large group of dancers puts together portfolios of work, often across several dance companies. These categories of dancers typically don't have name recognition and yet comprise the majority of professional dancers today. The ways that they stitch together careers, through dedication, grit, and no small amount of skill - and the reasons they have for doing so without the promise of fame or fortune - are telling of broader trends that shape the precarious labor of professional dance, and creative careers more generally. In Passionate Work, dance hobbyist and sociologist, Ruth Horowitz captures their stories. When creative labor is studied, it is often thought of in opposition to more conventional work, and the primary metric that distinguishes them is passion. Professional creatives are not working in the traditional sense because they are following their passion. By tracing the careers of such dancers, Horowitz troubles the binary understanding of passion and work. A career in dance requires both, and approaching her subjects through this lens allows her to explore their strategies for sustaining passion through the ups and downs of a career. Horowitz explores how dancers evaluate the rewards and challenges of a notoriously underpaid, and uncertain profession. Horowitz considers major dimensions of a career in a performing art, documenting each stage in a dancer's life. Above all, she shines a light on the strategies used to achieve a sense of biographical continuity in a world often marked by discontinuity and rupture.
Shadows in a Phantom Eye, Volume 11 (1934-1936)
Since the late 19th century, film has been the ultimate medium by which to express and illuminate the darker, wilder recesses of man's imagination. An alchemical convergence of magic lantern experiments and new photographic technology led to the production of the very first moving images, including visual captures of magic, mystery, violence, cruelty, crime, sex, nudity, devilry and death.SHADOWS IN A PHANTOM EYE Volume Eleven reveals a flickering carnival of attractions and aberrations from the period 1934-1936, which saw classic horror film releases such as Bride Of Frankenstein, Mad Love and The Black Cat alongside provocative roadshow offerings ranging from Maniac and Marihuana to Gambling With Souls and The Third Sex. Classic cartoons and serials, shocking war documentaries, surgical procedurals, ethno-documentaries and the rise of the home projection market are among the many other strands of cinema unveiled with extensive documentation. This volume references around 1,300 films from all countries and reproduces more than 250 rare photographic images, posters and illustrations, many newly unearthed from international film archives and never before published.SHADOWS IN A PHANTOM EYE is the ultimate multi-volume guide for those wishing to explore an alternative global history of the moving image in its inaugural decades - a history that reveals a wild, often disturbing and provocative world which includes Hollywood but also stretches far, far beyond.
Simplified Balboa for Men
For the price of just one group class, this book is a practical guide for learning the leader's part of the fast and smooth swing dance called Balboa. Includes description of common steps, tips on learning, practising and social dancing. It will greatly add to your understanding of swing dancing and help you along your learning curve. Read it before you go to your first Balboa class.
Tomboy Ballerina
Roni Mahler spent her formative years in a ballet studio under the tutelage of Madame Maria Yurieva Swoboda and at Yankee Stadium, where she cheered for her idol, Mickey Mantle. At age 18, Mahler joined the corps de ballet of the renowned Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and later became Principal Dancer at the National Ballet of Washington, D.C., under the guidance of NYCB founder George Balanchine. In 1969 she returned to New York City as a soloist with American Ballet Theatre in principal roles like the high-flying Queen of the Wilis in Giselle. Known for her singular approach to cross-training while teaching ballet to football players, Mahler has taught around the world and, as the Artistic Associate of Cleveland Ballet/Ballet San Jose, dedicated over three decades to teaching, coaching, and performing. Written in collaboration with her ballet disciple and friend, this intimate account details her journey from the ballet stage and the baseball diamond to the gridiron and beyond.
Crafting the Ballets Russes
A fresh look at the groundbreaking artistic collaborations of the Ballets Russes, illuminated by a rich trove of visual material including music manuscripts, dance notations, stage and costume designs, and photographs of performers.This book celebrates one of the world's finest privategathering of music manuscripts, held on deposit at the Morgan Library. Robert Owen Lehman's superb collection of French and Russian ballet scores, including Firebird, Petrushka, Afternoon of a Faun, Bolero, and many more, are shown here for the first time alongside the vivid stage designs and rarely seen choreographic notations for these ballets. Together they offer a fresh view into Serge Diaghilev's famed Ballets Russes troupe and its revitalization of ballet that roiled Paris in the first decades of the twentieth century. These influential ballets and their creators--composers Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel, choreographers Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Bronislava Nijinska, and artists L矇on Bakst, Alexandre Benois, and Natalia Goncharova--set a new agenda for European art. As the 1930s began, a new international era of modern ballet was underway.
