Contemporary dance Books

Book SynopsisThe critically acclaimed definitive biography of Kate Bush, revised and updated for 2024, with a new foreword by Sinead Gleeson.

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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.

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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.

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Book SynopsisWhen it was first published in 1990, 'Body Space Image' was acclaimed as the first book of its kind - a remarkable guide to improvisation, using a narrative of discovery that "set the mind loose from the rut of everyday perception". It was groundbreaking in the way it addressed improvised movement, experimental performance and how to create performance settings. Thirty years later, 'Body, Space, Image' still stands out from anything published in the interim - largely because of the way it combines a unique collection of images (from dance, theatre and painting) and statements by working artists. The authors start with the individual's movement itself as the basis of improvisation, then broaden their perspective to include groups working together and the physical setting of performance - space, light, sound and objects. 'Body Space Image' explores ways of working and ways of thinking about performance that have inspired beginners and experienced artists alike. It is a manual intended to stimulate rather than a comprehensive system of working and, in it, word and image combine to celebrate and record one of the most exacting art forms. Previously published by Dance Books, this is a very slightly revised new edition from Triarchy Press

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Book SynopsisWhether you''re an absolute beginner or a Strictly Come Dancing wannabe, it''s time to get up and dance Craig Revel Horwood''s Ballroom Dancing gives you the confidence you need to take your first steps on the dancefloor. It even includes style tips from the style guru, Len Goodman, to give you that professional look. Discover the history, foot positions, turns, and more, to all your favourite Strictly dances: Waltz Social foxtrot Quickstep Tango Rumba Samba Cha cha cha JiveBallroom dancing is totally cool, funky, and fantastically rewarding. What better way to get fit than tangoing your tension away, and foxtrotting the fat off your thighs? Happy dancing.Trade Review"Excellent ... a really simple way to learn." * Lorraine Kelly *Table of Contents : Introduction : Warm-Up : International Latin American Dances : Mambo : Rumba : Cha Cha Cha : Paso Doble : Samba : Jive : International Standard Partner Dances : Slow Foxtrot : Waltz : Quickstep : Tango : Viennese Waltz

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Book SynopsisMatthew Bourne and His Adventures in Dance is an intimate and in-depth conversation between the prize-winning pioneer of ballet and contemporary dance Matthew Bourne and the New York Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay. In 1987, a small, aspirant dance group with a striking name made its debut on the London fringe. In 1996, Adventures in Motion Pictures made history as the first modern dance company to open a production in London''s West End. From this achievement, AMP sailed triumphantly to Broadway - winning three Tony Awards - guided by Artistic Director Matthew Bourne.Even before the inception of AMP, Bourne was fascinated by theatre, by characterization, and by the history of dance. In his early works - Spitfire, Town & Country and Deadly Serious - Bourne brought a novel approach to dance. And in his reworkings of the classics of the ballet canon - Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Cinderella - Bourne created witty, vivid, poignant productions that received great acclaim.In the first decade of the new millennium, the company name was changed to New Adventures, and Bourne''s ''classics'', as well as Bourne''s new works - The Car Man, Play Without Words, Edward Scissorhands and Dorian Gray - achieved levels of box-office popularity that have seldom, if ever, been matched in dance. In addition, his choreography for various musicals - My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins and Oliver! - have run for years in the West End and on Broadway.The detail in which Bourne discusses his work with Alastair Macaulay is unprecedented. The two explore Bourne''s upbringing, his training and influences, and his distinctive creative methods. Bourne''s notebooks, his sources and his collaboration with dancers all form part of the discussion in this book.

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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

