Unlike collections of essays which focus on a single century or whose authors are drawn from a single discipline, this collection reflects the myriad performance options available to London audiences, offering readers a composite portrait of the music, drama, and dance productions that characterized this rich period. Just as the performing arts were deeply interrelated, the essays presented here, by scholars from a range of fields, engage in dialogue with others in the volume. The opening section examines a famous series of 1701 performances based on the competition between composers to set William Congreve's masque The Judgment of Paris to music. The essays in the central section (the 'mainpiece') showcase performers and productions on the London stage from a variety of perspectives, including English 'tastes' in art and music, the use of dance, the depiction of madness and masculinity in both spoken and musical performances, and genres and modes in the context of contemporary criticism and theatrical practice. A brief afterpiece looks at comic pieces in relation to satire, parody and homage. By bringing together work by scholars of music, dance, and drama, this cross-disciplinary collection illuminates the interconnecting strands that shaped a vibrant theatrical world.

A series of interviews with some of the foremost dancers in twentieth-century ballet, Never Far from Dancing reflects on the paths that their careers have taken since they retired from the stage. Barbara Newman has expertly edited each of her interviews to read as a monologue, addressing every aspect of ballet, from its styles and technical demands to its personalities, its celebrated roles and, most of all, to what happens when the dancing stops. While ballet invites all manner of writing from critics, admirers and academics, the thoughts and experiences of the dancers themselves are seldom recorded. Here, those who scaled the heights of their art hand down their wisdom and recount lives spent in this most enduring of art forms.

A series of interviews with some of the foremost dancers in twentieth-century ballet, Never Far from Dancing reflects on the paths that their careers have taken since they retired from the stage. Barbara Newman has expertly edited each of her interviews to read as a monologue, addressing every aspect of ballet, from its styles and technical demands to its personalities, its celebrated roles and, most of all, to what happens when the dancing stops. While ballet invites all manner of writing from critics, admirers and academics, the thoughts and experiences of the dancers themselves are seldom recorded. Here, those who scaled the heights of their art hand down their wisdom and recount lives spent in this most enduring of art forms.

Profiles of artists and performers from around the world form the basis of this innovative volume that explores the many ways individuals engage with, carry on, revive, and create tradition. Leading scholars in folklore studies consider how the field has addressed the connections between performer and tradition and examine theoretical issues involved in fieldwork and the analysis and dissemination of scholarship in the context of relationships with the performers. Honoring Henry Glassie and his remarkable contributions to the field of folklore, these vivid case studies exemplify the best of performer-centered ethnography.

For many people step dancing is associated mainly with the Irish step-dance stage shows, Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, which assisted both in promoting the dance form and in placing Ireland globally. But, in this book, Catherine Foley illustrates that the practice and contexts of step dancing are much more complicated and fluid. Tracing the trajectory of step dancing in Ireland, she tells its story from roots in eighteenth-century Ireland to its diverse cultural manifestations today. She examines the interrelationships between step dancing and the changing historical and cultural contexts of colonialism, nationalism, postcolonialism and globalization, and shows that step dancing is a powerful tool of embodiment and meaning that can provoke important questions relating to culture and identity through the bodies of those who perform it. Focusing on the rural European region of North Kerry in the south-west of Ireland, Catherine Foley examines three step-dance practices: one, the rural Molyneaux step-dance practice, representing the end of a relatively long-lived system of teaching by itinerant dancing masters in the region; two, RinceoirA na RA ochta, a dance school representative of the urbanized staged, competition orientated practice, cultivated by the cultural nationalist movement, the Gaelic League, established at the end of the nineteenth century, and practised today both in Ireland and abroad; and three, the stylized, commoditized, folk-theatrical practice of Siamsa TA re, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, established in North Kerry in the 1970s. Written from an ethnochoreological perspective, Catherine Foley provides a rich historical and ethnographic account of step dancing, step dancers and cultural institutions in Ireland.

The 'ballet d'action' was one of the most successful and controversial forms of theatre in the early modern period. A curious hybrid of dance, mime and music, its overall and overriding intention was to create drama. It was danced drama rather than dramatic dance; musical drama rather than dramatic music. Most modern critical studies of the ballet d'action treat it more narrowly as stage dance, and very few view it as part of the history of mime. Little use has previously been made of the most revealing musical evidence. This innovative book does justice to the distinctive hybrid nature of the ballet d'action by taking a comparative approach, using contemporary literature and literary criticism, music, mime and dance from a wide range of English and European sources. Edward Nye presents a fascinating study of this important and influential part of eighteenth-century European theatre.