Dance Pedagogy
Dance Pedagogy is a comprehensive resource designed for dance students and teaching artists to develop skills and strategies in the multifaceted practice of teaching dance.This invaluable resource features essential components and considerations necessary for the dance teacher in any setting, including the private and community sector, university setting, and professional venues. Five distinct units provide insight into the paradigm, learning process, class environment factors, planning, and delivery of the dance class in a broad context through the use of examples within the dance forms of ballet, jazz, modern, tap, and hip-hop. Readers intently explore cognitive and motor learning, strategies for developing curricula and lesson plans, and methods of delivering material to students. Basic principles of anatomy, understanding student behavior and participation, the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (IDEA), music concepts for the dancer, injury prevention, and classroom management are included to provide a well-rounded approach to the many challenges faced in the classroom.Dance Pedagogy provides the most holistic approach available in the art of teaching dance and is a core textbook for academic courses related to Dance Teaching Methods as well as an invaluable handbook for practicing dance teachers.
The Complete Ballet Libretti
During his lifetime the great Danish choreographer August Bournonville (1805 - 1879) created more than fifty ballets. As the rehearsal period for each ballet ended and the ballet reached its final form Bournonville published a short pamphlet giving the plot of the ballet in detail. All those which survice are gathered here, translated into English by Patricia N. McAndrew. The libretti help us to piece together a comprehensive picture of the Danish ballet master as an artist of national and international calibre and enable us to assess more fully his place in the world of nineteenth-century European ballet. As his characters and ideas unfold before us, we can begin to compare them with those of other choreographers of his day and finally discover, in part, something sorely missed by many critics today: the setting in which August Bournonville's choreographic "gems" were once displayed. Today, more than a century after his death, Bournonville's name is more widely known than it was during his lifetime: eight ballets and a number of assorted dances still grace the stage of Copenhagen's Royal Theatre, and those "skeletal" libretti-what Bournonville called his "ballet poems"-still exist to impress upon us what a treasure we possess in the Bournonville ballets, to remind us of what has been lost over the years, and-perhaps most important of all- -to reveal to us the workings of an ingenious, practical choreographer's mind.
Storytelling in Motion
How do filmmakers guide viewer attention through the frame using the movement of bodies on screen? What do they seek to communicate with their cinematic choreography, and how were those choices shaped by the industrial conditions available to them? Storytelling in motion: Cinematic Choreography and the Film Musical demonstrates how figure movement can serve as a versatile strategy of meaning-making, particularly when filmmakers attend to the relationship between choreographed movement and film style. Using Franco-American film musicals as case studies, this book analyses the narrative and stylistic impact of figure movement in cinema and the subtle power of cinematic choreography, those moments when filmmakers deliberately combine the strengths of film style and organized figure movement to convey narrative meaning through motion. Cinematic choreography emphasizes musical conventions in Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952), prejudiced conflict in West Side Story (Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, 1961), aesthetic play in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967), generic discomfort in Trois places pour le 26 (Jacques Demy, 1988), the politics of illness in Jeanne et le gar癟on formidable (Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, 1998), and decision-making in La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016). Integrating vocabularies and analytical systems from Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies, film studies, and related fields to parse cinematic figure movement on multiple formal levels, this book uses performative research methods from videographic criticism to show the poetic and oblique connections between films through videographic as well as written chapters. Storytelling in Motion centers the crucial material conditions needed to make figure movement a significant component of narrative filmmaking: time, money, rehearsal space, industrial support, and performers and crew with the necessary embodied and institutional knowledge. The films discussed tell a clear story of how cinematic choreography was used by French and American filmmakers to innovate storytelling through figure movement, inspired by their predecessors' aesthetics while working within differing industrial conditions.
