Footprints of the Dance - An Early Seventeenth-Century Dance Master's Notebook by Jennifer Nevile provides new, fascinating and detailed information on the life of an early-seventeenth-century dance master in Brussels. The dance master's handwritten notebook contains unique material: a canon of dance figures and instructions for an exhibition with a pike; as well as signatures and general descriptions of his students, ballet plots and music associated with dancing. Reproduced for the first time are facsimile images of all the dance-related material, with transcriptions and translations of the ballet plots and instructions for the pike exhibition. The dance master is revealed as an active choreographer and performer, with strong ties to the French court musical establishment, and interested in fireworks and alchemy.

Applied Practice: Evidence and Impact in Theatre, Music and Art engages with a diversity of contexts, locations and arts forms - including theatre, music and fine art - and brings together theoretical, political and practice-based perspectives on the question of 'evidence' in relation to participatory arts practice in social contexts. This collection is a unique contribution to the field, focusing on one of the vital concerns for a growing and developing set of arts and research practices. It asks us to consider evidence not only in terms of methodology but also in the light of the ideological, political and pragmatic implications of that methodology. In Part One, Matthew Reason and Nick Rowe reflect on evidence and impact in the participatory arts in relation to recurring conceptual and methodological motifs. These include issues of purpose and obliquity; the relationship between evidence and knowledge; intrinsic and instrumental impacts, and the value of participatory research. Part Two explores the diversity of perspectives, contexts and methodologies in examining what it is possible to know, say and evidence about the often complex and intimate impact of participatory arts. Part Three brings together case studies in which practitioners and practice-based researchers consider the frustrations, opportunities and successes they face in addressing the challenge to produce evidence for the impact of their practice.

Medieval Arab Music and Musicians offers complete, annotated English translations of three of the most important medieval Arabic texts on music and musicians: the biography of the musician Ibrahim al-Mawsili from al-Isbahani's Kitab al-Aghani (10th c), the biography of the musician Ziryab from Ibn Hayyan's Kitab al-Muqtabis (11th c), and the earliest treatise on the muwashshah Andalusi song genre, Dar al-Tiraz, by the Egyptian scholar Ibn Sana' al-Mulk (13th c). Al-Mawsili, the most famous musician of his era, was also the teacher of the legendary Ziryab, who traveled from Baghdad to al-Andalus and is often said to have laid the foundations of Andalusi music. The third text is crucial to any understanding of the medieval muwashshah and its possible relations to the Troubadours, the Cantigas de Santa Maria, and the Andalusi musical traditions of the modern Middle East.

Crossover Stardom: Popular Male Stars in American Cinema focuses on male music stars who have attempted to achieve film stardom. Crossover stardom can describe stars who cross from one medium to another. Although 'crossover' has become a popular term to describe many modern stars who appear in various mediums, crossover stardom has a long history, going back to the beginning of the cinema. Lobalzo Wright begins with Bing Crosby, a significant Hollywood star in the studio era; moving to Elvis Presley in the 1950s and 1960s, as the studio system collapsed; to Kris Kristofferson in the New Hollywood period of the 1970s; and ending with Will Smith and Justin Timberlake, in the contemporary era, when corporate conglomerates dominate Hollywood. Thus, the study not only explores music stardom (and music genres) in various eras, and masculinity within these periods, it also surveys the history of American cinema from industrial and cultural perspectives, from the 1930s to today.