Social dance was ubiquitous in interwar Britain. The social mingling and expression made possible through non-theatrical participatory dancing in couples and groups inspired heated commentary, both vociferous and subtle. By drawing attention to the ways social dance accrued meaning in interwar Britain, Rishona Zimring redefines and brings needed attention to a phenomenon that has been overshadowed by other developments in the history of dance. Social dance, Zimring argues, haunted the interwar imagination, as illustrated in trends such as folk revivalism and the rise of therapeutic dance education. She brings to light the powerful figurative importance of popular music and dance both in the aftermath of war, and during Britain's entrance into cosmopolitan modernity and the modernization of gender relations. Analyzing paintings, films, memoirs, a ballet production, and archival documents, in addition to writings by Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Vivienne Eliot, and T.S. Eliot, to name just a few, Zimring provides crucial insights into the experience, observation, and representation of social dance during a time of cultural transition and recuperation. Social dance was pivotal in the construction of modern British society as well as the aesthetics of some of the period's most prominent intellectuals.

Originally published in 1963 and authored by the then Editor of the Dancing Times, this was a pioneer work discussing not only the origins and development of many social dance forms from early times, but also relating these forms to their environment. As well as its role in social history, the book analyses the role of dance as a prime creative power in Renaissance spectacles which depicted and celebrated diplomatic, military and regal occasions. After a wide-ranging introductory chapter on the origins of dancing, the book takes the reader through the centuries, discussing in turn the Basse Danse and the Moresco of the Middle Ages, the Pavane, Galliard and Courante of the 16th Century, the Minuet of the 17th & 18th, the Allemande, the Waltz and the Polka as well as Jazz, the Cha Cha Cha, the Jive and Twist.

Dance saved my life. It helped me survive and escape after sixteen years under the Regime of a Psychopathic Dictator - my father." Within the South African Apartheid Regime, Denise was locked into domestic slavery - a box within a box. She was only allowed to go to school, ballet and her parent's places of work when it suited him: to create an impression of normality. Like the Austrian Fritzl girl, she had to play his sick game and fight him off every day. The boxer needed a sparring partner. If he had the money to build a soundproof cellar she may well have found herself in one...but the invisible walls and chains were there. He was obsessed with Hitler and ran their home like a Brown Shirt concentration camp. Every day was hell, a constant threat of death. But she found coping strategies...She wore the mask, educated herself and danced using humour to still the pain. Denise created a miraculous and inspiring self-transformation to become a ballerina, community worker and reformer. But all the while she had her dark, obsessed 'Phantom of the Ballet' waiting in the wings...She shares her timeous story of survival and dancing into success - out of extreme abuse and poverty within a Depression and harsh Patriarchy. She also offers funny African Theatre anecdotes, travel notes on Scotland, early film scripts - and the thought provoking ponderings of outrageous friend, Jasmine Rose. Throughout her 40-year career, first as amateur then professional, Denise has worked as a dance performer, director, choreographer, producer, entertainment consultant, community artist and educator. She created Butterfly Haven Castle - a centre for Youth and Survivors and was the mentor and initiator of the first Chapters of the International Network, Free the Children in South Africa. For years, Ms. Stephani has worked as the director of the BYCIA Dance and Mixed Media Company. She creates educational programmess and workshops to teach others to use dance and the arts as tools for citizenship and to overcome personal issues.

The union of the two royal houses - the Habsburgs and the Bourbons - in the early seventeenth century illustrates the extent to which marriage was a tool of government in Renaissance Europe, and festivals a manifestation of power and cultural superiority. With contributions from scholars representing a range of disciplines, this volume provides an all-round view of the sequence of festivals and events surrounding the dynastic marriages which were agreed upon in 1612 but not celebrated until 1615 owing to the constant interruption of festivities by protestant uprisings. The occasion inspired an extraordinary range of records from exchanges of political pamphlets, descriptions of festivities, visual materials, the music of songs and ballets, and the impressions of witnesses and participants. The study of these remarkable sources shows how a team of scholars from diverse disciplines can bring into focus again the creative genius of artists: painters, architects and costume designers, musicians and poets, experts in equestrianism, in pyrotechnics, and in the use of symbolic languages. Their artistic efforts were staged against a background of intense political diplomacy and continuing civil strife; and yet, the determination of Marie de Medicis and her advisers and of the Duke of Lerma brought to a triumphant conclusion negotiations and spectacular commemorations whose legacy was to inform festival art throughout European courts for decades. In addition to printed and manuscript sources, the volume identifies ways of giving future researchers access to festival texts and studies through digitization, making the book both an in-depth analysis of a particular occasion and a blueprint for future engagement with digital festival resources.

