When Leonard Bernstein first arrived in New York City, he was an unknown artist working with other brilliant twentysomethings, notably Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. By the end of the 1940s, these artists were world famous. Their collaborations defied artistic boundaries and subtly pushed a progressive political agenda, altering the landscape of musical theater, ballet, and nightclub comedy. In Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War, award-winning author and scholar Carol J. Oja examines the early days of Bernstein's career during World War II, centering around the debut in 1944 of the Broadway musical On the Town and the ballet Fancy Free. As a composer and conductor, Bernstein experienced a meteoric rise to fame, thanks in no small part to his visionary colleagues. Together, they focused on urban contemporary life and popular culture, featuring as heroes the itinerant sailors who bore the brunt of military service. They were provocative both artistically and politically. In a time of race riots and Japanese internment camps, Bernstein and his collaborators featured African American performers and a Japanese American ballerina, staging a model of racial integration. Rather than accepting traditional distinctions between high and low art, Bernstein's music was wide-open, inspired by everything from opera and jazz to cartoons. Oja shapes a wide-ranging cultural history that captures a tumultuous moment in time. Bernstein Meets Broadway is an indispensable work for fans of Broadway musicals, dance, and American performance history.

From the graceful flutter of Princess Florine at Sleeping Beauty's wedding to the playful jetees in the first act of Giselle, the variation - or short solo work - is one of the key elements of classical ballet. Arguing that true artistry requires in-depth knowledge, former Kirov dancer and teacher Nina Danilova has worked with students for many years to focus on performing individual variations with the greatest extent of technical proficiency and artistic sensitivity. Eight Female Classical Ballet Variations lays out eight of the most important variations in the ballerina's repertoire. Each chapter is divided into five sections: a piano reduction of the score; a contextual note covering the history of the ballet, the plot, and memorable dancers who have performed the role; and instructions for dancing the variation itself, illustrated literally step by step. Accompanied by a comprehensive companion website, Eight Female Classical Ballet Variations pairs Danilova's impeccable technique with her decades of pedagogical experience. Teachers will welcome this classroom-ready guide, and student dancers will leap at the chance to develop their technique and artistry by tackling these variations.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
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, emigre 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."
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY "THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW" - "LOS ANGELES TIMES - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"

In more than 2600 photographs, professional dancers (from such companies as the American Ballet Theatre and the Jaffrey Ballet) demonstrate in sequence every movement in the classical repertoire, from the most basic to the most advanced. Each photograph is accompanied by a text that details appropriate teaching techniques and describes the proper execution of each step. Warren combines the best instructional aspects of several international schools, including Soviet, Danish and English. A glossary defines common dance terms, and a pronunciation guide provides phonetic transcriptions of French ballet terms. A chapter specially for teachers delineates a variety of methods classroom-tested by Warren, a teacher-training expert and former professional dancer with extensive credentials.

In recent decades, dance has become a vehicle for querying assumptions about what it means to be embodied, in turn illuminating intersections among the political, the social, the aesthetical, and the phenomenological. The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Politics edited by internationally lauded scholars Rebekah Kowal, Gerald Siegmund, and the late Randy Martin presents a compendium of newly-commissioned chapters that address the interdisciplinary and global scope of dance theory - its political philosophy, social movements, and approaches to bodily difference such as disability, postcolonial, and critical race and queer studies. In six sections 30 of the most prestigious dance scholars in the US and Europe track the political economy of dance and analyze the political dimensions of choreography, of writing history, and of embodied phenomena in general. Employing years of intimate knowledge of dance and its cultural phenomenology, scholars urge readers to re-think dominant cultural codes, their usages, and the meaning they produce and theorize ways dance may help to re-signify and to re-negotiate established cultural practices and their inherent power relations. This handbook poses ever-present questions about dance politics-which aspects or effects of a dance can be considered political? What possibilities and understandings of politics are disclosed through dance? How does a particular dance articulate or undermine forces of authority? How might dance relate to emancipation or bondage of the body? Where and how can dance articulate social movements, represent or challenge political institutions, or offer insight into habits of labor and leisure? The handbook opens its critical terms in two directions. First, it offers an elaborated understanding of how dance achieves its politics. Second, it illustrates how notions of the political are themselves expanded when viewed from the perspective of dance, thus addressing both the relationship between the politics in dance and the politics of dance. Using the most sophisticated theoretical frameworks and engaging with the problematics that come from philosophy, social science, history, and the humanities, chapters explore the affinities, affiliations, concepts, and critiques that are inherent in the act of dance, and questions about matters political that dance makes legible.

