In recent years, a growth in dance and wellbeing scholarship has resulted in new ways of thinking that place the body, movement, and dance in a central place with renewed significance for wellbeing. The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Wellbeing examines dance and related movement practices from the perspectives of neuroscience and health, community and education, and psychology and sociology to contribute towards an understanding of wellbeing, offer new insights into existing practices, and create a space where sufficient exchange is enabled. The handbook's research components include quantitative, qualitative, and arts-based research, covering diverse discourses, methodologies, and perspectives that add to the development of a complete picture of the topic. Throughout the handbook's wide-ranging chapters, the objective observations, felt experiences, and artistic explorations of practitioners interact with and are printed alongside academic chapters to establish an egalitarian and impactful exchange of ideas.

From the trolley scene in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's last dance on the silver screen (The Barkleys of Broadway, 1949) to Judy Garland's timeless, tuxedo-clad performance of "Get Happy" (Summer Stock, 1950), Charles Walters staged the iconic musical sequences of Hollywood's golden age. During his career, this Academy Award--nominated director and choreographer showcased the talents of stars such as Gene Kelly, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, and Frank Sinatra. However, despite his many critical and commercial triumphs, Walters's name often goes unrecognized today.

In the first full-length biography of Walters, Brent Phillips chronicles the artist's career, from his days as a featured Broadway performer and prot?g? of theater legend Robert Alton to his successes at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He takes readers behind the scenes of many of the studio's most beloved musicals, including Easter Parade (1948), Lili (1953), High Society (1956), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). In addition, Phillips recounts Walters's associations with Lucille Ball, Joan Crawford, and Gloria Swanson, examines the director's uncredited work on several films, including the blockbuster Gigi (1958), and discusses his contributions to musical theater and American popular culture.

This revealing book also considers Walters's personal life and explores how he navigated the industry as an openly gay man. Drawing on unpublished oral histories, correspondence, and new interviews, this biography offers an entertaining and important new look at an exciting era in Hollywood history.

Katrina Hazzard-Gordon offers the first analysis of the development of the jook-an underground cultural institution created by the black working class-together with other dance arenas in African-American culture. Beginning with the effects of African slaves' middle passage experience on their traditional dances, she traces the unique and virtually autonomous dance culture that developed in the rural South. Like the blues, these secular dance forms and institutions were brought north and urbanized by migrating blacks. In northern cities, some aspects of black dance became integrated into white culture and commercialized. Focusing on ten African-American dance arenas from the period of enslavement to the mid-twentieth century, this book explores the jooks, honky-tonks, rent parties, and after-hours joints as well as the licensed membership clubs, dance halls, cabarets, and the dances of the black elite. Jook houses emerged during the Reconstruction era and can be viewed as a cultural response to freedom. In the jook, Hazzard-Gordon explains, an immeasurable amount of core black culture including food, language, community fellowship, mate selection, music, and dance found a sanctuary of expression when no other secular institution flourished among the folk. The jook and its various derivative forms have provided both entertainment and an economic alternative (such as illegal lotteries and numbers) to people excluded from the dominant economy. Dances like the Charleston, shimmy, snake hips, funky butt, twist, and slow drag originated in the jooks; some can be traced back to Africa. Social dancing links black Americans to their African past more strongly than any other aspect of their culture. Citing the significance of dance in the African-American psyche, this study explores the establishments that nurtured ancestral as well as communal links for African-Americans, vividly describing black dances, formal rituals, such as debutante balls, and the influence of black dance on white culture.