The Nordic Minuet
This major new anthology of the minuet in the Nordic countries comprehensively explores the dance as a historical, social and cultural phenomenon. One of the most significant dances in Europe, with a strong symbolic significance in western dance culture and dance scholarship, the minuet has evolved a distinctive pathway in this region, which these rigorous and pioneering essays explore.As well as situating the minaret in different national and cultural contexts, this collection marshals a vast number of sources, including images and films, to analyze the changes in the dance across time and among different classes. Following the development of the minuet into dance revival and historical dance movements of the twentieth century, this rich compendium draws together a distinguished group of scholars to stimulate fresh evaluations and new perspectives on the minuet in history and practice.The Nordic Minuet: Royal Fashion and Peasant Tradition is essential reading for researchers, students and practitioners of dance; musicologists; and historical and folk dancers; it will be of interest to anybody who wants to learn more about this vibrant dance tradition.
Rhythms of Resilience
The quotes woven throughout this art and dance coloring book vividly capture the ebbs and flows of life's struggles and triumphs. It illustrates the profound power of dance as a metaphor for navigating through challenging times with grace and strength. Each dance style presents a unique message of resilience, transforming movement into emotion and footsteps into pathways leading out of adversity. Accompanied by uplifting Bible verses, this book strengthens your faith and inspires you to rebuild your life, even during the hardest times.
The Nordic Minuet
This major new anthology of the minuet in the Nordic countries comprehensively explores the dance as a historical, social and cultural phenomenon. One of the most significant dances in Europe, with a strong symbolic significance in western dance culture and dance scholarship, the minuet has evolved a distinctive pathway in this region, which these rigorous and pioneering essays explore.As well as situating the minaret in different national and cultural contexts, this collection marshals a vast number of sources, including images and films, to analyze the changes in the dance across time and among different classes. Following the development of the minuet into dance revival and historical dance movements of the twentieth century, this rich compendium draws together a distinguished group of scholars to stimulate fresh evaluations and new perspectives on the minuet in history and practice.The Nordic Minuet: Royal Fashion and Peasant Tradition is essential reading for researchers, students and practitioners of dance; musicologists; and historical and folk dancers; it will be of interest to anybody who wants to learn more about this vibrant dance tradition.
Dance, Technology and Social Justice
This book theorizes dance technique as the Greek techne translated as art, and shows how movement can inspire epistemic, philosophical, and cultural conversations in technology studies. Combining dance studies, religious studies, and technology studies, it argues that dance can be a technology of social justice bringing equanimity, liberation and resistance. It focuses on the eastern Indian art form Odissi and applied experimentations with motion capture technology, virtual reality (VR) gaming, and Arduino. It specifically examines tthe work of Ananya Dance Theatre (ADT), a Minnesota based contemporary Indian dance company that deconstructs Odissi towards social justice activism.
Women's Dance Traditions of Uzbekistan
The first comprehensive work in English on the three major regional styles of Uzbek women's dance - Ferghana, Khiva and Bukhara - and their broader Silk Road cultural connections, from folklore rootsto contemporary stage dance. The book surveys the remarkable development from the earliest manifestations in ancient civilizationsto a sequestered existence under Islam; from patronage under Soviet power to a place of pride for Uzbek nationhood. It considers the role that immigration had to play on the development of the dances; how women boldly challenged societal gender roles to perform in public; how both material culture and the natural world manifest in the dance; and it illuminates the innovations of pioneering choreographers who drew from Central Asian folk traditions, gestures and aesthetics - not Russian ballet - to first shape modern Uzbek stage dance. Written by the first American dancer invited to study in Uzbekistan, this book offers insight into the once-hidden world of Uzbek women's dance.
The Thinking Body
2024 Hardcover Reprint of the 1937 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. Complete with all Illustrations from the 1937 edition. Mabel Elsworth Todd is considered the founder of what has come to be known as 'Ideokinesis', a form of somatic education that became popular in the 1930s amongst dancers and health professionals. Todd's ideas involved using anatomically based, creative visual imagery and consciously relaxed volition to create and refine neuromuscular coordination. Lulu Sweigard, who coined the term Ideokinesis, and Barbara Clark furthered Todd's work. Todd's work was published in her book The Thinking Body (1937), which is now considered by modern dance schools to be a classic study of physiology and the psychology of movement. Her work influenced many somatic awareness professionals of her day, and is often cited along with The Feldenkrais method for its focus on the subtle influence of unconscious intention and attention.