Music is of paramount importance in Judaism. On the verse, «Hearken unto the song and the prayer which Your servant prays before You this day (1 Kings 8:28), the Gemarrah states that wherever there is song, there shall be prayer; and indeed, in the Temple, song was an inseparable element of the sacrificial services, thereafter finding its position in the prayers and the Torah reading, with its special melody, in the synagogue. Chassidism employed music as one of its main avenues for serving G-d. Music served to bring the individual to a state of awakening and joy, nullifying sadness which was seen as an element that could only lead to negativity. Joy allowed one to reach ever higher levels in the service of G-d, leaving one's sorrows behind, as explained by the founder of the Modzits Chassidic court, Rabbi Yehezkel of Kozmir, when interpreting the verse, «with joy you shall go forth (Isaiah 55) to mean that through joy, we shall go forth from all our difficulties. In this book, Shmuel Barzilai takes the reader on a brief and concise tour of the Chassidic courts and their world of music. It explains the wordless melody (Niggun), which is perhaps even more important than songs having words; the importance of dance; the place of honor given to Shabbat songs; and the role of music in Kabbalah. The book provides an overview of the activities of Rabbis who composed and sang at every opportunity, whether in the synagogue or while conducting the traditional Tisch where Chassidic adherents gathered each Shabbat and Festival to hear their Rebbe explain sections of Torah, sing and interpret sayings on music. Barzilai also discusses melodies - niggunim - that became particularly famous, or derived from non-Jewish sources but underwent a process that allowed them to be adopted by the Admoric leaders and integrated into the Chassidic court's repertoire.

From the ragtime one-step of the early twentieth century to the contemporary practices of youth club cultures, popular dance and music are inextricably linked. This collection reveals the intimate connections between the corporeal and the sonic in the creation, transmission and reception of popular dance and music, which is imagined here as 'bodies of sound'. The volume provokes a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary conversation that includes scholarship from Asia, Europe and the United States, which explores topics from the nineteenth century through to the present day and engages with practices at local, national and transnational levels. In Part I: Constructing the Popular, the authors explore how categories of popular music and dance are constructed and de-stabilized, and their proclivity to appropriate and re-imagine cultural forms and meanings. In Part II: Authenticity, Revival and Reinvention, the authors examine how popular forms produce and manipulate identities and meanings through their attraction to and departure from cultural traditions. In Part III: (Re)Framing Value, the authors interrogate how values are inscribed, silenced, rearticulated and capitalized through popular music and dance. And in Part IV: Politics of the Popular, the authors read the popular as a site of political negotiation and transformation.

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.

The first English-language monograph on the French dancer and model, Cleo de Merode and the Rise of Modern Celebrity Culture explores the haunting legacy of this intriguing and glamorous figure, an international celebrity at the dawn of modern celebrity culture. Situating Merode at a pivotal moment in the history of fame and visual culture, this study analyzes how technological and societal changes led to our star-struck modernity. Merode was one of the earliest examples of fame born from mass visual culture, as newly available postcards circulated her image around the globe. Through Merode, Michael D. Garval illuminates broader trends of the Belle A0/00poque: persistent statue fetishism within a vibrant monumental culture, rampant exoticism amid unprecedented colonial expansion, the rapid growth of the illustrated press, the rise of female show business personalities, the advent of cinema and x-rays, and a burgeoning sense of new visual possibilities. The volume examines how Merode heralded modern celebrity icons; problematizes the status of women and women's bodies under intense public scrutiny; and exposes the paradoxes of a society captivated by a mass media-driven dream of intimacy from afar.Cleo de Merode and the Rise of Modern Celebrity Culture probes the neglected prehistory of a visual culture obsessed with celebrities and their images.

Pina Bausch s work has had tremendous impact across the spectrum of late twentieth-century performance practice, helping to redefine the possibilities of what both dance and theater can be. This edited collection presents a compendium of source material and contextual essays that examine Pina Bausch's history, practice and legacy, and the development of Tanztheater as a new form, with sections including:

• Dance and theatre roots and connections;
• Bausch s developmental process;
• The creation of Tanztheater;
• Bausch s reception;
• Critical perspectives.

