Bob Fosse (1927-1987) is recognized as one of the most significant figures in post-World War II American musical theater. With his first Broadway musical, The Pajama Game in 1954, the "Fosse style" was already fully developed, with its trademark hunched shoulders, turned-in stance, and stuttering, staccato jazz movements. Fosse moved decisively into the role of director with Redhead in 1959 and was a key figure in the rise of the director-choreographer in the Broadway musical. He also became the only star director of musicals of his era-a group that included Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, Michael Kidd, and Harold Prince-to equal his Broadway success in films. Following his unprecedented triple crown of show business awards in 1973 (an Oscar for Cabaret, Emmy for Liza with a Z, and Tony for Pippin), Fosse assumed complete control of virtually every element of his projects. But when at last he had achieved complete autonomy, his final efforts, the film Star 80 and the musical Big Deal, written and directed by Fosse, were rejected by audiences and critics. A fascinating look at the evolution of Fosse as choreographer and director, Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical considers Fosse's career in the context of changes in the Broadway musical theater over four decades. It traces his early dance years and the importance of mentors George Abbott and Jerome Robbins on his work. It examines how each of the important women in his adult life-all dancers-impacted his career and influenced his dance aesthetic. Finally, the book investigates how his evolution as both artist and individual mirrored the social and political climate of his era and allowed him to comfortably ride a wave of cultural changes.

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (b. 1960) founded her dance company, Rosas, in 1983. Her work is grounded on a rigorous exploration of the relationship between dance and music, and over the years she has engaged the musical structures and scores of different periods and genres, from early music to contemporary expressions of classical and popular music. Her choreographic practice draws from geometric principles, nature, and social structures to offer unique perspectives on the articulation of the body in space and time. The minimalism of De Keersmaeker's earliest pieces gave way over the years to ingenious constructions for large ensembles. Then in 2007, the choreography underwent a fundamental change with the emergence of a new kind of minimalism, a paring down to essential principles of sparseness; the spatial constraints of geometric patterns; an unwavering commitment to elementary gestures, notably walking, breathing, and speaking; and a close adherence to a score, musical or otherwise, for the choreographic writing. Photographers Anne Van Aerschot and Herman Sorgeloos were privileged witnesses to this process, and their images, gathered here for the first time, offer an exceptionally acute look at Rosas's work over the last decade. Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Independent choreographer and filmmaker Robin Bisio is inspired both by poetry and by her native southern California landscapes, ranging from rolling fields to the rollicking sea shore. She collaborates with many talented artists and performers to create wild and stunning dances in challenging plein air environments. "'Your Flesh Shall Be a Poem' is a very attractive, wind-blown and provocative book." -Allegra Fuller Snyder, Professor Emerita of Dance, and former Director of the Graduate Program in Dance Ethnology, at UCLA

The reign of the Michael-mysteries has held sway in humanity since the beginning of the contemporary Michael epoch in 1879. At the center of those mysteries is the true spiritual path to Christ, on which Michael, as the current Time spirit and cosmic countenance of Christ, would like to guide human beings. The Michael-mysteries, moreover, represent the key for the entire future development of Earth evolution, with the aim that the Earth may become a new Sun in our cosmos, for Michael was the Archangel of the Sun from the beginning. In a special way his mysteries are connected with the karma of the anthroposophic movement. Anthroposophy was prepared suprasensorially in the Sun kingdom of Michael as a gift to humanity. Today, this secret must be revealed. In this is contained the task of Anthroposophy. As its founder, Rudolf Steiner dedicated his entire life and work to this task. The culmination and, at the same time, a testament of this spiritual teacher is the Michael Meditation, also called the Michael Imagination, with which Steiner concluded his final address to anthroposophists the evening before Michaelmas 1924. In this book, by way of Steiner's spiritual research, a summation of the Michael mysteries is given in connection with the content of the Michael meditation, as well as the foundation of the eurythmic presentation according to the forms that Rudolf Steiner created during his final days on his sick bed.