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Book SynopsisThe Natural Body in Somatics Training looks at what happens in the dance studio as dancers learn physical skills and in doing so also assimilate aesthetic, ethical, and political values. It takes us backstage so as to show how dancers come to share certain beliefs and opinions and thereby come to form communityTrade ReviewThe Natural Body is a long overdue and much needed investigation into the emergence and historical development of the broad category of practices known as "Somatics". George's insights into Somatics as a simultaneous disciplining and liberatory physical practice, choreographic tool, and pedagogical intervention will be illuminating and important for artists and scholars alike. * Clare Croft, Associate Professor of Dance & American Studies, University of Michigan *Doran George brings a wealth of theoretical, kinaesthetic, and political thought to the impact of Somatics in contemporary dance. They do crucial work in undoing assumptions of Somatic training regimens and their influence on choreographic process. Through well-researched interviews and analysis, George does the long overdue work of de-naturalizing notions of individual autonomy and democracy in dance training and relationships between choreographer/dancer and performer/spectator. In highlighting how race, gender, and sexuality have been eclipsed by the force of Somatics within a contemporary transnational context, this book opens expansive, radical spaces for political and historical bodies to move in new ways. A groundbreaking book that will have a profound impact on the field. * Jennifer Monson, Professor of Dance, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign *This book would be of interest to those who want to understand the beginnings of somatics, its connections to dance, and how it spread beyond the US. * Sandra Minton, Journal Of Dance Education *Table of ContentsEditor's Note Introduction: In Search of the Natural Body Chapter 1. Renewable Originality: The Natural Body & Late Twentieth Century Social Change Chapter 2. Contradictory Dissidence: Somatics and American Expansionism Chapter 3: Somatics Bodies on the Concert Stage: Processing, Inventing, and Displaying Conclusion: Understanding the Focus on Natural Authenticity Endnotes Appendix: Brief Biographies of Some Key Somatics Practitioners Bibliography

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Book SynopsisEurythmy is an art form that makes sounds visible. By incorporating zodiac gestures into their art, as indicated by Rudolf Steiner, eurythmists can draw on a deep connection between the earth and the cosmos.The zodiac, as representative of the whole cosmos, is a vital part of human spirituality, acting as the backdrop to human life. But it can be hard to fathom the zodiac's secrets, even through meditation. Barfod draws a parallel between meditative exercises and eurythmy practice, and shows how zodiac gestures in eurythmy can reveal cosmic insights.This is a book for eurythmy teachers and practitioners who want to deepen their art and spiritual work.Trade Review'An absolute treasure-trove of information on the Zodiac... I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone and consider it an absolute must-have for any eurythmist.'-- Saraphir Qaa-Rishi, EurythmistTable of ContentsForeword by Virginia Sease PrefaceOut of the Creative Chaos 1. The Zodiac in Eurythmy The cosmic human being in the zodiac The gestures of the day and night colours The origin of the archetypal colour gestures The artistic elements and the colour zodiac gestures Archetypal straight line and spiral tendencies in the zodiac Forming the zodiac gestures out of colour, the part of the body and the spiral or linear force The eurythmic characteristics of the zodiac 2. The Consonants in the Zodiac The consonants as an echo of the cosmic formative forces The six single and the six double sounds The essence of the sound as a complete entity Aries and the sound V Taurus and the sound R Gemini and the sound H Cancer and the sound F Leo and the sound T Virgo and sounds B and P Libra and the sounds C (Ts) and Ch Scorpio and the sound S Sagittarius and the sounds G and K Capricorn and the sound L Aquarius and the sound M Pisces and the sound N 3. The Composition of the Totality of the Zodiac The three crosses of the zodiac The six axes and their polarities The trines of the four elements in the zodiac The post-Atlantean sequence of cultural epochs The threefold human being within the zodiac 4. Forces of Order in the Sounds of the Zodiac The sequence of consonants The evolutionary sequence in the zodiac The eurythmy figures The spatial experience of form in the sounds of speech 5. Rudolf Steiner’s Twelve Moods The twelve zodiac verses The three verbal moods Special features of a eurythmy performance The sequence of planets within the zodiac verse 6. The Zodiac as the Source of All Created Things Insights into the zodiac given by Rudolf Steiner The effects of the zodiac on the forming of human beings The twelve senses in the zodiac 7. Work-Based Movement and Sound in the Zodiac Introduction to the next three chapters Traditional work-based movements and sounds Work and movement – music and speech The human being in movement and eurythmy Human work in relation to the course of the year 8. The Zodiac and Technology Twelve styles of technology The one-sidedness of the zodiac animals as formative forces 9. Conversational Gestures and the Zodiac The six speech gestures Conversational gestures as an imitation of the speech gestures The conversational gestures in the zodiac The speech gestures and the colours Dynamic variety in connection with the speech gestures Overview and concluding remarks 10. The Connection of Artistic Practice and Training Introduction Meditation exercises and the zodiac in eurythmy The path of knowledge and the zodiac in eurythmy The shaping of gestures and the path of practice 11. Artistic Elements in Eurythmy and Their Twelve Metamorphoses 12. The Task of the Earthly and the Cosmic Human Being Wonder, empathy and conscience and the meditations IAO and TAO Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRudolf Steiner initiated a new art of movement, which can be characterised as speech and music made visible. This concise but informative guide to eurythmy includes a brief survey of dance, from its origin in the ancient mysteries to its contemporary forms, placing Steiner's ideas in their historical context.It then goes on to explore the three main strands of eurythmy: as stage performance, in education, and in therapy, giving insightful examples of each.The book has been revised and updated, and includes black and white photographs of performance and educational eurythmy.