Interviews, reviews and major essays chart the evolution of Bausch s pioneering approach and explore this evocative new mode of performance. Edited by noted Bausch scholar, Royd Climenhaga, "The Pina Bausch Sourcebook" aims to open up Bausch s performative world for students, scholars, dance and theatre artists and audiences everywhere.

* GORGEOUSLY ILLUSTRATED: Each of the 40 cards in this oracle deck is vibrantly illustrated with original artwork; let The Snake Charmer (of VMAs fame) inspire you to face your fears, or the The Ringleader (of the "Circus" video) lead you to call the shots-these and many more Britney oracles in this one-of-a-kind set celebrate the superstar in her greatest moments from her music videos, stage performances, and more * DELUXE SET: This set includes 40 full-color illustrated cards (3 x 5 inches), shrink wrapped in an interior travel case; an 88-page, full-color illustrated paperback book (3 x 5 inches); and a keepsake magnetic closure box; cards and travel case are embedded in an interior tray * FULLY ILLUSTRATED ORACLE GUIDEBOOK: This set includes a full-color illustrated companion book to the card deck, providing the back story of each oracle and a dose of inspiration * PERFECT GIFT: This joyful, beautiful oracle deck and book set is an ideal gift for the most fabulous people in your life, for birthdays, Mother's Day, graduation, or any occasion at all * OFFICIALLY LICENSED: Set is officially licensed with Britney Brands, Inc A note on packaging: In order to help honor our planet and reduce waste, we have only shrink wrapped the interior cards, rather than the keepsake box. Please feel confident that your product is not defective or used.

Beyond Words presents a range of illuminating approaches to examining every day social interactions, to help the reader understand human movement in new ways. Carol-Lynne Moore and Kaoru Yamamoto build on the principles that they expertly explored in the first edition of the book, maintaining a focus on the processes of movement as opposed to discussions of static body language. The authors combine textual discussion with a new set of website-hosted video instructions to ensure that readers develop an in-depth understanding of nonverbal communication, as well as the work of its most influential analyst, Rudolf Laban. This fully-revised, extensively illustrated second edition includes a new introduction by the authors. It presents a fascinating insight into this vital field of study, and will be an invaluable resource for scholars and practitioners in many activities, from performing and martial arts, athletics, to therapeutic and spiritual practices, conflict resolution, business interactions, and intercultural relations.

Costume in Motion is a guide to all stages of the collaboration process between costume designers and choreographers, documenting a wide range of approaches to the creation of a dance piece. Featuring interviews with a diverse selection of over 40 choreographers and designers, in-depth case studies of works by leading dance companies, and stunning original photography, the book explores the particular challenges and creative opportunities of designing for the body in motion. Filled with examples of successful collaborations in contemporary and modern dance, as well as a wide range of other styles, Costume in Motion provides costume designers and choreographers with a greater understanding of the field from the other's perspective. The book is designed to be part of the curriculum for an undergraduate or graduate level course in costume design or choreography, and it can also be an enriching read for artists at any stage of their careers wishing to hone their collaboration skills in dance.

This anthology celebrates dancing diversities in Malaysia, a multicultural nation with old and not-so-old dance traditions in a synchronicity of history, creativity, inventions and representation of its people, culture and traditions. These articles and interviews document the legacy of dances from the Malay Sultanates to a contemporary remix of old and new dances aspired by a m lange of influences from the old world of India, China, European and indigenous dance traditions. This gives forth dance cultures that vibrate with multicultural dance experiences. Narratives of eclecticism, syncretic and innovative dance forms and styles reflect the processes of inventing and sharing of dance identities from the era of the colonial Malay states to post-independence Malaysia.

By the middle of the twentieth century, Hollywood, formerly the one and only dream factory, found itself facing a host of media rivals for the public's attention. In the 1980s, another competitor arrived in the form of the proto-Internet--a computer network as yet untested by all but research scientists, college students, the military, and a few thousand PC and modem owners. How did Hollywood respond to this nascent challenge? By dreaming about it, in a series of technological fantasies, from "Tron" to "War Games" to "Lawnmower Man. The Cinema Dreams Its Rivals "examines the meaning and effect of the movies' attempts to reshape the shifting media landscape.
Paul Young looks at the American cinema's imaginative constructions of three electronic media--radio, television, and the Internet--at the times when these media seemed to hold limitless possibilities. In doing so, he demonstrates that Hollywood is indelibly marked by the advent of each new medium, from the inclusion of sound in motion pictures to the use of digital graphics. But conversely, Young argues, the identities of the new media are themselves changed as Hollywood turns them to its own purposes and its own dreams.
Paul Young is professor of English and director of the film studies program at Vanderbilt University.

