As war is declared can The Variety Girls keep smiling through...Cleethorpes - September 1939 Struggling to keep their spirits up as the reality of war hits home and theatres are closed, friends Jessie Delaney and Frances O'Leary search for work to see them through until they can sing and dance again. Frances, once upon a time followed her dreams of becoming a dancer but soon found herself with a broken heart and a precious secret when her lover abandoned her. Keeping her secret from her friends grows more difficult as time passes and their friendship grows.. But with her lover returning to England from a successful tour of America, how long will it be before the truth comes to light? Secrets aren't good for anyone and Frances isn't the only one hiding things from her friends. Ginny Thomspon, another Variety Girl is hoping for the best. But is hope enough? Can the Variety Girls pull together to help each other through the tough times or will their secrets tear them apart? A gritty and heart-warming saga perfect for readers of Elaine Everest, Nancy Revell and Pam Howes. Praise for Tracy Baines: 'A charming, heart-warming saga about ambition, hard work and courage in the cut and thrust of a world often driven by jealousy and spite'. Rosie Clarke 'Immerse yourself in the exciting, evocative world of Wartime musical theatre. I highly recommend this book.' Fenella Miller 'An emotional, entertaining read that had me gripped!' Sheila Riley 'An absorbing and poignant saga. I loved it from the very beginning and would highly recommend it...' Elaine Roberts 'Terrific - beautifully written. The book twinkles. A well-crafted and satisfying story' Maisie Thomas 'A pleasure from start to finish.' Glenda Young '...you will have to read this well-researched song and dance of a novel in great gulps as I did' Annie Clark 'I just loved this book! Molly Walton The Variety Girls is terrific - beautifully written & with an unusual background. The stage costumes twinkle with sequins and the book twinkles with tiny details of theatre life that add depth and atmosphere to this well-crafted and satisfying story. Maisie Thomas, The Railway Girls 'A pleasure from start to finish.' Glenda Young, Belle of the Backstreets '...you will have to read this well-researched song and dance of a novel in great gulps as I did' Milly Adams 'an evocative, busy, entertaining read, which has well balanced touches of humour, vying with angst, and of course, more than a dollop of tension.' Margaret Graham, Frost Magazine 'Characterisation is one of the book's strong points - the individual characters stay in your mind long after you finish the story.' Barbara Dynes, The Voice

First full-scale thematic analysis of Pina Bausch's 'Tanztheater', critically evaluating the impact of modernist theatre on her choreographic methodThis book presents a new reading of Pina Bausch's dance theatre, orienting it within an international legacy of performance practice. The discussion considers not only the influence of German and American modern dance on Bausch's work but, crucially, interrogates parallels with modernist and postdramatic theatre (including Antonin Artaud, Samuel Beckett, Jerzy Grotowski, and Robert Wilson), the influence of which has been largely neglected in existing studies of her oeuvre.'Pina Bausch's Dance Theatre' provides a wide-ranging study of Bausch's aesthetic and methods of practice, with case studies ranging from the beginning of her career to her final choreographies.Key FeaturesThe first full-scale study interrogating the relationship between Bausch's 'Tanztheater' and modernist theatre practice, structured around a chronological framework of case study choreographiesA new theorisation of the development of Bausch's oeuvre, locating her approach in a broader context of intercultural artistic exchange in the post-WWII periodDraws on literary and theatre theory to form an interdisciplinary methodology for understanding and interrogating Bausch's oeuvreBased on extensive archival research and a specialised knowledge of the evolution of modern dance

When it was first published in Germany in 1995, Poetics of Dance was already seen as a path-breaking publication, the first to explore the relationships between the birth of modern dance, new developments in the visual arts, and the renewal of literature and drama in the form of avant-garde theatrical and movement productions of the early twentieth-century. Author Gabriele Brandstetter established in this book not only a relation between dance and critical theory, but in fact a full interdisciplinary methodology that quickly found foothold with other areas of research within dance studies. The book looks at dance at the beginnings of the 20th century, the time during which modern dance first began to make its radical departure from the aesthetics of classical ballet. Brandstetter traces modern dance's connection to new innovations and trends in visual and literary arts to argue that modern dance is in fact the preeminent symbol of modernity. As Brandstetter demonstrates, the aesthetic renewal of dance vocabulary which was pursued by modern dancers on both sides of the Atlantic - Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller, Valeska Gert and Oskar Schlemmer, Vaslav Nijinsky and Michel Fokine - unfurled itself in new ideas about gender and subjectivity in the arts more generally, thus reflecting the modern experience of life and the self-understanding of the individual as an individual. As a whole, the book makes an important contribution to the theory of modernity.

This collection of dances includes detailed diagrams for ease of learning the steps. The dances originate from the island of Barra.

NOW A MAJOR FILM BY RALPH FIENNES, THE WHITE CROW 'A gripping account of an extraordinary life' Daily Telegraph Born on a train in Stalin's Russia, Rudolf Nureyev was ballet's first pop icon. No other dancer of our time has generated the same excitement - both on and off stage. Nureyev's achievements and conquests became legendary: he rose out of Tatar peasant poverty to become the Kirov's thrilling maverick star; slept with his beloved mentor's wife; defected to the West in 1961; sparked Rudimania across the globe; established the most rhapsodic partnership in dance history with the middle-aged Margot Fonteyn; reinvented male technique; gatecrashed modern dance; moulded new stars; and staged Russia's unknown ballet masterpieces in the West. He and his life were simply astonishing. 'Magnificent, a triumph. Captures every facet of this extraordinary man' Mail on Sunday 'The definitive study of a man who, in his combination of aesthetic grace and psychological grime, can truly be called a sacred monster' Observer 'Undoubtedly the definitive biography' Sunday Telegraph

