Integrative Performance serves a crucial need of 21st-century performers by providing a transdisciplinary approach to training. Its radical new take on performance practice is designed for a climate that increasingly requires fully rounded artists. The book critiques and interrogates key current practices and offers a proven alternative to the idea that rigorous and effective training must separate the disciplines into discrete categories of acting, singing, and dance. Experience Bryon's Integrative Performance Practice is a way of working that will profoundly shift how performers engage with their training, conditioning and performance disciplines. It synthesizes the various elements of performance work in order to empower the performer as they practice across disciplines within any genre, style or aesthetic. Theory and practice are balanced throughout, using: Regular box-outs, introducing the work's theoretical underpinnings through quotes, case studies and critical interjections. A full program of exercises ranging from training of specific muscle groups, through working with text, to more subtle structures for integrative awareness and presence. This book is the result of over twenty years of practice and research working with interdisciplinary artists across the world to produce a training that fully prepares performers for the demands of contemporary performance and all its somatic, emotive and vocal possibilities.

Western contemporary dance and body-mind education have engaged in a "pas de deux" for more than four decades. The rich interchange of somatics and dance has altered both fields, but scholarship that substantiates these ideas through the findings of twentieth-century scientific advances has been missing. This book fills that gap and brings to light contemporary discoveries of neuroscience and somatic education as they relate to dance. Drawing from the burgeoning field of "embodiment"--itself an idea at the intersection of the sciences, humanities, arts, and technologies--"Body and Mind in Motion" highlights the relevance of somatic education within dance education, dance science, and body-mind studies.

Daniel Lewis's legacy as a hugely influential choreographer and teacher of modern dance is celebrated in this biography. It showcases the many roles he played in the dance world by organizing his story around various aspects of his work, including his years at the Juilliard School, dancing and touring with the Jose Limon Company, staging Limon's masterpieces around the world, directing his own company (Daniel Lewis Dance Repertory Company), writing and choreographing operas and musicals, and his years as dean of dance at New World School of the Arts. His life has spanned a particular period of growth of modern and contemporary dance, and his biography gives insight into how the artistic and journalistic perspectives on modern dance were influenced by what was occurring in the broader dance and arts communities. The book also offers rarely seen photographs and interviews with unique perspectives on many dance luminaries.

The Western approach to dance is largely focused on control and mastery of technique, both of which are certainly necessary skills for improving performance. But mindful attention, despite its critical role in high performance, has gotten short shrift-until now. Attention and Focus in Dance, a how-to book rooted in the 20 years of attentional focus findings of researcher Gabriele Wulf, will help dancers unlock their power and stamina reserves, enabling efficient movement, heightening their sensory perception and releasing their dance potential. Author Clare Guss-West-a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and holistic practitioner-presents a systematic, science-based approach to the mental work of dance. Her approach helps dancers hone the skills of attention, focus and self-cueing to replenish energy and enhance their physical and artistic performance. A Unique, Research-Based Approach Here is what Attention and Focus in Dance offers readers: A unique approach, connecting the foundations of Eastern movement with Western movement forms Research-based teaching practices in diverse contexts, including professional dance companies, private studios, and programmes for dancers with special needs or movement challenges Testimonies and tips from international professional dancers and dance educators who use the book's approach in their training and teaching A dance-centric focus that can be easily integrated into existing training and teaching practice, in rehearsal, or in rehabilitation contexts to provide immediate and long-term benefits Guss-West explores attentional focus techniques for dancers, teachers and dance health care practitioners, making practical connections between research, movement theory and day-to-day dance practice. "Many dancers are using excessive energy deployment and significant counterproductive effort, and that can lead to a global movement dysfunction, lack of stamina and an increased risk of injury," says Guss-West. "Attentional focus training is the most relevant study that sport science and Eastern-movement practice can bring to dance." Book Organisation The text is organised into two parts. Part I guides dancers in looking at the attentional challenges and information overload that many professional dancers suffer from. It outlines the need for a systematic attention and focus strategy, and it explains how scientific research on attentional focus relates to dance practice. This part also examines the ways in which Eastern-movement principles intersect with and complement scientific findings, and it examines how the Eastern and scientific concepts can breathe new life into basic dance elements such as posture, turnout and port de bras. Attention and focus techniques are included for replenishing energy and protecting against energy depletion and exhaustion. Part II presents attention and focus strategies for teaching, self-coaching and cueing. It addresses attentional focus cues for beginners and for more advanced dancers and professionals, and it places attentional focus in the broader context of holistic teaching strategies. Maximising Dance Potential "Whether cueing others or yourself, cueing for high performance is an art," Guss-West says. "Readers will discover how to format cues and feedback to facilitate effective neuromuscular response and enhance dancer recall of information and accessibility while dancing." Attention and Focus in Dance offers an abundance of research-backed concepts and inspirational ideas that can help dancers in their learning and performance. This book aids readers in filtering information and directing their focus for optimal physical effect. Ultimately, it guides dancers and teachers in being the best version of themselves and maximising their potential in dance.