Africans brought as slaves to North America arrived without possessions, but not without culture. The fascinating elements of African life manifested themselves richly in the New World, and among the most lasting and influential of these was the art of African dance. This generously illustrated exploration of African American dance history follows the dynamics of the dance forms throughout each generation. Chapter 1 provides introductory information about the African continent and the heritage that spawned African American dance. Following is a discussion of the discrimination and marginalization endured by African Americans, and the fortitude with which the dance survived and became increasingly important in American culture. Chapters 2 and 3 explore black dance in the slavery era and the variety of black festivals and gatherings that helped to preserve and showcase African-based dance throughout the nineteenth century. Remaining chapters outline ten major characteristics that have consistently marked African American dance, and describe the various styles of black vernacular dance that became popular in America--the Ring Shout, Buzzard Lope, Cakewalk, Shimmy, Charleston, Black Bottom, Big Apple, Lindy Hop, and more. Chapter 8 concludes with a discussion of African dance at the end of the twentieth century and its important role in the flowering of African American arts.

Arguably the world's most popular partnered social dance form, salsa's significance extends well beyond the Latino communities which gave birth to it. The growing international and cross-cultural appeal of this Latin dance form, which celebrates its mixed origins in the Caribbean and in Spanish Harlem, offers a rich site for examining issues of cultural hybridity and commodification in the context of global migration. Salsa consists of countless dance dialects enjoyed by varied communities in different locales. In short, there is not one dance called salsa, but many. Spinning Mambo into Salsa, a history of salsa dance, focuses on its evolution in three major hubs for international commercial export-New York, Los Angeles, and Miami. The book examines how commercialized salsa dance in the 1990s departed from earlier practices of Latin dance, especially 1950s mambo. Topics covered include generational differences between Palladium Era mambo and modern salsa; mid-century antecedents to modern salsa in Cuba and Puerto Rico; tension between salsa as commercial vs. cultural practice; regional differences in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami; the role of the Web in salsa commerce; and adaptations of social Latin dance for stage performance. Throughout the book, salsa dance history is linked to histories of salsa music, exposing how increased separation of the dance from its musical inspiration has precipitated major shifts in Latin dance practice. As a whole, the book dispels the belief that one version is more authentic than another by showing how competing styles came into existence and contention. Based on over 100 oral history interviews, archival research, ethnographic participant observation, and analysis of Web content and commerce, the book is rich with quotes from practitioners and detailed movement description.

With over 9 million Americans practicing Pilates, the popular core exercise system is taking the world by storm. While many find the system helps to strengthen the core, improve posture, and recover from or prevent injuries and pain, Pilates has been clouded in controversy since the beginning. Its origin story is one of greed, ego, celebrities, and lies, with heated legal controversy that threatened the industry. In The Pilates Effect, Stacey Redfield and Sarah Holmes reveal the hidden history of Pilates. From humble beginnings, Joseph Pilates founded the groundbreaking regimen in New York City and worked closely with his partner Clara to rehabilitate and renew dancers who had been injured or were aging. Although Joseph's core strengthening regime was touted as "fifty years ahead of [its] time," finance and health issues plagued Joe and Clara's business. A small and devoted group of followers, including Carola Trier, would fight to spread the practice that they felt gave them a second chance at life and rehabilitated their bodies and souls. A fascinating and inspiring story of fitness in America, The Pilates Effect showcases the people and events that formed an iconic industry. Redfield and Holmes offer inspiration and practical advice for how Pilates can offer change for everyday people regardless of gender, ethnicity, or background.

A facsimile of Feuillet's 1704 dance manual, 'Recueil de Dances contenant un tres grand nombres des meillieures Entrees de Ballet de M. Pecour tant pour homme que pour femme dont la plus grande partie ont ete dancees a l'Opera.' Apart from a brief introduction in French, the book consists entirely of notation examples in Feuillet's own notation system.

Rudolf Steiner initiated a new art of movement, which can be characterised as speech and music made visible. This concise but informative guide to eurythmy includes a brief survey of dance, from its origin in the ancient mysteries to its contemporary forms, placing Steiner's ideas in their historical context. It then goes on to explore the three main strands of eurythmy: as stage performance, in education, and in therapy, giving insightful examples of each. The book has been revised and updated, and includes black and white photographs of performance and educational eurythmy.