In early twentieth-century Europe, the watershed developments of pictorial abstraction, modern dance, and cinema coincided to shift the artistic landscape and the future of modern art. In Moving Modernism, Nell Andrew challenges assumptions about modernist abstraction and its appearance in the field of painting. By recovering performances, methods, and circles of aesthetic influence for avant-garde dance pioneers and filmmakers from the turn of the century to the interwar period - including dancer Loie Fuller, who presented to symbolist artists the possibility of prolonged or suspended vision; Valentine de Saint-Point, whose radical dance paralleled the abstractions of cubo-futurist painting; Sophie Taeuber and her Dada dance; the Belgian "pure plastics" choreographer known as Akarova; and the dance-like cinema of Germaine Dulac - Andrew demonstrates that abstraction was deployed not only as modernist form but as an apparatus of creation, perception, and reception across artistic media.

Striptease recreates the combustible mixture of license, independence, and sexual curiosity that allowed strippers to thrive for nearly a century. Rachel Shteir brings to life striptease's Golden Age, the years between the Jazz Age and the Sexual Revolution, when strippers performed around the country, in burlesque theatres, nightclubs, vaudeville houses, carnivals, fairs, and even in glorious palaces on the Great White Way. Taking us behind the scenes, Shteir introduces us to a diverse cast of characters that collided on the burlesque stage, from tight-laced political reformers and flamboyant impresarios, to drag queens, shimmy girls, cootch dancers, tit serenaders, and even girls next door, lured into the profession by big-city aspirations. Throughout the book, readers will find essential profiles of famed performers, including Gypsy Rose Lee, 'the Literary Stripper'; Lili St. Cyr, the 1950s mistress of exotic striptease; and Blaze Starr, the 'human heat wave'. who literally set the stage on fire. striptease is an insightful and entertaining portrait of an art form at once reviled and embraced by the American public. Blending careful research and vivid narration, Rachel Shteir captures striptease's combination of sham and seduction while illuminating its surprisingly persistent hold on the American imagination.

Since the mid-80s, Prapto's moving/dancing has delighted and inspired thousands of people in the West (as well as many more in his native Java) who have witnessed, worked with or been otherwise influenced by his Amerta Movement practice. But what is this non-stylised Amerta Movement practice? And what is it about Prapto's work that so touches the lives of therapists, artists, musicians, dancers, teachers, performers, monastics and laypeople from all walks of life? To answer these questions, this new book collects the experiences of 30 movement practitioners from Indonesia, Europe, North and South America and Australasia. All of them have trained and studied extensively with him and most are recognised by Prapto as movement teachers. Some themes and areas covered: Moving with babies Amerta Movement and Buddhism Using movement to work with autistic children Movement as a way to loosen the habit of critique and criticism Movement and film...and the law...and archaeology...and music Movement mantra Somatic costumes and movement performance Different chapters look at contemplative, vocational, daily life, therapeutic, dance and performative applications of Amerta Movement. Readership: As well as all those familiar with Prapto's work, the book will also be an inspiration and resource for: dance, movement and performance artists, teachers and trainers therapists of all sorts, especially those working with somatics, embodiment, dance and movement anyone wanting to learn more about the nature and application of Prapto's movement practice anyone interested in the value of an embodied approach to life and work - current thinking about the brain and body point to the crucial importance of nonverbal, embodied perception and communication, and Amerta Movement offers an important path toward growth in this area.

What is the essence of "black" dance in America, and what is the black dancing body? To answer these question, Brenda Dixon Gottschild charts an unorthodox history by mapping the geography of the black dancing body and showing its central place in our culture. From feet to buttocks, hair, skin, face and beyond to soul and spirit, the author explores the endeavors, ordeals and triumphs of this body with some of the major dancers and choreographers of our time--Fernando Bujones, Brenda Bufalino, Trisha Brown, Garth Fagan, Rennie Harris, Bill T. Jones, Ralph Lemon, Susanne Linke, Meredith Monk and a cadre of their esteemed colleagues. Since race and color are usually taboo subjects in the dance world, what the author finds out is sure to cause controversy and turn heads. Written by one of the foremost American dance critics of our day, "The Black Dancing Body" is a key to the ineffable rhythms and movement of dance in America.

Since its development in the 1970s, hip-hop has grown to become a global dance phenomenon. In Beginning Hip-Hop Dance, students gain a strong foundation and learn the fundamentals of hip-hop techniques. Written by a dance educator and historian, this guide gives students the chance to explore hip-hop history and significant works and artists in the field. Students are also taught to understand the styles and aesthetics of hip-hop as a performing and cultural art form. There is also information about the different forms of hip hop dance, including locking, waacking, popping, boogaloo and house. Part of the Human Kinetics' Interactive Dance Series, Beginning Hip-Hop Dance also comes with a web resource of over 50 video clips. These clips support learning and dance technique.

This volume collects academic as well as artistic explorations highlighting historical and contemporary approaches to the "energetic" in its aesthetic and political potential. Energetic processes cross dance, performance art and installations. In contemporary dance and performance art, energetic processes are no longer mere conditions of form but appear as distinct aesthetic interventions. They transform the body, evoke specific states and push towards intensities.International contributors (i.e. Gerald Siegmund, Susan Leigh Foster, Lucia Ruprecht) unfold thorough investigations, elucidating maneuvers of mobilization, activation, initiation, regulation, navigation and containment of forces as well as different potentials and promises associated with the "energetic".