Dance Data, Cognition, and Multimodal Communication
Dance Data, Cognition, and Multimodal Communication is the result of a collaborative and transdisciplinary effort towards a first definition of "dance data", with its complexities and contradictions, in a time where cognitive science is growing in parallel to the need of a renewed awareness of the body's agency in our manyfold interactions with the world. It is a reflection on the observation of bodily movements in artistic settings, and one that views human social interactions, multimodal communication, and cognitive processes through a different lens--that of the close collaboration between performing artists, designers, and scholars.This collection focuses simultaneously on methods and technologies for creating, documenting, or representing dance data. The editors highlight works focusing on the dancers' embodied minds, including research using neural, cognitive, behavioural, and linguistic data in the context of dance composition processes. Each chapter deals with dance data from an interdisciplinary perspective, presenting theoretical and methodological discussions emerging from empirical studies, as well as more experimental ones. The book, which includes digital Support Material on the volume's Routledge website, will be of great interest to students and scholars in contemporary dance, neuro-cognitive science, intangible cultural heritage, performing arts, cognitive linguistics, embodiment, design, new media, and creativity studies.
Balletomane
Balletomane means an ardent admirer of ballet. This book, by a true ballet historian and revered critic, covers the history and development of ballet and many ballet dancers worldwide over five decades. It relates authentic and unabridged stories about famous ballerinas and world-class ballet companies from many countries. Yet it also chronicles many unheralded but incredible dancers, choreographers, artistic directors, students, teachers and mentors.This is not a story for everyone. It is, however, a story for everyone who is impassioned by the beauty, history, mystique, allure and artistry of ballet.
Simplified Lindy Hop for Men
For the price of just one group class, this book is a practical guide for learning the leader's part of the swing dance known as Lindy Hop. Includes information on swing music and swing dancing, description of basic and intermediate 8-count and 6-count steps, Charleston steps, break steps and footwork variations, dancing to fast and slow music, tips on learning to dance, group classes, practicing and social dancing. It will greatly add to your understanding of Lindy Hop and help you move along the learning curve. Read it before your first Lindy class.
Prodigy Performance Habits
'Prodigy Performance' provides guidance for aspiring dancers, emphasizing the importance of mindset, goal-setting, positive self-talk, and surrounding oneself with supportive individuals. It stresses the significance of dedication, persistence, efficient training, healthy habits, and maintaining focus on long-term goals. Through the sections in this book, it explores the principles of safe training, the value of competition, the impact of social circles, and the role of mentors. It encourages dancers to cultivate a proactive approach to their careers, fostering self-belief, gratitude, and a commitment to continuous improvement.
Prodigy Performance Habits
'Prodigy Performance' provides guidance for aspiring dancers, emphasizing the importance of mindset, goal-setting, positive self-talk, and surrounding oneself with supportive individuals. It stresses the significance of dedication, persistence, efficient training, healthy habits, and maintaining focus on long-term goals. Through the sections in this book, it explores the principles of safe training, the value of competition, the impact of social circles, and the role of mentors. It encourages dancers to cultivate a proactive approach to their careers, fostering self-belief, gratitude, and a commitment to continuous improvement.