Every dancer of every age, ability, and style should be able to engage fully in the act of dancing and be encouraged to achieve their potential without risk of harm to the body or mind. Practical information on all aspects of safe practice that is not too simplistic or complex has not always been easy to find. Enter Safe Dance Practice, by Edel Quin, Sonia Rafferty, and Charlotte Tomlinson. With nearly 60 years of collective experience in the dance profession as creative artists, teachers, and researchers, the authors translate extensive research and evidence-based practice in order to present the principles of safe practice that are essential to any dance experience. Guidelines in Implementing Principles The authors offer evidence-based guidelines on implementing diverse principles in practice, informing and supporting dance practitioners in an ever-growing pool of styles and genres. These guidelines and principles are of use not only to dancers and dance educators but also to choreographers, rehearsal and company directors, and studio managers. The information is underpinned by research in dance science and applied with contextual delivery in mind, ensuring an engaging experience for those accessing the book. Benefits to Readers The authors guide readers in these aspects: * Facilitating a physically and psychologically safe and supportive dance environment * Understanding principles of anatomy and biomechanically sound alignment * Implementing effective physiological preparation and progression through warm-up and cool-down protocols as well as supplementary fitness and conditioning * Minimizing risk of injury and understanding injury management aligned with appropriate rest and recovery strategies * Incorporating advice on nutrition and hydration for enhanced performance and healthy dance practice * Tailoring delivery to the specific needs and demographics of participants for diverse engagement with dance * Evaluating personal practice in order to assess and monitor effective application of the principles Holistic and Inclusive Approach Safe Dance Practice takes a multidisciplinary approach to the components of dancing safely, integrating principles without compromising dancers' artistic creativity and expression. The authors examine not only the immediate variables associated with occurrence of injury but also delve into contributing factors, such as nutrition, alignment, rest and recovery, and supplementary fitness and conditioning. This comprehensive approach is evident throughout, including a dedicated chapter that will help readers apply the principles to dancers of diverse ages, standards, and physical abilities. Features of the Book Safe Dance Practice includes * diagrams that illustrate ideal and compensated alignment and posture, which readers can apply when assessing all dancers in all genres; * case studies that help readers contextualize their learning as they see it portrayed in an applied environment; * at-a-glance chapter summaries and highlighted key points to help readers retain criticaal information; * cross-referencing to guide readers to related information in other areas of the book; and * sources for additional information. Safe Dance Practice contains 11 chapters, which can be accessed sequentially or studied in any order. The first eight chapters present environmental, anatomical, physical, and psychological principles of safe dance practice. Each chapter includes strategies and examples for putting the principles into practice in relation to dance styles and settings. Chapter 9 focuses on injury awareness and management, and chapter 10 offers guidelines on adapting the principles to a range of dance populations. Chapter 11 helps readers to understand the value of continued monitoring of their practice and includes a checklist of safe practices. Six appendixes supply a series of aids and templates to use as learning resources for ongoing professional development. This text offers pragmatic recommendations from the authors, who combine scientific fact with experience. The principles are presented in a practical fashion with many specific examples. The take-home messages, checklists, and templates make this text accessible and valuable. Bridging the Gap Between Science and Practice Safe Dance Practice bridges the gap between academic research and its application for dancers and educators in all levels and genres. It illuminates the principles of working safely in dance so as to support best practice and encourages all dance practitioners and leaders to better understand, communicate, and apply principles of safe dance practice. With its applied perspective on dance science, Safe Dance Practice will resonate with readers who want their dance experience to be factually endorsed while allowing sufficient scope for artistic expression. Such evidence-based practice will enable readers to access wider sources of information to aid their ongoing development whilst empowering them to take responsibility for their own safe dance practice and that of others with whom they interact.

Further Steps 2 brings together New Yorka (TM)s foremost choreographers a " among them MacArthur a ~Geniusa (TM) award winners Meredith Monk and Bill T. Jones a " to discuss the past, present and future of dance in the US. In a series of exclusive and enlightening interviews, this diverse selection of artists discuss the changing roles of race, gender, politics, and the social environment on their work.

Bringing her own experience of the New York dance scene to her study, Constance Kreemer traces the lives and works of the following choreographers:

Lucinda Childs, Douglas Dunn, Molissa Fenley, Rennie Harris, Bill T. Jones, Kenneth King, Nancy Meehan, Meredith Monk, Rosalind Newman, Gus Solomons jr, Doug Varone, Dan Wagoner, Mel Wong and Jawole Zollar.