Early hip hop film musicals have either been expunged from cinema history or excoriated in brief passages by critics and other writers. Hip Hop on Film reclaims and reexamines productions such as Breakin' (1984), Beat Street (1984), and Krush Groove (1985) in order to illuminate Hollywood's fascinating efforts to incorporate this nascent urban culture into conventional narrative forms. Such films presented musical conventions against the backdrop of graffiti-splattered trains and abandoned tenements in urban communities of color, setting the stage for radical social and political transformations. Hip hop musicals are also part of the broader history of teen cinema, and films such as Charlie Ahearn's Wild Style (1983) are here examined alongside other contemporary youth-oriented productions. As suburban teen films banished parents and children to the margins of narrative action, hip hop musicals, by contrast, presented inclusive and unconventional filial groupings that included all members of the neighborhood. These alternative social configurations directly referenced specific urban social problems, which affected the stability of inner city families following diminished governmental assistance in communities of color during the 1980s. Breakdancing, a central element of hip hop musicals, is also reconsidered. It gained widespread acclaim at the same time that these films entered the theaters, but the nation's newly discovered dance form was embattled--caught between a multitude of institutional entities such as the ballet academy, advertising culture, and dance publications that vied to control its meaning, particularly in relation to delineations of gender. As street-trained breakers were enticed to join the world of professional ballet, this newly forged relationship was recast by dance promoters as a way to invigorate and ""remasculinize"" European dance, while young women simultaneously critiqued conventional masculinities through an appropriation of breakdance. These multiple and volatile histories influenced the first wave of hip hop films, and even structured the sleeper hit Flashdance (1983). This forgotten, ignored, and maligned cinema is not only an important aspect of hip hop history, but is also central to the histories of teen film, the postclassical musical, and even institutional dance. Kimberley Monteyne places these films within the wider context of their cultural antecedents and reconsiders the genre's influence.

Robert Cohan is part of the pantheon of American contemporary choreographers which includes Alvin Ailey and Paul Taylor. Like them he follows in the tradition of their teacher Martha Graham whose works were grounded in finding through dance a way to express the human condition, in all its forms. This he has done in over fifty works, from early solos and duets to large group works which have been performed by contemporary and ballet companies around the world. A distinguished teacher, choreographer and advocate for dance, he has shaped the lives of generations of dance artists. Robert Cohan joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1946 and left it 23 years later when he was invited by Robin Howard to become the first Artistic Director of the Contemporary Dance Trust in London and as such was the founder Artistic Director of The Place, London Contemporary Dance School and London Contemporary Dance Theatre, which he directed for over 20 years. As director of LCDT he created many works for the Company in collaboration with leading composers and designers, including the classics, Cell, Stabat Mater, Forest and Nymphaeas. No one has had a greater influence on the development of dance in Britain than Cohan. Having pioneered the teaching of contemporary dance technique in Britain, he was instrumental in the development of a vast following, not only for the repertory of LCDT but through his pioneering residencies held throughout the country, for the many other British companies which followed. Without him there would be no Robert North, Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies, Lloyd Newson, Rosemary Butcher, Dharshan Singh-Bhuller, Anthony van Laast: the list could go on and include choreographers and dancers in every part of the world. From 1980 to 1990 he acted as the Artistic Advisor to the Batsheva Dance Company and choreographed several works for them and the Bat Dor Company in Israel. He has been continually in demand as a director of choreographic courses, notably the International Course for Professional Choreographers and Composers which he directed six times. Since 1989 he has been working freelance and has choreographed ballets for Scottish Ballet as well as companies in Germany and Italy. This book is based on extensive interviews with Cohan, his family, friends and colleagues. Drawing together his life in dance around the world, it provides the first in depth study of this seminal figure in the dance world. The author: Paul Jackson trained in both music and dance and has worked in both subjects internationally. He is a past Chair of the Standing Conference for Dance in Higher Education, the umbrella organisation for British university dance departments. From 1997-2002 he was head of music at Northumbria University where he also founded both dance degrees. He worked previously at the Arts Educational Schools, Islington Arts Factory, Central School of Ballet and at Walter Nicks' school the CFPD in Poitiers, France.

Does a dance communicate ? What ? How ? Are all dances meaningful ? Do spectators see what a choreographer sees ? "The strands of the dance medium like locks of hair plait into one meaningful whole. The interlock is all." The interlock is what this book explores from the choreographer and performers' perspective with every genre in contemporary dance theatre in mind. Written for practical people in dance, the text is organised in 32 short chapters each addressing a question on the way in which choreographers might or might not engage with their audiences in dance theatre works. The topics include an introduction to communication theory and the way in which the interlocking network between performers, movement material, sound, and performance can carry meaning. The book is written from choreographers' and performers' perspectives, with 46 dance works cited from a wide range of genres. The text is unusually presented - as closely as possible to how we speak to each other - with key words in bold type for ease of reference. Valerie Preston-Dunlop is an internationally recognised lecturer, teacher, and author on dance. She is currently Adviser for Postgraduate Studies and Research at the Trinity Laban Centre in London.