Moving Sites explores site-specific dance practice through a combination of analytical essays and practitioner accounts of their working processes. In offering this joint effort of theory and practice, it aims to provide dance academics, students and practitioners with a series of discussions that shed light both on approaches to making this type of dance practice, and evaluating and reflecting on it. The edited volume combines critical thinking from a range of perspectives including commentary and observation from the fields of dance studies, human geography and spatial theory in order to present interdisciplinary discourse and a range of critical and practice-led lenses through which this type of work can be considered and explored. In so doing, this book addresses the following questions: * How do choreographers make site-specific dance performance? * What occurs when a moving body engages with site, place and environment? * How might we interpret, analyse and evaluate this type of dance practice through a range of theoretical lenses? * How can this type of practice inform wider discussions of embodiment, site, space, place and environment? This innovative and exciting book seeks to move beyond description and discussion of site-specific dance as a spectacle or novelty and considers site-dance as a valid and vital form of contemporary dance practice that explores, reflects, disrupts, contests and develops understandings and practices of inhabiting and engaging with a range of sites and environments. Dr Victoria Hunter is Senior Lecturer in Dance at the University of Chichester.

Dance is the art least susceptible to preservation since its embodied, kinaesthetic nature has proven difficult to capture in notation and even in still or moving images. However, frameworks have been established and guidance made available for keeping dances, performances, and choreographers' legacies alive so that the dancers of today and tomorrow can experience and learn from the dances and dancers of the past. In this volume, a range of voices address the issue of dance preservation through memory, artistic choice, interpretation, imagery and notation, as well as looking at relevant archives, legal structures, documentation and artefacts. The intertwining of dance preservation and creativity is a core theme discussed throughout this text, pointing to the essential continuity of dance history and dance innovation. The demands of preservation stretch across time, geographies, institutions and interpersonal connections, and this book focuses on the fascinating web that supports the fragile yet urgent effort to sustain our dancing heritage. The articles in this book were originally published in the journal Dance Chronicle: Studies in Dance and the Related Arts.

A comprehensive overview of the dance culture of Singapore, this book embodies storytelling, personal reflections, memories, and histories of the artists. The extensive calendar of events encompassing companies and soloists from diverse dance practices, such as Indian, Malay and Chinese and a variety of Western contemporary dances, underline Singapore as a vibrant player in the evolution of Asian culture.

Improvisation is a performance practice that animates and activates diverse energies of inspiration, critique, and invention. In recent years it has coalesced into an exciting and innovative new field of interdisciplinary scholarly inquiry, becoming a cornerstone of both practical and theoretical approaches to performance."

The Improvisation Studies Reader" draws together the works of key artists and thinkers from a range of disciplines, including theatre, music, literature, film, and dance. Divided by keywords into eight sections, this book bridges the gaps between these fields. The book includes case studies, exercises, graphic scores and poems in order to produce a teaching and research resource that identifies central themes in improvisation studies. The sections include:

• Listening
• Trust/Risk
• Flow
• Dissonance
• Responsibility
• Liveness
• Surprise
• Hope

Each section of the Reader is introduced by a newly commissioned think piece by a key figure in the field, which opens up research questions reflecting on the keyword in question.

By placing key theoretical and classic texts in conversation with cutting-edge research and artists statements, this book answers the urgent questions facing improvising artists and theorists in the mediatized Twenty-First Century. "

In this sparkling, innovative, fully-illustrated work, world-renowned choreographer Annie-B Parson translates the components of dance-time, proximity, space, motion and tone- into text. As we follow Parson through her days-at home, reading, and on her walks down the street-and in and out of conversations on everything from Homer's Odyssey to feminist art to social protest, she helps us see how everyday movement creates the wider world. Dance, it turns out, is everything and everywhere. With the insight and verve of a soloist, Parson shows us how art-making is a part of our everyday lives and our political life as we move, together and apart, through space.

Thinking of taking up ballet for the first time as an adult? Or perhaps you're wondering if you're too old to go back to ballet? Coming back to ballet as an adult has been a rather surprising, interesting and rewarding journey for me. The author shares her journey of learning to dance ballet as an adult, which she found was different and challenging in ways very different from when she had been a child. She had to overcome challenges in flexibility and coordination, amongst other things. In this book, she gently introduces ballet to the adult beginner: how to choose the right class, what to wear and what to expect. She also shows you how to progress effectively in ballet, such as eventually going en pointe, developing artistry, taking ballet examinations and much more.