In this memoir of a roller coaster career on the New York stage, former actor and dancer Bettijane Sills offers a highly personal look at the art and practice of George Balanchine, one of ballet's greatest choreographers, and the inner workings of his world-renowned company during its golden years. After getting her start on the stage as a child actor on Broadway, Bettijane Sills joined the New York City Ballet in 1961 as a member of the corps de ballet, working her way up to the level of soloist. As a company dancer who remained outside the spotlight that the principals enjoyed, Sills experienced a side of the company that prima ballerinas did not share in. She tells stories of taking class with Balanchine, dancing in the original casts of some of his most iconic productions, and working with some of the company's most famous dancers. Winningly honest and intimate, Sills lets readers in on the secrets of a world that most people have never seen firsthand. She reveals mistakes she made, the unglamorous parts of tour life, jealousy among company members, and Balanchine's complex relationships with women. She talks about Balanchine's insistence on thinness in his dancers and how her own struggles with weight ended her dancing career. Now a professor of dance who has educated thousands of students on Balanchine's style and legacy, Sills reflects on the highs and lows of a career indelibly influenced by the bright lights of theater and by the man who shaped American ballet.

"Vandekeybus brought into focus a whole new genre of modern dance...Combat rolls, breakneck sprints and savagely wrestled duets became the defining vocabulary of a new generation." The Guardian. In 2016, Wim Vandekeybus' company Ultima Vez celebrates its 30th birthday. Never before has his oeuvre been recorded in a book. Until now. This extraordinary book is a visual trip through the most powerful images from his repertoire, a quest for the ideas and themes that inspire him. It aso contains unpublished texts, notes and scripts from his shows and films. A number of compagnons de route, such as David Byrne, Mauro Pawlowski, and Peter Verhelst, offer a personal textual contribution. Choreographer, filmmaker and photographer Wim Vandekeybus and his company Ultima Vez are at the top of the dance industry in Belgium - and around the world. After a cooperation with Jan Fabre, Vandekeybus founded his very own company Ultima Vez in 1986. His first performance, What the Body Does Not Remember (1987), was an international success and was awarded a Bessie Award (New York Dance and Performance Award), a prize awarded for pioneering work.

Best remembered for his role as the Scarecrow in the 1939 MGM musical The Wizard of Oz, Ray Bolger led a rich and extraordinary career in the decade before and more than four decades after the creation of the film. Ray Bolger: More Than a Scarecrow is the first biography of this classic American entertainer, covering the luminous and forgotten career of the eccentric dancer outside of his burlap mask. The product of a fragmented, working-class Boston Irish family, Bolger learned tap and eccentric dance steps as solace for a difficult life before running away to repertory theater and Vaudeville. From there, he would go on to become a Broadway star, a contract player at Hollywood's major studios, one of the first performers to tour the South Pacific for the USO, a Tony Award winner, an early sitcom star, and the opening headliner of the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. Using unprecedented access to Bolger's papers and many never-before-published photographs, Ray Bolger: More Than a Scarecrow pieces together the lost story of an itinerant hoofer who survived and thrived during the major media changes of the twentieth century and established himself as a staple of American pop culture.

Professional dance careers are both highly rewarding and exceptionally challenging, so success as a dancer requires robust preparation. Performance Psychology for Dancers is an accessible and practical guide to talent development, offering dancers and those around them support to navigate the challenges of training and the psychological strategies that underlie success. As coaches, parents and experienced practitioners themselves, the authors share their passion and expertise in talent development from experience working with in-training and professional dancers, athletes, and the military. Additionally, a variety of current industry experts provide key insights and reflections on talent development, mental health and psychological skills for performance.