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Book SynopsisCelebrated eurythmist Werner Barfod details the seven planetary gestures in eurythmy and outlines how each expresses a different relationship of the human being to the world. Eurythmy is an art form that makes sounds visible through movement. As well as gestures for speech and music, eurythmy also incorporates gestures that relate to the stars and the planets, as indicated by Rudolf Steiner.In this fascinating book, a companion volume to The Zodiac Gestures in Eurythmy, Werner Barfod describes the seven planetary gestures and how each one expresses a different relationship of the human being to the world. He explains how the planetary forces work in different people, and the meditative development and ways of working that eurythmists need to cultivate to bring creativity into their art.This book will appeal to eurythmy teachers and practitioners who want to deepen their art and spiritual work.

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Book SynopsisThe autobiography of a legendary swing dancerTrade Review"Dance writer and swing dancer Millman conducted extensive interviews with Manning for a vivid account of his career... the first-person accounts of Manning's life capture his vibrancy, humor and charm...this vivid memoir by one of swing dancing's innovators and stars is a must for lovers of dance, jazz and African-American history." —Publishers WeeklyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments / i Foreword: Mercedes Ellington Frankie Manning: An Appreciation by Cynthia R. Millman / xi Prologue: Too Stiff / 1 PART ONE: EARLY STEPS (1914-circa 1933) Chapter 1. Jazz Baby / 5 Chapter 2. Early Ballroom Forays / 21 PART TWO: SAVOY DANCER (circa 1933-1936) Chapter 3. To the Savoy at Last / 47 Chapter 4. Whitey, Shorty, and Stretch / 72 Chapter 5. Win Win / 85 Chapter 6. Up in the Air She Goes / 102 PART THREE: WHITEY'S LINDY HOPPERS (1936-1943) Chapter 7. Going Pro / 129 Chapter 8. Big Time at the Cotton Club / 149 Chapter 9. A Big Apple for Whitey / 174 Chapter 10. On Broadway and In the Movies / 213 Chapter 11. Stranded in Rio / 246 PART FOUR: WAR AND HOME (1943-1984) Chapter 12. Dancer Interrupted / 259 Chapter 13. The Congaroo Dancers and a Day Job / 275 PART FIVE: SECOND ACT (1984-present) Chapter 14. Revival / APPENDIXES A. Frankie Manning Timeline / 347 B. Biographies of Lindy Hoppers C. List of Works Cited or Consulted / C. Frankie's List of Swing Dance on Film/TV D. Swing Dance Resources E. Swing Dance Organizations and Events Index