DESTINED TO DANCE They called her a genius. They called her a goddess. They called her a monster. Which title best fits Martha Graham, iconic Mother of Modern Dance? Find out - in the first historical novel about this great American diva. DESTINED TO DANCE is a creative portrait of the legendary dancer and choreographer. Written by award-winning author Marcy Heidish, Martha Graham's story holds the spotlight - and the reader. Skillfully weaving fact and fiction, Heidish (A Woman Called Moses, etc.) offers another remarkable account of an American heroine: her successes, her sorrows, and her struggles. Here is a masterful portrait of Graham, onstage, back-stage, offstage. With literary grace and lively prose, the woman behind the icon is revealed. We see Graham's break-through brilliance, often compared to Picasso's or Sravinsky. We also witness Graham's triumph over alcoholism, despair, and a failed marriage. Set against the intriguing world of dance, Martha Graham's story offers us a close-up on a complex and compelling overcomer. Martha Graham (1894-1991) invented a new "language of movement," still taught around the world and exemplified in such classic works as Appalachian Spring, among 180 others. The Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance tours widely and its current artistic director, a former Graham dancer, has contributed unique input to this novel. As always, Heidish's research is thorough and her sense of her subject is magical. For all who love the arts, all who seek inspiration, and all who like to read between history's lines, DESTINED TO DANCE is a must-read book.

A Performance link between the Biography of Lester Horton and his Dance Technique. Bradley Shelver explores the training and performance potentials of Horton's Technique. Through his own experiences with dancing and teaching, Shelver explains the benefits and comparisons between the Horton Technique and other dance training tools. With photographs by Torben Rasmussen, the book gives a detailed glimpse of the past and future of the Dance Technique of Lester Horton. Introduction is written by Ana Marie Forsythe.

Have you ever sat in the audience but wished you were on the stage? Or maybe you are a naturally creative person but sometimes you feel blocked or find it hard to keep going? If you ever breathed in with joy when you saw a particular colour, like the colour of the gorse or the sea, and would like to recapture that feeling and build on it, this book is for you. It will help you to become fitter in body and soul, to slow down your thinking and worrying and inhabit your body with more passion and ease. Lani O'Hanlon brings the creative and healing arts together in Dancing the Rainbow. It includes the story of how movement and dance transformed her life when she started to use dance to heal the trauma in her own body, and her book sets out to also transform the reader's life through dance. With easy to follow illustrations throughout, it uses tried and tested methods to unlock creative potential in a way that is in balance with the body's rhythm and with the rhythm of the Earth.

Ann Daly ranks among the most insightful, articulate dance critics and scholars writing today. Spanning the divide between journalism and scholarship, this collection offers a double-sighted view of dance in America from 1986 to the present, documenting the shift in experimental dance from formal to social concerns, and recording the expansion of dance studies in the academy from historical documentation to cultural criticism.
Daly examines performance art and visual art as they relate to and influence dance, with a look at the intersection of dance and history. Gender is the subject of the final section of the book. More than 80 reviews, features, essays, interviews and scholarly articles -- including extended considerations of Pina Bausch, Deborah Hay, Bill T. Jones and Ralph Lemon -- were originally published in venues ranging from High Performance to The New York Times to TDR: A Journal of Performance Studies.

Marian 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 75 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 at the time of publication - this book offers a syllabus 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.

Whether as performers or spectators, more people enjoy dance today than ever before. Its extraordinary range extends from classical ballet and baroque court spectacles to avant-garde modern dance, tap and world dance. Everyone with an interest in dance will have felt the need for a guide to the art's rich history and complex present state. Susan Au's lucid text covers the whole subject, vividly describing the great performers and performances of the past as well as exploring in detail the dance world of today. A generous selection of illustrations completes the picture, taking the reader from the palaces of the Medici to the lofts of Manhattan, from the dancing of Louis XIV to the experimental choreography of Twyla Tharp and Pina Bausch. A new final chapter documents the work of the chief dancers and choreographers from the 1980s to the present, covering offshoots of modern dance such as Tanztheater and Butoh, and recent developments in performance art and sitespecific choreography. The author discusses the upsurge in the popularity of dances of the past, among them ballroom dancing and the Argentine tango, and notes the revival of tap dancing as well as the successful transition of Irish step dancing to the theatre. In addition, she records the uses dance and dancers have made of recent technological advances, including cinedance and videodance, CD-ROMs, and the Internet.