Contemporary dance Books
Jessica Kingsley Publishers Butoh Dance Training: Secrets of Japanese Dance
Book SynopsisDrawing on avant garde and classical Japanese dance traditions, the Alishina Method offers a systematized approach to Butoh dance training for the first time in its history. With practical instruction and fully illustrated exercises, this book teaches readers:· basic body training and expression exercises· exercises to cultivate Qi (energy) and to aid improvisation· about katas (forms) and how to develop your own· the importance of voice, sound and music in Butoh· to collaborate and be in harmony with others· techniques to manipulate time and space· how to develop the imagination and refine the senses to enrich performance.This authentic approach to Japanese dance will be compelling reading for anyone interested in contemporary dance, performance arts, Japanese culture or personal development techniques.Trade ReviewJuju Alishina is an important and bold cultural innovator and searing performer. This writing captures the grace and power of Juju's teaching through clear exercises that offer students and teachers alike entrée into a form of Butoh infused with traditional Japanese movement practices. Rich with imagery, these lessons are layered with the wisdom, experience, and deep research of a master. -- Andrew Belser, Professor, MFA program, and Director, Arts & Design Research Incubator, Penn State UniversityTable of ContentsPreface. The Future of Butoh. Teaching Method. 1. Body Training: Basic Exercises. 2. Qi Training, Improvisation. 3. Application. Afterword. Bibliography. Biography.
£28.49
Jessica Kingsley Publishers Anna Halprin: Dance - Process - Form
Book SynopsisAnna Halprin is a world-famous theatre artist and early pioneer in the expressive arts healing movement. This book explores her personal growth as a dancer and choreographer and the development of her therapeutic and pedagogical approach. The authors, who each trained with Halprin, introduce her creative work and the 'Life/Art Process®' she developed, an approach that takes life experiences as a source for artistic expression. They also examine the wider impact of Halprin's work on the fields of art, education, therapy and political action and discuss how she crossed the conventionally defined boundaries between them.Exploring Halprin's belief that dance can be a powerful force for transformation, healing, education, and making our lives whole, this book is a tribute to an exceptional body of artistic and therapeutic work and will be of interest to expressive arts therapists, dance movement psychotherapists, dancers, performance and community artists, and anyone with an interest in contemporary dance.Trade ReviewI found this book a comprehensive and rigorous account of Anna Halprin's work and its application and relevance today. The discussions on the boundaries between Art and Therapy in her work with the body are both radical and inspiring. As both a dance artist/performer (...) I find the depth of enquiry and capacity to understand the body in doing, making and developing a political structure quite profound. One would hope that more people today who are interested in Dance and Movement and the body in both contexts will take up this extraordinary account of a life's work. -- Kay Lynn * The Gestalt Centre; BGJ (British Gestalt Journal) and the Oxford Psychotherapy Society's members-only Journal *Readers will find that Anna Halprin: Dance, Process, Form is a detailed, well-researched, and objective examination of the life, work, and artistic mindset of Anna Halprin... the book is an interesting foray into where the process of expression in dance and therapy stands today, and also what it might mean for practitioners and performers going forward. -- Michael Fiorini * Somatic Psychotherapy Today *Table of ContentsPreface to the German edition. Anna Halprin. Foreword. Rudolf zur Lippe. Introduction. Ronit Land, Ursula Schorn and Gabriele Wittmann. 1. Anna Halprin: Her Life and Work. Gabriele Wittmann. 2. The 'Life/Art Process' – Building Blocks for Creative Action. Ursula Schorn. Dialogue 1. Challenges for the Critics. Ronit Land in Conversation with Gabriele Wittmann. 3. On the Phenomenon of Anna Halprin's Reception. Gabriele Wittmann. Dialogue 2. Challenges at the Interface between Art and Therapy. Gabriele Wittmann in Conversation with Ursula Schorn. 4. The Limits of Expression – The 'Life/Art Process' in the Therapeutic Context. Ursula Schorn. Dialogue 3. Emotionality in Pedagogical Work in the Multicultural Context. 5. Introducing Anna Halprin's Pedagogical Profile. Ronit Land. Notes. Photographs. Works. Bibliography. Films. Acknowledgements (Pictures). The Authors.