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Book SynopsisGrand Hotel. My One and Only. Nine. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine. The Will Rogers Follies. For two decades, Tommy Tune was the maestro presiding over a string of glittering Broadway musicals that took the tradition of complete musical staging by a director-choreographer into a new era defined by spectacle and technology. He was last in a grand lineage led by Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, Bob Fosse, and Michael Bennett, but also provided a link to a new generation of choreographers-turned-directors like Susan Stroman, Jerry Mitchell, and Casey Nicholaw. Unlike his fellow director-choreographers, Tune also maintained a successful performing career. His nine Tony Awards (plus a tenth, for Lifetime Achievement) were earned across four categories, not only for choreography and direction, but also as both featured and lead actor in a musical, for Seesaw and My One and Only--a distinction no one else can claim. Tune took the musical forward by looking backward, bringing satiric energy and contemporary style to a trove of show business antecedents--from clog dancing to showgirl formations, from precision kick lines to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers-style ballroom glides. He did the same with his concert and cabaret performances, drawing on classics from the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, and Cole Porter and performing them not as nostalgia but as vital, immediate statements of personal philosophy. Everything is Choreography: The Musical Theater of Tommy Tune is the first full scale book about the career of this prodigious artist. It celebrates and examines with a critical eye his major projects, and summons for readers a glorious period of dance, performance, and theatrical imagination.Trade ReviewWe really sense the energy, rhythms, moods, and sounds of the movements, and are able to feel the theatricality of the choreography, and, hence, understand how Tune's staging worked to drive the drama in his productions. * Lisa Jo Sagolla, American Theatre Magazine *Winkler's book is the definition of a page turner. I literally could not put it down, except when I was rushing to YouTube to watch some of the dance numbers he so vividly described ... My appreciation and knowledge of Tune's career grew after reading this book, and I'm sure yours will too. If you love -- and care about -- the Broadway musical, this book is absolutely essential reading. * David Meyers, The Algemeiner *Winkler has written a lively, incisive look at Tommy Tune, Broadway's leading director/choreographer/performer in the latter decades of the Twentieth Century. Free of pretense, Tune served both his shows and audiences with his wit and unique style and Winkler captures it all. * Ken Bloom, author of Show and Tell: The New Book of Broadway Anecdotes *Winkler explains what went right and what went wrong with each production as part of the larger story of Tune's superstar sensibility, triumphing in a period when it felt as if British musicals owned New York. The spectacular research outlines the history of the Broadway musical over a half century. Among studies of how entertainment can be made entertaining, it's a model of reporting. * Mindy Aloff, editor, Dance in America: A Reader's Anthology (Library of America) *Everything is Choreography: The Musical Theater of Tommy Tune is a well-researched, dizzying deep dive into the creative life and theatrical work of Thomas James Tune. * Adrienne M. Wilson, Journal Of Dance Education *Table of ContentsForeword by Geoffrey Block Introduction 1. Broadway Baby 2. Gents and Working Girls 3. Double Feature 4. City of Women 5. A Gershwin Tune 6. A Great Place to Make a Show 7. The Broadway Melody of 1991 8. Song and Dance Man Everything is Still Choreography Index

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Book SynopsisNOW A MAJOR FILM BY RALPH FIENNES, THE WHITE CROW''A gripping account of an extraordinary life'' Daily Telegraph Born on a train in Stalin''s Russia, Rudolf Nureyev was ballet''s first pop icon. No other dancer of our time has generated the same excitement - both on and off stage.Nureyev''s achievements and conquests became legendary: he rose out of Tatar peasant poverty to become the Kirov''s thrilling maverick star; slept with his beloved mentor''s wife; defected to the West in 1961; sparked Rudimania across the globe; established the most rhapsodic partnership in dance history with the middle-aged Margot Fonteyn; reinvented male technique; gatecrashed modern dance; moulded new stars; and staged Russia''s unknown ballet masterpieces in the West. He and his life were simply astonishing.''Magnificent, a triumph. Captures every facet of this extraordinary man'' Mail on Sunday''The definitive study of a manTrade ReviewMagnificent, compulsively readable * Guardian *A gripping account of an extraordinary life * Daily Telegraph *Magnificent, a triumph. Captures every facet of this extraordinary man * Mail on Sunday *Undoubtedly the definitive biography. Rudolf Nureyev, superstar, emerges in all his terribly flawed glory * Sunday Telegraph *The definitive study of a man who, in his combination of aesthetic grace and psychological grime, can truly be called a sacred monster * Observer *Julie Kavanagh writes with flair and abundance * The Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisAlvin Ailey (1931–1989) was a choreographic giant in the modern dance world and a champion of African-American talent and culture. His interracial Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater provided opportunities to black dancers and choreographers when no one else would. His acclaimed “Revelations” remains one of the most performed modern dance pieces in the twentieth century. But he led a tortured life, filled with insecurity and self-loathing. Raised in poverty in rural Texas by his single mother, he managed to find success early in his career, but by the 1970s his creativity had waned. He turned to drugs, alcohol, and gay bars and suffered a nervous breakdown in 1980. He was secretive about his private life, including his homosexuality, and, unbeknownst to most at the time, died from AIDS-related complications at age 58.Now, for the first time, the complete story of Ailey's life and work is revealed in this biography. Based on his personal journals and hundreds of interviews with those who knew him, including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Judith Jamison, Lena Horne, Katherine Dunham, Sidney Poitier, and Dustin Hoffman, Alvin Ailey is a moving story of a man who wove his life and culture into his dance.Table of Contents* Busy As Soon As He Was Born * A Light And Shadowed Paradise * Love And Need And Growing Up * Approaching Center * Hard Times But The Best Times * Studio Days * Filling Lester Hortons Shoes * Coming Of Age In New York * The First Concept * Songs of Trouble, Songs of Love * Revelations * A New York Family * Back To Acting, On To Asia * Hot And Perfect * Prophets With Little Honor * Back On The Road Again * Threw All Dance Clothes Into Wastebasket * Back In Business, Several Times * African Odyssey * Budgets, Boards And Two Good-Byes * An Anger In The Air * Climbing * Family Matters * The Board Arrives * Daddy Wore Khaki Pants * Ellingtonia * None But My Calling * Breakdown * A Formal Feeling * Kansas CityAnd Beyond * Up And Down, Again * So Easy To Break, And Yet So Strong * Afterword