Pilobolus
The dynamic history of theinnovative, beloved, and critically acclaimed dance theater company, withrevelatory behind-the-scenes details of its creators and significant works The ingeniously innovative and enduringly popularAmerican dance theatre company Pilobolus has helped redefine, remix, andrejuvenate the essence of dance with its eclectic sensibility and daringathleticism. Now, for the first time, the story of Pilobolus, from itscounterculture origins through its pop-culture triumphs and contemporary globalacclaim, is revealed in a book that will entrance longtime admirers andnewcomers alike. Written with unprecedented accessto the company--with insights from unpublished archival materials and interviewswith its founders, dancers, and current artistic directors--and featuring bothclassic and never-before-seen photos, Pilobolus offers previously untolddetails about the group's history and the creation of its most significantworks. Robert Pranzatelli describes the company's genesis in a Dartmouth danceclass in 1971 and how Pilobolus revolutionized dance with its blend ofsensuality, physical achievement, and visual wit. In these pages, the troupe performson Broadway, travels the world, and by the late 1980s secures a place in dancehistory, while its growth is marked by periods of internal conflict, challenges, and change. As Pilobolus continues to morph, invent, and thrive withthe arrival of new artists and collaborators, its story encompasses love, loss, grief, and rebirth, as well as insights into the secrets of the creativeprocess--how performers and choreographers think and work. More than ahistory, Pilobolus is a narrative of life and art, and the vitality thatinfuses and inspires both when they align and inhabit each other.
Social Foxtrot
Social Foxtrot is a ballroom dance to be embraced and enjoyed by all, irrespective of age, ability, or experience. This comprehensive reference is suitable for all levels of dancer, from novices to professional. It introduces new figures, as well as adapting ones from other dances. Easy to understand, it explains principles, techniques and terminology which are also applicable to other ballroom dances. Dozens of step by step charted figures include timing of each step, foot position, alignment, footwork, and amounts of turn. Preceding and following figures are also suggested.This revised edition of the 76 page ballroom handbook has updated some figures, renamed others to better reflect the sequence of steps, and added some new ones. There are some errata which have been corrected.This is an essential guide for beginners, an inspiration for more experienced dancers, a diversion for competitors, and a valued resource for dance teachers.
The Church’s Position on Dancing
The moral dangers of the too common and too fashionable amusements of dancing are pointed out, with as much force as clearness and learning, in this small but valuable book. The author extracts proofs from the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Fathers, Holy Councils, and from the theologians most renowned for their piety and learning.Familiarity removes, often, a due appreciation of the dangers of the dance. There are Catholics who seem to have become skeptical as to the very existence of the danger attendant on their supposed innocent recreations.We hope that these collected proofs will enlighten the mind and change the heart of those who have been the advocates of dancing, solely because they have never sufficiently considered the evils of which it is the cause and the occasion."But, you will say, the Commandments of God do not forbid dancing, nor does Holy Scripture, either. Perhaps you have not examined them very closely. Follow me for a moment and you will see that there is not a Commandment of God which dancing does not cause to be transgressed, nor a Sacrament which it does not cause to be profaned."- St. John Vianney
Dancehall In/Securities
This book focuses on how in/security works in and through Jamaican dancehall, and on the insights that Jamaican dancehall offers for the global study of in/security.This collection draws together a multi-disciplinary range of key scholars in in/security and dancehall. Scholars from the University of the West Indies' Institute of Caribbean Studies and Reggae Studies Unit, as well as independent dancehall and dance practitioners from Kingston, and writers from the UK, US and continental Europe offer their differently situated perspectives on dancehall, its histories, spatial patterning, professional status and aesthetics.The study brings together critical security studies with dancehall studies and will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners in theatre, dance and performance studies, sociology, cultural geography, anthropology, postcolonial studies, diaspora studies, musicology and gender studies.
The Celestial Dancers
The Celestial Dancers: Manipuri Dance on Australian Stage charts the momentous journey of the popularization of Manipur's Hindu dances in Australia. Tradition has it that the people of Manipur, a northeastern state of India, are descended from the celestial gandharvas, dance and music blessed among them as a God's gift. The intricately symbolic Hindu dances of Manipur in their original religious forms were virtually unseen and unknown outside India until an Australian impresario, Louise Lightfoot, brought them to the stage in the 1950s. Her experimental changes through a pioneering collaboration with dancers Rajkumar Priyagopal Singh and Ibetombi Devi modernized Manipuri dance for presentation on a global stage. This partnership moved Manipur's Hindu dances from the sphere of ritualistic temple practice to a formalized stage art abroad. Amit Sarwal chronicles how this movement, as in the case of other prominent Indian classical dances and dancers, enabled both Manipuri dance and dancers to gain recognition worldwide. This book is ideal for anyone with an interest in Hindu temple dance, Manipur dance, cross-cultural collaborations and the globalizing of Indian Classical Dance. The Celestial Dancers is a comprehensive study of how an exceptional Hindu dance form developed on the global stage.