Within qualitative research in the social sciences, the last decade has witnessed a growing interest in the use of visual methods. Visual Methods in Physical Culture is the first book in the field of sport and exercise sciences dedicated to harnessing the potential of using visual methods within qualitative research. Theoretically insightful, and methodologically innovative, this book represents a landmark addition to the field of studies in sport, exercise, the body, and qualitative methods. It covers a wide range of empirical work, theories, and visual image-based research, including photography, drawing, and video. In so doing, the book deepens our understanding of physical culture. It also responds to key questions, such as what are visual methods, why might they be used, and how might they be applied in the field of sport and exercise sciences. This volume combines clarity of expression with careful scholarship and originality, making it especially appealing to students and scholars within a variety of fields, including sport sociology, sport and exercise psychology, sociology of the body, physical education, gender studies, gerontology, and qualitative inquiry. This book was published as a special issue in Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise.

Dance and the Christian Faith is an examination of dance and worship in the context of the bible; the book is a critical discussion of religious dance and how it can be used in the church and in education today. Martin Blogg explores, in both theoretical and practical terms, dance as a form of religious knowing and non-verbal communication, opening new avenues for both experiencing and expressing the faith. First published in 1985, Dance and the Christian Faith was written in response to the paradoxical attitude of many Christians who express an interest and enthusiasm for the arts as part of Christian worship, yet retain a suspicion, even a dislike, of dance. Although centred on dance within a religious context, much of the discussion is directly relevant to dance education and the performing arts in general.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of electronic dance music (EDM) and club culture. To do so, it interlinks a broad range of disciplines, revealing their (at times vastly) differing standpoints on the same subject. Scholars from such diverse fields as cultural studies, economics, linguistics, media studies, musicology, philosophy, and sociology share their perspectives. In addition, the book features articles by practitioners who have been active on the EDM scene for many years and discuss issues like gender and diversity problems in general, and the effects of gentrification on club culture in Berlin. Although the book's main focus is on Berlin, one of the key centers of EDM and club culture, its findings can also be applied to other hotspots. Though primarily intended for researchers and students, the book will benefit all readers interested in obtaining an interdisciplinary overview of research on electronic dance music.

An innovative exploration of understanding through dance, "Dancing across the Page "draws on the frameworks of phenomenology, feminism, and postmodernism to offer readers an understanding of performance studies that is grounded in personal narrative and lived experience. Through accounts of contemporary dance making, improvisation, and dance education, Karen Barbour explores a diversity of themes, including power; activism; and cultural, gendered, and personal identity. An intimate yet rigorous investigation of creativity in dance, "Dancing across the Page "emphasizes embodied knowledge and imagination as a basis for creative action in the world.