Welcome to The Empire theatre 1922. When Jack Treadwell arrives at The Empire, in the middle of a rehearsal, he is instantly mesmerised. But amid the glitz and glamour, he soon learns that the true magic of the theatre lies in its cast of characters - both on stage and behind the scenes. There's stunning starlet Stella Stanmore and Hollywood heartthrob Lancelot Drake; and Ruby Rowntree, who keeps the music playing, while Lady Lillian Lassiter, theatre owner and former showgirl, is determined to take on a bigger role. And then there's cool, competent Grace Hawkins, without whom the show would never go on . . . could she be the leading lady Jack is looking for? When long-held rivalries threaten The Empire's future, tensions rise along with the curtain. There is treachery at the heart of the company and a shocking secret waiting in the wings. Can Jack discover the truth before it's too late, and the theatre he loves goes dark? Musical theatre legend Michael Ball brings his trademark warmth, wit and glamour to this, his debut novel. Enjoy the show! Real readers love The Empire 'A charming, captivating, majestic, electrifying, exciting and dazzling masterpiece' 'This book was perfect' 'The Empire is fantastic read, and one of my favourites of this year!' 'A real razzmatazz of a read' 'What a wonderful book, as full of warmth and wit as Michael himself . . . absolute magic!' The Empire was a Sunday Times No. 3 bestseller for w/c 24/10/2022'

Group Motion reflects 50 years of co-creation between dancers, choreographers, teachers Brigitta Herrmann and Manfred Fischbeck, along with the participation of thousands of dancers, musicians, videographers and people around the world. Part memoire, part guidebook, part philosophy of art treatise, the book can be read for its stories, for its games, for inspiration. It may even be read for its photos. It does not offer a general history of dance movement improvisation; instead, it presents a very personal and original one. Informed by Mary Wigman's expressionist dance and other contemporary dance and theater traditions, Group Motion evolved and now represents a particular form of improvisational performance practice. Here you will find step-by-step guidance for dozens of improvisational structures or games. Group Motion's vision has brought dance game structures not only onto stages, but into prisons, airports, and public parks. The book offers guidance for dance professionals, theater artists, improvisational musicians and multi-disciplinary performers, and also those who use movement as an expressive tool for all.

A facsimile reproduction of Giambatista Dufort's manual, published in Naples in 1728, with text entirely in Italian. Part one of the book consists of thirty-four chapters devoted to instructions for steps required in Italian Baroque dance including pirola (pirouette), sfuggito (echappe), passo unite (assemble), and cadente (tombe). Each step is fully described and notated in Feuillet notation, the dance notation system first published by French choreographer Raoul-Auger Feuillet in 1700. The second part of the manual contains six chapters devoted to performance of the minuetto (minuet) and concludes with a section on the contradanza (contredanse) and riverenze (bows).

This book explores the complex relationship between literature and dance in the era of modernism. During this period an unprecedented dialogue between the two art forms took place, based on a common aesthetics initiated by contemporary discussions of the body and gender, language, formal experimentation, primitivism, anthropology, and modern technologies such as photography, film, and mechanisation. The book traces the origins of this relationship to the philosophical antecedents of modernism in the nineteenth century and examines experimentation in both art forms. The book investigates dance's impact on the modernists' critique of language and shows the importance to writers of choreographic innovations by dancers of the fin de siecle, of the Ballets Russes, and of European and American experimentalists in non-balletic forms of modern dance. A reciprocal relationship occurs with choreographic use of literary text. Dance and literature meet at this time at the site of formal experiments in narrative, drama, and poetics, and their relationship contributes to common aesthetic modes such as symbolism, primitivism, expressionism, and constructivism. Focussing on the first half of the twentieth century, the book locates these transactions in a transatlantic field, giving weight to both European and American contexts and illustrating the importance of dance as a conduit of modernist preoccupations in Europe and the US through patterns of influence and exchange. Chapters explore the close interrelationships of writers and choreographers of this period including Mallarme, Nietzsche, Yeats, Conrad, Woolf, Lawrence, Pound, Eliot, and Beckett, Fuller, Duncan, Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, Nijinska, Balanchine, Tudor, Laban, Wigman, Graham, and Humphrey, and recover radical experiments by neglected writers and choreographers from David Garnett and Esther Forbes to Andree Howard and Oskar Schlemmer.