£28.49
Violette Editions Michael Clark
Book Synopsis
£42.46
Triarchy Press The Roots of Amerta Movement: An introduction to
Book SynopsisThe Javanese movement artist Suprapto Suryodarmo (universally known as Prapto) died in 2019. He had devoted his life to developing, embodying, teaching and sharing his practice of Amerta Movement / Joged Amerta, which, in his own words, is not only a language for communication but also an expression of being. In the course of his life, Prapto worked with students and colleagues (people from all walks of life, including internationally-known artists, performers, practitioners and teachers, all of whom he treated equally as ‘friends’) in sacred, ancient and mundane sites around the world. He never attempted to write down his practice, although he encouraged many ‘friends’ to spread the word and the practice, sharing their own understandings of his work widely. This book, covering the early years of Prapto’s teaching, is the closest there is to a record of that period of his work in English. It is a radically revised, updated and edited version of Lise Lavelle’s doctoral thesis and draws on her unrivalled knowledge of the culture, language, art, religion and traditions of Java – the pot in which Prapto’s life, work and practice were cooked. While Amerta Movement continued to evolve during this century, 'The Roots of Amerta Movement' offers a clear and many-layered introduction. For anyone wanting to know more about Prapto and his work, it is a very good place to start.Table of ContentsPART I: The Movement Chapter 1: Introduction to Amerta Movement Chapter 2: Prapto in Java Chapter 3: Fundamentals Chapter 4: The Movement Practice PART II: The Pribadi Art courses Chapter 5: Basic Chapter 6: Vocabulary 1: The Hill and Sukuh Chapter 7: Vocabulary 2: Borobudur, Parangtritis and Crystallisation Chapter 8. Communication PART III: Messenger Art Chapter 9. Messenger Art On the road to a Professional Art Language Conclusion Epilogue: Amerta on the Road in the 21st century Glossary Bibliography Index
£19.80
Triarchy Press Suomenlinna Gropius: Two Contemplations on
Book SynopsisHow can we dance here - so the aliveness of everything past and present can surface and shimmer? Paula Kramer's beautiful, evocative and touching 'contemplations' take us on a double journey that starts with Site (one in Helsinki, one in Berlin), moves to Practice and concludes in Performance. Based on a 3-year site-based research project (a post-doc at Uniarts Helsinki's Centre for Artistic Research) the book explores her embodied research into intermateriality. It addresses the question that guided her research: how does movement and choreography emerge in collaboration with site? More specifically: how do bodies, materials, sites, organisms, history, tuning, training, phenomena, events and the weather intermingle and speak, bringing forth what we later might call movement, dance or choreography? The two sites are Lanskari - the wildest and least populated of Helsinki's Suomenlinna islands - and Martin-Gropius-Bau on Berlin's Sudplatz, a neighbour of the Berlin Wall, of Berlin's House of Representatives and former home of the first Stasi, and of the former SS and Gestapo headquarters. The book explores narration, poetry and theory born out of specific experiences of moving-dancing, being, eating, choreographing, performing, in and with the two sites. The author speaks alongside others - experts in history, geology, performance - and invites us to see and experience sites, dance and movement differently.Table of ContentsIntroduction Site: SUOMENLINNA - On Your Rocks I Lie The Slippery Rocks of Suomenlinna / Bjoern Kroeger Islands in Time / Annette Arlander Practice: SUOMENLINNA - Practising Movement The Feather / Annette Arlander Performance: SUOMENLINNA - On the Surface of Time Placement Upon The Surface of Time / Kira O'Reilly IF YOU SAY- a poetic contemplation STATE OF MATTER - Assembled memories of not being an audience / Jagna Anderson This is - not a performance :Performance GROPIUS - Practising Movement :Practice Sudplatz: 1910, 1936, 1954, 1984, and today, 2020 / Ulrich Tempel GROPIUS - You Are My Layering :Site Introduction
£23.50
Triarchy Press Skinner Releasing Technique: A Movement and Dance
Book SynopsisSkinner Releasing Technique (SRT), created by Joan Skinner, is a somatic movement, dance and creative practice with a core underlying principle of releasing blocked energy, held tension and habitual patterns in body mind. It enables us to move with greater freedom and ease whilst awakening creativity and spontaneity. The 21 contributors to this book describe how SRT informs their own movement and/or dance practice and influences wider fields of practice including meditation, architecture, poetic listening, visual art, writing, technology and choreography. For them SRT is a transformative and lifelong practice that deepens connections with self, other, more than human life forms and with natural and urban landscapes. This is a book for anyone drawn to explore body mind, somatic, movement and dance practices, and for those who are exploring ways of living in the world creatively, empathically and with more ease and natural grace.Table of ContentsIntroduction ~ Manny Emslie How to Disappear Completely ~ Sally Metcalf A Non-Linear Approach To Being Alive ~ Stephanie Skura Movement, Metaphysics & Imagination ~ Alex Crowe Becoming the Dancing ~ Bettina Neuhaus Beyond Technique ~ Polly Hudson Attending to Details of Difference ~ Julie Nathanielsz Manifesting Dance ~ Lizzy Le Quesne Principles in Practice ~ Wilhemeena Monroe Small Steps and Occasional Leaps ~ Julie Ludwick Half Century of Releasing ~ Jodi Blackburn-Roehl Listening into Clarity ~ Lily Kiara Dancing Inside Out ~ Gaby Agis A Journey towards Poetic Materiality ~ Sally E. Dean All These Strings in One Hand ~ Meaghen Buckley From a Ripple Comes a Wave ~ Julia Sasso Adapting SRT for adults with learning disabilities ~ Sophie Alder Mastery and Insignificance ~ Ruth Gibson Dancing the World with An Ethical Compass ~ Manny Emslie Landscape, Process, Being ~ Mary-Clare McKenna Greek Tragedy Meets Skinner Releasing Technique ~ Lionel Popkin My Time with Joan - Theresa Moriarty Glossary References
£28.45
Triarchy Press Rock Songs: story about walk about story about
Book SynopsisRock Songs starts as a walk of a few miles between the valley of the river Tywi/Towy and the heights of Y Mynydd Du/Black Mountain in Wales. It takes millions of years, meeting along the way the rocks and water that have formed the land, together with the trees, red kites and otters who pass through. Humans crowd in as well – saints, drovers, Romans, bikers and tourists. The great zen monk, Dōgen, is also walking and learns that mountains themselves walk, if you know how to look. Rock Songs began as a one-man movement performance of a river by Nick Sales and has become a book of poetry, reflection, ecology and zen reflection. It's illustrated with extensive photography by Steve Hopkins and beautifully designed by Christopher Binding.