This volume focusses on a rarely discussed method of meaning production, namely via the absence, rather than presence, of signifiers. It does so from an interdisciplinary, transmedial perspective, which covers systematic, media-comparative and historical aspects, and reveals various forms and functions of missing signifiers across arts and media. The meaningful silences, blanks, lacunae, pauses, etc., treated by the ten contributors are taken from language and literature, film, comics, opera and instrumental music, architecture, and the visual arts. Contributors are: Nassim Balestrini, Walter Bernhart, Olga Fischer, Saskia Jaszoltowski, Henry Keazor, Peter Revers, Klaus Rieser, Daniel Stein, Anselm Wagner, Werner Wolf

In 1960s East Los Angeles, La Estrella de la Cancion Romantica interpreted boleros and other music from the collective memory of Mexico. Though an untrained, local artist, her musical performance was as trans-racial, trans-class, trans-generational, and trans-national as the most celebrated artists of the music of latinidad. That stage of her artistic career would be key when she later helped deconstruct the machismo that framed the mariachi tradition, as a founding member of the first all-female mariachi group, Las Generalas. Mucho Corazon, a biography/autoethnography written by the protagonist's daughter, relates the life- and performing stages of Aurora Prado Pastrano, who against overwhelming odds, followed her heart to become a bolerista, songwriter, and the first professional woman guitarron player in United States history. Seamless storytelling advances the long-neglected history of Chicana grassroots artists. Framed by allusions to the music popular during her Texas-Mexican American childhood, her young adult life in Mexico, to her artistic rise in East Los Angeles, the story vividly exemplifies how gendered subjectivity infuses public performance of what the author coins "cultural music." This is a resource on regional history and its music of the 1940s-1970s. Written for anyone interested in women's participation in the production and performance of mariachi music in the United States, Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano, and Latino music, and the cultural history of the Southwest, it is especially valuable to ethnomusicology, cultural studies, women's history, women's and gender studies, Latinx studies, Chicanx studies, cultural anthropology, ethnology, and sociology, and accessible to levels from high school to higher education professionals.

An anthology of essays on the new syncretic, or 'fusion', styles of music of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific region, who have adopted forms of popular music as an expression of their cultural identity. Its strength lies in the layering up of a sense of community of inquiry, and the fostering of an intertextual head of steam, grounded in a set of empirical, rather than theoretical, concerns. It considers the interrelation between music, popular culture, politics and (national) identity, but also looks at the business aspect of producing and distributing music in the Pacific region.

A collection of true stories, gossip and details of 500 of the singles that failed to dent the Top 10, but which are still worthy of inclusion in a volume such as this. This book demonstrates just how much a melting pot of talent, creativity and energy the decade really was. It s not just in the groove, but between the grooves that you'll find the magic. Nuggets of information and connections between the artists, producers and songwriters offer a unique insight into the careers and development of key (and not so key) performers. The idea behind this book is simple to gather together a fantastic selection of 60s pop releases that are not nearly as well-known as they deserve to be. Packed full of beautiful glossy pictures of each and every disc featured, it is a colourful and quirky guide to records that you may never have heard of, but you will certainly want to listen to when you've finished.

This book is a brief, factual, historical walk through very interesting time in history. A walk through war and peace as well as sadness and happiness.The international walk of a fabulous female, occasionally in the spotlight-too often in the shadows, until now. A phenomenal singer; pianist, lyricist, composer; storyteller; glamourous entertainer, woman of the world, friend, and last, but certainly not least, my Mum (aka Ruth Allen). I am so proud of Mum and what she stands for. She has weathered every storm thrown her way and come out singing and swinging each time as she amazingly tackles a healthy 84 years young this year. I remain in awe of her beautiful smile and hopeful, youthful look, and outlook, throughout a life that's been anything but a walk in the park.

From early accounts of dance customs in medieval Ireland to the present, Helen Brennan offers an authoritative look at the evolution of Irish dance. Every type of dance from social to traditional to clergy is included. Brennan takes care to explain the different styles and traditions that evolved from different parts of Ireland; which results in some lively discussions as people reminisce over old favorites. She also discusses how dance evolved to become such an important part of Ireland's culture and history. An appendix is offered to help explain the various steps involved in each style of dance including the Munster or Southern style, Single Shuffle, Double Shuffle, Treble Shuffle, the Heel Plant, the Cut, the Rock or Puzzle, the Drum, the Sean Nos Dance Style of Connemara, and the Northern Style.