This study focuses on dance as an activist practice in and of itself, across geographical locations and over the course of a century, from 1920 to 2020. Through doing so, it considers how dance has been an empowering agent for political action throughout civilisation. Dance and Activism offers a glimpse of different strategies of mobilizing the human body for good and justice for all, and captures the increasing political activism epitomized by bodies moving on the streets in some of the most turbulent political situations. This has, most recently, undoubtedly been partly owing to the rise of the far-right internationally, which has marked an increase in direct action on the streets. Offering a survey of key events across the century, such as the fall of President Zuma in South Africa; pro-reproductive rights action in Poland and Argentina; and the recent women's marches against Donald Trump's presidency, you will see how dance has become an urgent field of study. Key geographical locations are explored as sites of radical dance - the Lower East Side of New York; Gaza; Syria; Cairo, Iran; Iraq; Johannesburg - to name but a few - and get insights into some of the major figures in the history of dance, including Pearl Primus, Martha Graham, Anna Sokolow and Ahmad Joudah. Crucially, lesser or unknown dancers, who have in some way influenced politics, all over the world are brought into the limelight (the Syrian ballerinas and Hussein Smko, for example). Dance and Activism troubles the boundary between theory and practice, while presenting concrete case studies as a site for robust theoretical analysis.

Whether as a curiosity or a beloved idol, Gene Kelly (1912-1996) lives on in our cultural memory as a fantastic dancer in MGM musicals, especially Singin' in the Rain. But dancing, however extraordinary, was only one of his many gifts. This book, for the first time, offers a full picture of Gene Kelly as the Renaissance man he actually was - dancer, yes, but also choreographer, actor, clown, singer, director, teacher, and mentor. Kelly was star of radio and television as well as film, avant-garde as artist and auteur but also ahead of the curve in opening the world of dance to different races, ethnicities, and genders. Gene Kelly: The Making of a Creative Legend takes us from Kelly's youth in Depression-era Pittsburgh through his years on Broadway and ascendance to stardom in Hollywood. Authors Hess and Dabholkar pay particular attention to his work with the US Navy, solo directing, and lesser-known but considerable accomplishments in television, radio, and on the stage in later years. The book gives us a rare inside look at Kelly's relationships with dancing partners and peers from Leslie Caron, Vera-Ellen, and Cyd Charisse to Fred Astaire, and at his directorial collaboration with Stanley Donen and Vincent Minnelli. The authors show us significant but little-examined facets of Kelly's character and career, such as the political convictions that got him graylisted in Hollywood; his passion for creating cine-dance and serving as an ambassador of dance in America; and his forging of links between dance, civil rights, and the 'common man.' Steeped in research and replete with photographs, this career biography uniquely encompasses all phases of Gene Kelly's life and work - and finally gives us a full portrait of this central figure in the history of the film musical during Hollywood's Golden Age.

This book draws on theories of aesthetics, post-colonialism, multiculturalism and transnationalism to explore salient aspects of perpetuating traditional dance customs in diaspora. It is the first book to present a broad-ranging analysis of cultural dance in Australia. Topics include adaptation of dance customs within a post-migration context, multicultural festivals, prominent performers, historiographies and archives, and the relative positionings of cultural and Western theatrical dance genres. The book offers a decolonized appraisal of dance in Australia, critiquing past and present praxes and offering suggestions for the future. Overall, it underscores the highly variegated nature of the Australian dance landscape and advocates for greater recognition of amateur community dance practices. Cultural Dance in Australia makes a substantial contribution to the catalogue of work about immigrants and cultural dance styles that continue to be preserved in Australia. This book will be of interest to scholars of dance, performance studies, migration studies and transnationalism.

The concept of "worldmaking" is based on the idea that "the world" is not given, but rather produced through language, actions, ideas and perception. This collection of essays takes a closer look at various hybrid and disparate worlds related to dance and choreography. Coming from a broad range of different backgrounds and disciplines, the authors inquire into the ways of producing "dance worlds": through artistic practice, discourse and media, choreographic form and dance material.The essays in this volume critically reflect the predominant topos of dance as something fleeting and ephemeral - an embodiment of the Other in modernity. Moreover, they demonstrate that there is more than just one universal "world of dance", but rather a multitude of interrelated dance worlds with more emerging every day.