Body and space refer to vital and interrelated dimensions in the experience of sounds and music. Sounds have an overwhelming impact on feelings of bodily presence and inform us about the space we experience. Even in situations where visual information is artificial or blurred, such as in virtual environments or certain genres of film and computer games, sounds may shape our perceptions and lead to surprising new experiences. This book discusses recent developments in a range of interdisciplinary fields, taking into account the rapidly changing ways of experiencing sounds and music, the consequences for how we engage with sonic events in daily life and the technological advancements that offer insights into state-of-the-art methods and future perspectives. Topics range from the pleasures of being locked into the beat of the music, perception-action coupling and bodily resonance, and affordances of musical instruments, to neural processing and cross-modal experiences of space and pitch. Applications of these findings are discussed for movement sonification, room acoustics, networked performance, and for the spatial coordination of movements in dance, computer gaming and interactive artistic installations.

Dance is often considered an ephemeral art, one that disappears nearly as soon as it materializes, leaving no physical object behind. Yet some dance practice involves people trying to embody something that exists before - and survives beyond - their particular acts of dancing. What exactly is that thing? And (how) do dances continue to exist when not performed? Anna Pakes seeks to answer these and related questions in this book, drawing on analytic philosophy of art to explore the metaphysics of dance making, performance and disappearance. Focusing on Western theater dance,Pakes also traces the different ways dances have been conceptualized across time, and what those historical shifts imply for the ontology of dance works.

This new edition of Dance Teaching Methods and Curriculum Design is ideal for preparing undergraduate students to teach dance education. Students will learn a conceptual and comprehensive model of dance education that embraces dance as an art form and a lifelong physical activity. Students will gain the tools they need to teach various dance forms, create effective lesson and unit plans, and develop a curriculum that meets arts and education standards. The second edition of this foundational text uses a holistic approach to dance pedagogy for teaching children through adults in school and community environments. It also introduces theories from multiple disciplines and helps students apply those theories and processes when creating lesson and unit plans. New Material Dance Teaching Methods and Curriculum Design offers much new material: Four new sample dance units (up from 10 in the previous edition) Many useful instructor ancillaries, including an instructor guide, a presentation package, and a test package; students can submit their work electronically, and quizzes are automatically graded Resources delivered on HKPropel, including a variety of projects, printable forms, and video clips that demonstrate selected steps, movements, exercises, and combinations of different dance forms Beyond Technique assignments, which have been field tested in university courses, to help students see firsthand what a dance teacher does The sample dance units offer a comprehensive guide for teaching popular dance forms, and they now cover a greater diversity of styles, including hip-hop, Mexican folkloric, African, and line dance. In addition, the new ancillaries offer scope and sequence plans and block time plans for all 14 dance units, as well as all printable forms from the book. Dance Portfolio Another great feature of the book is the dance portfolio that students will create as they work through the text. This portfolio will help them demonstrate their ability to create lesson plans, a unit plan, and a complete dance curriculum. The students will develop these abilities as they complete chapters 1 through 13. Chapter 14 then walks students through assembling the sections of the portfolio. Projects the student can complete to include within their portfolio are available on HKPropel. Step-by-Step Approach Dance Teaching Methods and Curriculum Design offers students a step-by-step course of study for how to teach dance and create sustainable dance programs in schools. The authors synthesize a wide variety of research and resources to support dance pedagogy and curriculum development, provide the infrastructure to meet the changing needs of students to teach dance in the 21st century, and supply extensive references for students to use to increase their dance education knowledge. Book Organization The text is organized into three parts. Part I covers information specific to teaching dance and understanding learners from grades preK through 12. Part II focuses on applying the dance knowledge gained from part I to the teaching and learning process in the four categories of dance forms. In part III, students learn how to develop unit plans and choose a curriculum design for their dance programs. Filling a Void Dance Teaching Methods and Curriculum Design, Second Edition, addresses the knowledge, skills, processes, and content that students need as they prepare to teach dance in various settings. This text fills a void in dance education literature, studying all the steps as it provides students the foundational knowledge and practical know-how they need to confidently begin teaching dance in schools, recreation programs, or private dance studios. Note: A code for accessing HKPropel is included with all new print books.

Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie, known collectively as Divas Dance Theatre, are renowned for their highly visual, interdisciplinary brand of dance performance that incorporates elements of theatre, film, opera, poetry and vaudevillian humor. They have created dance theatre, cabaret, live art, single and multiple screen dance installations, and live performance installations.
"Anarchic Dance "is a visual and textual record of the work of Divas Dance Theatre. The DVD-Rom included in the package features extracts from Aggiss and Cowie's work, including the highly-acclaimed dance film Motion Control (first premiered on BBC2 in 2002), rare video footage of their punk-comic live performances as The Wild Wigglers and reconstruction of Aggiss' solo performance in Grotesque Dancer.
These films are cross-referenced in the book, allowing readers to match performance and commentary as Aggiss and Cowie invite a broad range of writers to examine their live performance and dance screen practice through analysis, theory, discussion and personal response. As much as their practice is hybrid, maverick and hard to define, the various theories presented are equally challenging, lively and fresh.
Extensively illustrated with black and white and color photographs, this beautiful multi-media package is a celebration of Divas' boundary-shattering performance work. "Anarchic Dance" provides a comprehensive investigation into Cowie and Aggiss' collaborative partnership and demonstrates a range of exciting approaches through which dance performance can be engaged critically.

The 1909 arrival of Serge de Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris marked the beginning of some two decades of collaboration among litterateurs, painters, musicians, and choreographers, many not native to France. Charles Batson's original and nuanced exploration of several of these collaborations integral to the formation of modernism and avant-gardist aesthetics reinscribes performances of the celebrated Russians and the lesser-known but equally innovative Ballets Suedois into their varied artistic traditions as well as the French historical context, teasing out connections and implications that are usually overlooked in less decidedly interdisciplinary studies. Batson not only uncovers the multiple meanings set in motion through the interplay of dancers, musicians, librettists, and spectators, but also reinterprets literary texts that inform these meanings, such as Valery's 'L'Ame et la danse'. Identifying the performing body as a site where anxieties, drives, and desires of the French public were worked out, he shows how the messages carried by and ascribed to bodies in performance significantly influenced thought and informed the direction of much artistic expression in the twentieth century. His book will be a valuable resource for scholars working in the fields of literature, dance, music, and film, as well as French cultural studies.

Cuban music is recognized unanimously as a major historical force behind Latin American popular music, and as an important player in the development of US popular music and jazz. However, the music produced on the island after the Revolution in 1959 has been largely overlooked and overshadowed by the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon. The Revolution created the conditions for the birth of a type of highly sophisticated popular music, which has grown relatively free from market pressures. These conditions premised the new importance attained by Afro-Cuban dance music during the 1990s, when the island entered a period of deep economic and social crisis that has shaken Revolutionary institutions from their foundations. Vincenzo Perna investigates the role of black popular music in post-Revolutionary Cuba, and in the 1990s in particular. The emergence of timba is analysed as a distinctively new style of Afro-Cuban dance music. The controversial role of Afro-Cuban working class culture is highlighted, showing how this has resisted co-optation into a unified, pacified vision of national culture, and built musical bridges with the transnational black diaspora. Musically, timba represents an innovative fusion of previous popular and folkloric Afro-Cuban styles with elements of hip-hop and other African-American styles like jazz, funk and salsa. Timba articulates a black urban youth subculture with distinctive visual and choreographic codes. With its abrasive commentaries on issues such as race, consumer culture, tourism, prostitution and its connections to the underworld, timba demonstrates at the 'street level' many of the contradictions of contemporary Cuban society. After repeatedly colliding with official discourses, timba has eventually met with institutional repression. This book will appeal not only to ethnomusicologists and those working on popular music studies, but also to those working in the areas of cultural and Black studies, anthropology, Latin American studies, Cuban studies and Caribbean studies.