Dance occupies a prestigious place in Indian performing arts, yet it curiously, to a large extent, has remained outside the arena of academic discourse. This book documents and celebrates the emergence of contemporary dance practice in India. Incorporating a multidisciplinary approach, it includes contributions from scholars, writers and commentators as well as short essays and interviews with Indian artists and performers; the latter add personal perspectives and insights to the broad themes discussed.

Young Indian dance artists are courageously charting out new trajectories in dance, diverging from the time-worn paths of tradition. The classical forms of Bharatnatyam, Kathak, Odissi and Manipuri, to name a few, are rich resources for choreographers exploring contemporary dance. This volume speaks about their struggles of working within and outside tradition as they grapple with national and international audience expectations as well as their own values and sense of identity.

The artists represented here continue to question the uneasy relationship that exists between the insular world of dance and outside reality. Simultaneously, they are actively creating new dance languages that are both articulate in a performative context and demand examination by researchers and critics.

This broad-based collection of essays is an introduction both to the concerns of contemporary folklore scholarship and to the variety of forms that folk performance has taken throughout English history. Combining case studies of specific folk practices with discussion of the various different lenses through which they have been viewed since becoming the subject of concerted study in Victorian times, this book builds on the latest work in an ever-growing body of contemporary folklore scholarship. Many of the contributing scholars are also practicing performers and bring experience and understanding of performance to their analyses and critiques. Chapters range across the spectrum of folk song, music, drama and dance, but maintain a focus on the key defining characteristics of folk performance - custom and tradition - in a full range of performances, from carol singing and sword dancing to playground rhymes and mummers' plays. As well as being an essential reference for folklorists and scholars of traditional performance and local history, this is a valuable resource for readers in all disciplines of dance, drama, song and music whose work coincides with English folk traditions.

The Artist and Academia explores the relationship between artistic and academic ways of knowing. Historically, these have often been presented as opposites; the former characterized as passionate and intuitive and the latter portrayed as systematic and rigorous. Recent scholarship presents a more complex picture. Artistic knowledge demands high levels of skill and rigor, while academic research requires creativity and innovative thinking. This edited collection brings together leading artists and scholars (as well as artist-scholars) to offer a variety of philosophical, educational, experiential, reflexive and imaginative perspectives on the artist and academia. The contributions include in-depth, scholarly discussions on the nature of knowledge and creativity, as well as personal artistic statements from musicians, dancers, actors and writers. Additionally, it explores both the mediational and subversive spaces created by the meeting of artistic and academic traditions. While the book addresses global themes by global writers, its core case study is an educational experiment called the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick in Ireland. Established in 1994, it set out to reconfigure the place of the artist in the context of contemporary higher education. The material is clustered into three parts. Part One and Part Two explore the artist as mediator, educator and subversive in academia. Grounded in close-to-practice research, Part Three concludes the volume with a set of case studies from the Irish World Academy. Artistic and academic knowledge come together in this unique set of pieces to explore the development of more inclusive and imaginative pedagogical values.

"This is an urgently needed book - as the question of choreographing behavior enters into realms outside of the aesthetic domains of theatrical dance, Susan Foster writes a thoroughly compelling argument." - Andre Lepecki, New York University "May well prove to be one of Susan Foster's most important works." - Ramsay Burt, De Montford University, UK What do we feel when we watch dancing? Do we "dance along" inwardly? Do we sense what the dancer's body is feeling? Do we imagine what it might feel like to perform those same moves? If we do, how do these responses influence how we experience dancing and how we derive significance from it? Choreographing Empathy challenges the idea of a direct psychophysical connection between the body of a dancer and that of their observer. In this groundbreaking investigation, Susan Foster argues that the connection is in fact highly mediated and influenced by ever-changing sociocultural mores. Foster examines the relationships between three central components in the experience of watching a dance - the choreography, the kinesthetic sensations it puts forward, and the empathetic connection that it proposes to viewers. Tracing the changing definitions of choreography, kinesthesia, and empathy from the 1700s to the present day, she shows how the observation, study, and discussion of dance have changed over time. Understanding this development is key to understanding corporeality and its involvement in the body politic.