Fantasies of Ito Michio
Born in Japan and trained in Germany, dancer and choreographer Ito Michio (1893-1961) achieved prominence in London before moving to the U.S. in 1916 and building a career as an internationally acclaimed artist. During World War II, Ito was interned for two years, and then repatriated to Japan, where he contributed to imperial war efforts by creating propaganda performances and performing revues for the occupying Allied Forces in Tokyo. Throughout, Ito continually invented stories of voyages made, artists befriended, performances seen, and political activities carried out--stories later dismissed as false. Fantasies of Ito Michio argues that these invented stories, unrealized projects, and questionable political affiliations are as fundamental to Ito's career as his 'real' activities, helping us understand how he sustained himself across experiences of racialization, imperialism, war, and internment. Tara Rodman reveals a narrative of Ito's life that foregrounds the fabricated and overlooked to highlight his involvement with Japanese artists, such as Yamada Kosaku and Ishii Baku, and global modernist movements. Rodman offers "fantasy" as a rubric for understanding how individuals such as Ito sustain themselves in periods of violent disruption and as a scholarly methodology for engaging the past.
The Church’s Position on Dancing
The moral dangers of the too common and too fashionable amusements of dancing are pointed out, with as much force as clearness and learning, in this small but valuable book. The author extracts proofs from the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Fathers, Holy Councils, and from the theologians most renowned for their piety and learning.Familiarity removes, often, a due appreciation of the dangers of the dance. There are Catholics who seem to have become skeptical as to the very existence of the danger attendant on their supposed innocent recreations.We hope that these collected proofs will enlighten the mind and change the heart of those who have been the advocates of dancing, solely because they have never sufficiently considered the evils of which it is the cause and the occasion."But, you will say, the Commandments of God do not forbid dancing, nor does Holy Scripture, either. Perhaps you have not examined them very closely. Follow me for a moment and you will see that there is not a Commandment of God which dancing does not cause to be transgressed, nor a Sacrament which it does not cause to be profaned."- St. John Vianney
Contemporary Dance Choreography and Spectatorship
This book offers an approach which unites choreographic and spectatorial perspectives, and argues for dance itself--its materials, its structures--as a medium of emotional communication. Contemporary dance often seems to contend with issues of understanding, regularly being "read" in "languages" which alienate it. Even if emotion seems a significant part of people's engagement with dance, its workings are often surrounded by an air of mysticism. Engaging with these issues, this study investigates the experience of emotion in Euro-American contemporary dance theatre. It questions its dependence on the artist's personal emotions, and the assumption that it is mediated by representational meaning. Instead, this book proposes that the emotional import of dance emerges from an interplay between perceptual properties and symbolic elements in an embodied affective cognitive experience. This experience includes the background of the spectator as well as the context of work, choreographer, performer(s) and other creative agents.