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Book SynopsisLighten Up about Lightening UpWith sassy advice and funny motivational quotes, this journal will be your trusty companion whether you’re starting a new diet, looking to lose weight, or simply trying to eat healthier. Whatever your goals, use this handy journal to set a plan of action, track your food and other habits, and hold yourself accountable—all while having fun along the way! So Forking Healthy will help you:   • Record your food and habits. Daily logs give you space to write down what you ate, how you moved your body, and how you engaged in self-care.   • Measure your progress. Use the weekly tracker to gauge weight loss and evaluate what’s worked and what you want to do better moving forward.   • Get motivated and inspired. Tips on how to start eating healthy and how to stick to your plan, as well as quotes from

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Book SynopsisTheorizing the experiences of black and brown bodies in hip hop dance.

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Book SynopsisInclusive Dance is an ethnography of disability arts, and historiographic overview of the 1980s when many new disability arts groups came to fruition. Touchdown Dance was the research 'ambition' of dancer Steve Paxton and theatre maker and psychotherapist Anne Kilcoyne, involving visually impaired and sighted adults in Contact Improvisation - a dyadic movement form requiring physical contact. Katy Dymoke took over Touchdown Dance in 1994 and refers here to archives, accounts and personal experience to share the learning that has been shared over the years to today. Touch and movement are vital for accessibility and inclusion and modality specific approaches were devised to ensure a democratic process towards the inclusion of visually impaired people in a pro-touch activity. The continuum of movement based methods fills the gaps in polarities of visual and nonvisual and a two-way membrane interlinks all the participants in a body focused learning experience. The mutable membrane becomes a heuristic device for the relational realm, a locus for debate, for change. Touch deprivation, exclusion and inequality are the consequence of an inaccessible visually dominant society. Three point of view chapters - from two visually impaired and one sighted company dancer - further describe the performance work, revealing how lives are changed and why sociocultural inclusion is imperative. Trade ReviewWithin the broad sweep of dance histories, we can overlook the complexity of how truly innovative practices emerge. This is a wonderfully in-depth account of Dymoke’s journey and the network of people (Paxton, Kilcoyne et al.) and events that led to the formation of Touchdown Dance and its concomitant breakthrough in inclusive pedagogy and praxis (which reached far beyond work with blind dancers). In a post pandemic era, it is also a timely reminder of the importance of touch and of the responsibility and role of dancer as researcher to question, explore and extend the boundaries of what we are told is possible. -- Adam BenjaminTable of ContentsList of Figures Abbreviations Preface Acknowledgements Introduction - An ethno-historical overview of the origins of Touchdown Dance: A radical initiative in a radical climate - Part 1. Taking a stand for inclusivity in an exclusive society - Part 2. The body as the locus of liberation - Part 3. Bringing CI and Touchdown Dance to Denmark 1. Returning to the Origins: The Journey Taken by the Founders - Part 1. A chance encounter – Where it all started - The first years of Touchdown Dance 1986–88 – Finding a common way of seeing using CI - Bringing visually impaired and sighted people together through CI - The first encounter – A mini revolution - Part 2. Touchdown Dance (1988–94), Breaking new ground, new discourses, new science, new praxis: Re-inhabiting the body brought into question the perception of the visible and invisible - Part 3. Finding my place 2. Methodology: Undertaking Research That Is Practice-Led - Contact Improvisation – Sowing the seeds of self-determination through touch and movement - CI – A practice-led approach to learning - Part 1. CI – The inter-relationship of pedagogy and practice-led research – The advent of an integrated and inclusive approach - Part 2. The foundational principles in practice - Vignette 1: An integrated exchange and inter-corporeal event – The three reciprocal membranes - Vignette 2: Touch – On the gap between physical and verbal language – The motile membrane between states of consciousness - Part 3. The role of discursive, ethnographic methods 3. Touch Communication: The Reciprocal Membrane of Inclusion - Part 1. Touching the skin is touching the membrane of the inner body - Part 2. In search of a natural attitude towards touch 4. The Pedagogic Process in Practice - Part 1. Introduction - Working with movement – A path towards change - CI – A sphere for cultural motility and mutability - The transitional state – New ways of seeing, moving and being - Part 2. The different modality-specific methods - Modality 1: The lower six inches - Modality 2: Rolling - Modality 3: Back-to-back sitting - Modality 4: Stand on ‘all fours’ – The low ‘bridge’ or ‘table’ - Modality 5: Lifts – Pathways into space and back to the floor 5. Workshops: Our Partnerships and Projects Since 1994 - Children - Youth work - How would you rate your movement skills before and after the workshop? - Adults 6. Performance and Creative Process - Sixth Sense – Second Sight: Practice-based research – In performance - Productions post 1994 - I-radiate – 1999–2000 - SENSE-8 2000–01 - TACT 2002–03 - CLOSER. Created 2005–08 reworked as APPARENTLY NORMAL 2010–12 - Follow the frame - 343 m/s – The speed of sound - 343 m/s Lisbon 7. Final Words - The paradigm shift – Towards the individual and collective – Embracing the membrane of inclusion - The research accomplishments and the return of non-touch - Capturing the experience – The multiple membranes 8. Three Touchdown Dance Artists’ Points of View - Introduction - Holly Thomas – Dancer and facilitator - Sharing practice - Performance work - Robert Anderson – Dancer and facilitator - Jamus Wood – Dancer and facilitator Afterword – Steve Paxton Appendix 1. The Small Dance 329 Appendix 2. The ‘Hatching Chick’ – And the ‘birth’ of the Membrane Concept Timeline Notes Bibliography