From the vaudeville era, through the Astaire-Rogers movies, to the intricate artistry of bebop, tap has dominated American dance with its rhythm, originality, and humor. This book collects the voices and memories of thirty of America's best-loved tap-dance stars and two hundred rare theater, film, and publicity photographs. Here Shirley Temple recalls her magical duo with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson; Fayard Nicholas describes his days at Harlem's Cotton Club performing with Cab Calloway; Fred Kelly visits his and his brother Gene's Pittsburgh dance studio; Hermes Pan reminisces about his work with George Gershwin, Ginger Rogers, and Fred Astaire; and, in a chapter new to this edition, Toy and Wing tell about their days as the world's leading Asian tap duo. Appended with the most comprehensive listing of tap acts, recordings, and films ever compiled--newly updated for this paperback edition--"Tap!" brings to life the legends of one of America's most cherished and enduring art forms.

From the dance floor of a tango club to group therapy classes, from ballet to community theatre, improvised dance is everywhere. For some dance artists, improvisation is one of many approaches within the choreographic process. For others, it is a performance form in its own right. And while it has long been practiced, it is only within the last twenty years that dance improvisation has become a topic of critical inquiry. With The Oxford Handbook of Improvisation in Dance, dancer, teacher, and editor Vida L. Midgelow provides a cutting-edge volume on dance improvisation in all its facets. Expanding beyond conventional dance frameworks, this handbook looks at the ways that dance improvisation practices reflect our ability to adapt, communicate, and respond to our environment. Throughout the handbook, case studies from a variety of disciplines showcase the role of individual agency and collective relationships in improvisation, not just to dancers but to people of all backgrounds and abilities. In doing so, chapters celebrate all forms of improvisation, and unravel the ways that this kind of movement informs understandings of history, socio-cultural conditions, lived experience, cognition, and technologies.

The two volumes of Perspectives on American Dance are the first anthologies in over twenty-five years to focus exclusively on American dance practices across a wide span of American culture. They show how social experience, courtship, sexualities, and other aspects of life in America are translated through dancing into spatial patterns, gestures, and partner relationships. Essays in these collections address rarely-studied topics in American dance and offer unexpected perspectives on commonly studied dance forms. The second volume, The New Millennium, features essays by a young generation of writers who look at the kinds of social dancing that speak to new audiences through new media. Topics include ""dorky dancing"" on YouTube; same-sex competitors on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance; the racial politics of NFL touchdown dances; the commercialization of flash mobs; the connections between striptease and corporate branding; how 9/11 affected dance; the criminalization of New York City club dancing; and the joyous ironies of hipster dance. This volume emphasizes how dancing is becoming more social and interactive as technology opens up new ways to create and distribute dance.

Tap dancing legends Fayard (b. 1914) and Harold (1918-2000) Nicholas amazed crowds with their performances in musicals and films from the 30s to the 80s. They performed with Gene Kelly in The Pirate, with Cab Calloway in Stormy Weather, with Dorothy Dandridge (Harold's wife) in Sun Valley Serenade, and with a number of other stars on the stage and on the screen. Author Hill not only guides readers through the brothers' showstopping successes and the repressive times in which their dancing won them universal acclaim, she also offers extensive insight into the history and choreography of tap dancing, bringing readers up to speed on the art form in which the Nicholas Brothers excelled.