Dance for your life
Travel through a timeline of rhythm and motion, engaging with different examples of how the skills learnt through dance can transform health and wellbeing. With narratives throughout, the book culminates on how to 'get dancing'. This book is for everyone who values fitness and wellbeing whether you are an experienced dancer or a beginner.Dance for your Life is here for anyone interested in living well. Perhaps you have felt ill or low, or your children are looking for a new dimension to their lives.Has dance been on your radar as something to explore. Maybe you would like to bring more vitality into your life, or you are here driven by curiosity: what on earth has dance to do with living life better? All children should have the chance to express themselves through dance. To realise how moving your body equates to feeling good. People have developed new habits for life. Dance to live well.The world can change in a heartbeat! Your world can change in a Dancebeat!Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts. For it is no mere translation or abstraction of life. It is life itself. HENRY HAVELOCK (1859 - 1939), An English physicianDance is liberating, it's seen as an act of outward expression.Life is full of exciting opportunities, so step forward and take them. If you feel inspired to dance or to encourage others to, you must go ahead. Say yes to yourself and do it. Find out about transferable life skills learnt through dance. Read this book and discover.CreativityDiscover the joy of movementPerseveranceRespectConfidenceResponsibilitySocial SkillsFocusFlexibilityGratitudeSpatial awareness Social distancingBecoming a more knowledgeable dance audienceLeadership skillsMusicality and appreciation of musicTime managementPride of those around Inclusive movementPreparation for job interviewsEnjoying an activity with older/younger people
Diaghilev's Empire
A Best Book of the Year at The New Yorker and The Telegraph "Amusing and assertive . . . [Christiansen's] delight is infectious." --Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times Book Review Rupert Christiansen, a renowned dance critic and arts correspondent, presents a sweeping history of the Ballets Russes and of Serge Diaghilev's dream of bringing Russian art and culture to the West. Serge Diaghilev, the Russian impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, is often said to have invented modern ballet. An art critic and connoisseur, Diaghilev had no training in dance or choreography, but he had a dream of bringing Russian art, music, design, and expression to the West and a mission to drive a cultural and artistic revolution. Bringing together such legendary talents as Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, this complex and visionary genius created a new form of ballet defined by artistic integrity, creative freedom, and an all-encompassing experience of art, movement, and music. The explosive color combinations, sensual and androgynous choreography, and experimental sounds of the Ballets Russes were called "barbaric" by the Parisian press, but its radical style usurped the entrenched mores of traditional ballet and transformed the European cultural sphere at large. Diaghilev's Empire, the publication of which marks the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of Diaghilev's birth, is a daring, impeccably researched reassessment of the phenomenon of the Ballets Russes and the Russian Revolution in twentieth-century art and culture. Rupert Christiansen, a leading dance critic, explores the fiery conflicts, outsize personalities, and extraordinary artistic innovations that make up this enduring story of triumph and disaster.
Social Justice in Dance/Movement Therapy
This book demonstrates the use of dance/movement therapy to directly counteract social injustices and promote healing in international settings. It also demonstrates the potential for dance/movement therapy in prevention and wellness in clinical and community settings. The use of improvisational and creative dance is presented throughout the book as a tremendously clear, strong and powerful inroad to healing in every setting. The chapters in this book do not directly address social justice in dance/movement therapy, but rather provide provoking social justice related positions. This call for a provoking re-examination of the definition of dance/movement therapy is fitting as we--as a community--challenge our identity as dance/movement therapists, educators, supervisors and as human beings who have internalized oppression in various forms through our many identifiers and the unique intersections of those identifiers. The editors and authors posit that social justice cannot be fully addressed by focusing solely on the social issues. Rather, we must be aware of where and how the social issues come into the individual(s), the setting, and the therapy process itself.Chapter "'Breaking Free': One Adolescent Woman's Recovery from Dating Violence Through Creative Dance" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license via link.springer.com.
Antiracism in Ballet Teaching
This new collection of essays and interviews assembles research on teaching methods, choreographic processes, and archival material that challenges systemic exclusions and provides practitioners with accessible steps to creating more equitable teaching environments, curricula, classes, and artistic settings.Antiracism in Ballet Teaching gives readers a wealth of options for addressing and dismantling racialized biases in ballet teaching, as well as in approaches to leadership and choreography. Chapters are organized into three sections - Identities, Pedagogies, and Futurities - that illuminate evolving approaches to choreographing and teaching ballet, shine light on artists, teachers, and dancers who are lesser known/less visible in a racialized canon, and amplify the importance of holistic practices that integrate ballet history with technique and choreography. Chapter authors include award-winning studio owners, as well as acclaimed choreographers, educators, and scholars. The collection ends with interviews featuring ballet company directors (Robert Garland and Alonzo King), world-renowned scholars (Clare Croft, Thomas F. DeFrantz, Brenda Dixon Gottschild), sought-after choreographers (Jennifer Archibald and Claudia Schreier), and beloved educators (Keesha Beckford, Tai Jimenez, and Endalyn Taylor).This is an essential resource for anyone teaching or learning to teach ballet in the Twenty First Century.