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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.

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Book SynopsisWhen Words are Inadequate is a transnational history of modern dance written from and beyond the perspective of China. Author Nan Ma extends the horizon of China studies by rewriting the cultural history of modern China from a bodily movement-based perspective through the lens of dance modernism. The book examines the careers and choreographies of four Chinese modern dance pioneers-Yu Rongling, Wu Xiaobang, Dai Ailian, and Guo Mingda-and their connections to canonical Western counterparts, including Isadora Duncan, Mary Wigman, Rudolf von Laban, and Alwin Nikolais. Tracing these Chinese pioneers'' varied experiences in Paris, Tokyo, Trinidad, London, New York, and China''s metropolises and borderlands, the book shows how their contributions adapted and reimagined the legacies of early Euro-American modern dance.In doing so, When Words are Inadequate reinserts China into the multi-centered, transnational network of artistic exchange that fostered the global rise of modern dance, further complicating the binary conceptions of center and periphery and East and West. By exploring the relationships between performance and representation, choreography and politics, and nation-building and global modernism, it situates modern dance within an intermedial circuit of literary and artistic forms, demonstrating how modern dance provided a kinesthetic alternative and complement to other sibling arts in participating in China''s successive revolutions, reforms, wars, and political movements.Trade ReviewThis superb and long-awaited book authoritatively locates the development of early Chinese modern dance in global dance history. The well-selected case studies focus on four of the most important figures in modern dance in twentieth-century China. Nan Ma's insightful analysis and vivid storytelling brings these individuals and their border-crossing artistic worlds to life and theorizes new models for understanding transnational interaction and circulation in modernist cultures. * Emily Wilcox, author of Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy *This fascinating book rewrites the cultural history of modern dance and modern China. It brings to life the captivating transnational and transcultural careers of Chinese modern dance pioneers and their connections to canonical Western counterparts. Ma writes with grace and ease, and deeply engages with a wide range of interdisciplinary scholarship in refreshingly rigorous, theoretically reflexive ways. A must read for anyone interested in modern dance and modern Chinese culture. * Liang Luo, author of The Avant-Garde and the Popular in Modern China *Nan Ma's When Words are Inadequate offers a groundbreaking view of global dance modernism in the 20th century by focusing on key dance artists and ensembles based in China as nodes and routes of international artistic exchanges between China and the West. Ma's study seeks to re-write two histories, one about the global dissemination of modern dance within Chinese and Asian contexts, and another about the cultural history of modern China as seen through dancing bodies. Offering a transnational, transcultural, and intermedial account of dance modernism, When Words are Inadequate is a pivotal and original contribution to dance studies. * Rebekah J. Kowal, author of Dancing the World Smaller: Staging Globalism in Mid-Century America *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Chinese Case of Modern Dance Chapter 1: Traveling Princess and Dancing Diplomat: Yu Rongling, Corporeal Modernity, and Isadora Duncan Chapter 2: Transmediating Kinesthesia: Wu Xiaobang, Mary Wigman via Tokyo, and Modern Dance in Wartime China Chapter 3: Dancing Reclusion in the Great Leap Forward: Conflicting Utopias and Wu Xiaobang's "Classical New Dance" Chapter 4: Writing Dance: Dai Ailian, Labanotation, and the Multi-Diasporic "Root" of Modern Chinese Ethnic Dance Epilogue: Guo Mingda, Alwin Nikolais, and the (Anti-)American Link Index