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A handbook, complete with graded exercises, for teachers and students wanting a practical introduction to Laban's famous system of movement. Rudolf Laban is to movement what Stanislavski is to acting. He devised the first wholly successful system for recording human movement, a system which is increasingly influential in the training of actors and dancers. 'required reading for every young student of the theatre - and a lot of the older ones would reap enormous benefit from it' Murray Melvin

Arsenio Rodr\u00edguez was one of the most important Cuban musicians of the twentieth century. In this first scholarly study, ethnomusicologist David F. Garc\u00eda examines Rodr\u00edguez's life, including the conjunto musical combo he led and the highly influential son montuno style of music he created in the 1940s. Garc\u00eda recounts Rodr\u00edguez's battle for recognition at the height of \u0022mambo mania\u0022 in New York City and the significance of his music in the development of salsa. With firsthand accounts from relatives and fellow musicians, Arsenio Rodr\u00edguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music follows Rodr\u00edguez's fortunes on several continents, speculating on why he never enjoyed wide commercial success despite the importance of his music. Garc\u00eda focuses on the roles that race, identity, and politics played in shaping Rodr\u00edguez's music and the trajectory of his musical career. His transnational perspective has important implications for Latin American and popular music studies.

Dance Technique and Injury Prevention has established itself as the key reference for everyone involved in dance injury and treatment, physical therapy, and dance instruction. In this newly revised and expanded edition, Dr Howse reviews the subject's five main areas: Anatomy and Physiology, Injuries (general), Injuries (specific) - Their Cause and Treatment, Strengthening Exercises, and Technical Faults and Anatomical Variations. The new set of strengthening exercises is a special feature of this edition. Comprehensively illustrated with more than 320 diagrams and photographs, Dance Technique and Injury Prevention 3/e deserves a place in every professional's library and treatment room.

Collaborative practices are in the very nature of theatre. One of the most thriving, vibrant and exciting theatre cultures in the world is Brazil, offering plurality of various forms of theatrical expression. Brazilian Collaborative Theatre provides the collection of fifteen interviews with the leading contemporary theater directors, performers and choreographers and their respective groups, investigating their creative approaches and experiences of theatre making processes. We explore the cultural landscape that constitutes present day collaborative theatre in Brazil, in which practitioners are concerned with the very real questions; such as how theater is created and produced, for which audiences and through which models of cultural production? Within the Brazilian performing arts and cultural context, this book of interviews is unique as it brings voices of most established and prolific creators in present day Brazilian arts theatre scene. It also looks closely at autonomous performance and authorial staging and goes beyond text and playwright and examines the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of theatre that predominated from the 1980s into the following decades. The main aim of the book is to offer new knowledge on present-day performing arts in Brazil, key artists and their companies that can have wildly influence on other cultures, creators and the audiences alike.

Dance and the Hollywood Latina asks why every Latina star in Hollywood history, from Dolores Del Rio in the 1920s to Jennifer Lopez in the 2000s, began as a dancer or danced onscreen. While cinematic depictions of women and minorities have seemingly improved, a century of representing brown women as natural dancers has popularized the notion that Latinas are inherently passionate and promiscuous. Yet some Latina actresses became stars by embracing and manipulating these stereotypical fantasies. Introducing the concepts of ""inbetween-ness"" and ""racial mobility"" to further illuminate how racialized sexuality and the dancing female body operate in film, Priscilla Pena Ovalle focuses on the careers of Dolores Del Rio, Rita Hayworth, Carmen Miranda, Rita Moreno, and Jennifer Lopez. Dance and the Hollywood Latina helps readers better understand how the United States grapples with race, gender, and sexuality through dancing bodies on screen.

This book focuses on how Latin American people and cultural practices have moved from one continent to another, and specifically to London. How do Latin Americans experience such a process and what part do different people play in the re-making of Latin identities in the neighbourhoods, parks, bars and dance clubs of London? Through a critical engagement with theories of globalization, the geography of power, cultural identity and the transformation of places, the book explores how the formation of Latin identities is directly related to wider social, economic and political processes. Drawing on the voices of migrant peoples, community activists, shop owners, sports organizers, club owners, dancers, dance teachers, musicians and disc jockeys, the book argues that the micro movements of people - through a shopping mall or across a dance floor in a club - are directly connected to global processes involving the regulated movement of citizens, sounds and images across national boundaries and through cities.