£18.00
Triarchy Press When I Open My Eyes: Dance Health Imagination
Book SynopsisCelebrated dance artist and body therapist Miranda Tufnell takes us on a moving and inspiring exploration of the field of dance and health. For 14 years she worked in a GP surgery in Cumbria and the book opens with a vivid account of an arts project that she and her collaborators ran there for people with long-term health conditions. This is a book about the body and movement, about imagination and health. It gathers many stories, voices and activities from artists, patients and health practitioners. The arts have long played a role in medicine and there is a substantial body of evidence for the potency of arts practice in strengthening our resources and capacity for wellbeing. While the work is sourced in the body and movement, it is not only written for people with a dance background. Listening creatively to the body strengthens our body intelligence and ability to look after ourselves effectively. Practitioners from many backgrounds come into this field and will find something of interest. This book sets out to inspire rather than to teach, to offer windows into practice, and to convey something of what it is like to work in this field.Trade Review"This book is a plea for dance as a means of moving beyond the anatomised, medicalised, sexualised body to the body as a vital portal into the shifting and complex nature of being alive. It takes the reader on journeys that weave together stories, insights and practical exercises. A rare and moving book and a companion for health practitioners, teachers, students, movers and those searching for creative expression." Niamh Dowling, Principal, RADATable of ContentsAcknowledgments Foreword Dr Gavin Young Preface My story of movement Introduction A medicine within PART 1 ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’ – an account of a project. Brenda Mallon and Miranda Tufnell PART 2 Approaches to Practice Breath Touch The practice of saying yes, Eva Karczag Between you and me Self care in times of chaos and violence, Michal Shahak Getting your bearings – movement and sensing Towards meaning – body, health and imagination ‘Chance of fair’ – writing with people with mental and physical health issues, Kay Syrad PART 3 Laying the Foundations – movement in early years development, Karen Adcock Doyle and Jasmine Pasch PART 4 Practitioner Accounts What is this pill called dance? – music and movement in hospital, Filipa Pereira-Stubbs Harry: the story of a child in hospital, Lisa Dowler (co-written with Kellie Rixon, Harry’s mother) Dancing recall: making connections, Daphne Cushnie Moving forward with Parkinson’s, Amanda Fogg Breath and becoming in mental health and addiction, Sister Bridget Folkard A dance for Buddug, Cai Tomos What is health? Permissions Illustrations Biographies of Contributors Bibliography and Resources
£22.50
Triarchy Press Language of the Axis
Book Synopsis
£18.00
Triarchy Press Embodied Spirit Conscious Earth
Book SynopsisBrings together the wisdom and learning from nearly five decades of study, practice and teaching at the forefront of somatic movement, embodied awareness, somatic and transpersonal psychotherapy, and spiritual disciplines.
£20.25
De Gruyter Being in Contact: Encountering a Bare Body
Book SynopsisThis choreographed book is dedicated to the phenomenon of the bare body in contemporary performance. This work of artistic research draws on philosophical, biopolitical, and ethical discourses relevant to the appearance of bare bodies in choreography, setting a framework for a reflexive movement between affect and ethics, sensuous address and response. Acts of exposure and concealment are culturally situated and anchored, and are examined for their methodological and nanopolitical significance. The concepts of anarchic responsibility and choreo-ethics lead to a reevaluation of contact, relationship, and solidarity. Choreography is thus understood as a complex field of revelatory experiences based on ecologies of aesthetic perception and ethico-political agency.
£32.78
Produzioni Nero The School of Narrative Dance, Roma
Book Synopsis
£17.10
Valiz Moving Together: Making and Theorizing
Book Synopsis
£19.00
IF I CAN'T DANCE Guy de Cointet's Five Sisters
Book Synopsis
£13.50
Lannoo Publishers The Rage of Staging: Wim Vandekeybus
Book Synopsis"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 also 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. Text in English, French, and Dutch.
£38.25
Valiz In-Between Dance Cultures: The Migratory Artistic
Book Synopsis
£17.55