Dance and Cultural Diversity examines the art of dance within the context of different cultures and demonstrates the connections between dance and academic disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, psychology, and philosophy. The text shows that dance has the power to provoke intellectual thought, promote the communion of people from all social classes and walks of life, and reveal the undeniable commonalities of the human experience, while also serving as a valuable tool for expressing cultural diversity. Dedicated chapters explore the essence of dance, dance in American Indian culture, Polynesian culture, African culture, and South American culture, and the African influence on American dance. The book also covers dances of East Asia, India, and Bali, and the healing properties of dance. The chapters explore specific types of dances, historical and political aspects of geographical areas, and the effect that dance has on the members of each community. The third edition incorporates new, diverse research, more robust coverage of specific dances to provide an expanded look at a region's cultural groups, and explanations as to why certain cultural dances have been selected for examination within the text. Language and references throughout the text have been updated to increase their timeliness, inclusivity, and cultural sensitivity. Dance and Cultural Diversity is exemplary for courses on dance, world traditions, and cultural diversity. It can also be used in cultural anthropology and global society courses.

This edited collection draws on the conference, Attending to Movement: Somatic Perspectives on Living in this World, run at C-DaRE, the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University, 12 - 14 July, 2013. Somatic practitioners, dance artists and scholars from a wide range of subject domains cross discipline borders and investigate the approaches that embodied thinking and action can offer to philosophical and socio-cultural inquiry. The book celebrates and builds upon the work of visionary dance artist, teacher and scholar Gill Clarke (1954 -2011), who championed the value of somatic approaches within and beyond dance education and creative practice. This collection of papers covers the themes of: Somatics in the wider social context Pedagogy/Education Intercultural Dialogues Lived lineages Interplay of practice and writing Partial Contents As my attention is wandering: A score for somatic enquiry - Carolyn Roy Not Without My Body: The Struggle of Dancers and Choreographers in the Middle East - Nadra Assaf Disorganising Principles: Corporeal Fragmentation and the Possibilities for Repair - Jennifer Roche Attending to ethics and aesthetics in dance - Fiona Bannon & Duncan Holt At dusk, the collaborative spills and cycles of L219 - Cath Cullinane, Natalie Garrett Brown, Christian Kipp & Amy Voris The Art of Making Choices: The Feldenkrais Method as a soma-critique - Thomas Kampe Motion Capture and The Dancer: Visuality, Temporality and the Dancing Image - Sarah Whatley The fool's journey and poisonous mushrooms - Adam Benjamin 'The daily round the common task': Embodied Practice and the Dance of the Everyday - Hilary Kneale Re-sourcing the body: embodied presence and self-care in working with others - Penny Collinson Thinking, Reflecting and Contemplating With the Body - Lalitaraja (Joachim Chandler) Mythbusting: Using the Alexander Technique to free yourself from detrimental misconceptions in the performing arts - Jennifer Mackerras & Jane Toms A Moving and Touching Career in Dance and Chiropractic - Duncan Holt Attending to movement: the need to make dance that was different to that which went before - Sara Reed Towards a constructive interaction between somatic education and introspective verbalization - Nicole Harbonnier-Topin & Helen Simard Choreographic Mobilities: Embodied Migratory Acts Across the US-Mexico Border - Juan Manuel Aldape Munoz Readership Designed as a guide and stimulus for: teachers, students and practitioners of dance and somatic practices researchers and academics in these fields.

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

Dance Studies in China is a collection of articles selected from issues of the Journal of Beijing Dance Academy, translated for an English-speaking audience. Beijing Dance Academy is a full-time institution of higher learning with commitment to developing excellent professional dancers, choreographers and dance researchers. This collection includes an interview with Shen Wei, the Chinese-American choreographer, painter and director living in New York City, USA. Founded in 1954, the former Beijing Dance School was the first professional dance school ever established since the founding of People's Republic of China. Beijing Dance Academy (BDA) officially established in 1978, it provides BA and MA degrees and has become the only institution of higher learning for professional dance education in China, as well as the largest prestigious dance school with comprehensive concentrations in the world. In recent years, BDA has committed to develop its research profile specialising in dance, the Journal of Beijing Dance Academy is one of such outcomes. The Academy is also actively engaging with international collaboration. The Intellect China Library is a series of new English translations of the latest scholarship in Chinese that have not previously been available. Subjects covered include visual arts, performing arts, popular culture, media and the broader creative industries. The series aims to foster intellectual debate and to promote closer cross-cultural knowledge exchange by introducing unique Chinese scholarship and ideas to our readers.