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Book SynopsisHollywood''s conversion to sound in the 1920s created an early peak in the film musical following the immense success of The Jazz Singer. The opportunity to synchronize moving pictures with a soundtrack suited the musical in particular, since the heightened experience of song and dance drew attention to the novelty of the technological development. Until the near-collapse of the genre in the 1960s, the film musical enjoyed around thirty years of development, as landmarks such as The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis, Singin'' in the Rain, and Gigi showed the exciting possibilities of putting musicals on the silver screen. The first of three volumes, The Politics of the Musical Theatre Screen Adaptation: An Oxford Handbook traces how the genre of the stage-to-screen musical has evolved, starting with early screen adaptations such as the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie Roberta and working through to Into the Woods (2014). Many chapters examine specific screen adaptations in depth, while others deal with broad issues such as realism or the politics of the adaptation in works such as Li''l Abner and Finian''s Rainbow. Together, the chapters incite lively debates about the process of adapting Broadway for the big screen and provide models for future studies.Volume I: The Politics of the Musical Theatre Screen AdaptationVolume II: Race, Sexuality, and Gender and the Musical Screen AdaptationVolume III: Stars, Studios, and the Musical Theatre Screen AdaptationTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. 'And I'll Sing Once More': A Historical Overview of the Broadway Musical on the Silver Screen 2. Refashioning Roberta: From Novel to Stage to Screen 3. Getting Real: Stage Musical versus Filmic Realism in Film Adaptations from Camelot to Cabaret 4. The Party's Over: On the Town, Bells Are Ringing, and the Problem of Adapting Postwar New York 5. Into the Woods from Stage to Screen 6. Li'l Abner from Comic Strip to Hollywood 7. Fidelity versus Freedom in Milos Forman's Film Version of Hair 8. 'An Elegant Legacy?': The Aborted Cartoon Adaptation of Finian's Rainbow 9. Little Shop of Horrors: Breaking the Rules All the Way to the Big (Enormous, Twelve-inch) Screen 10. The Fascinating Moment of Godspell: Its Cinematic Adaptation in the Shadow of Jesus Christ Superstar and Leonard Bernstein's Mass

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Book SynopsisThis is a comprehensive overview of contemporary European theatre and performance as it enters the third decade of the twenty-first century. It combines critical discussions of key concepts, practitioners, and trends within theatre-making, both in particular countries and across borders, that are shaping European stage practice. With the geography, geopolitics, and cultural politics of Europe more unsettled than at any point in recent memory, this bookâs combination of national and thematic coverage offers a balanced understanding of the continentâs theatre and performance cultures. Employing a range of methodologies and critical approaches across its three parts and ninety-four chapters, this bookâs first part contains a comprehensive listing of European nations, the second part charts responses to thematic complexes that define current European performance, and the third section gathers a series of case studies that explore the contribution of some of Europeâs foremost theatre makers. Rather than rehearsing rote knowledge, this is a collection of carefully curated, interpretive accounts from an international roster of scholars and practitioners. The Routledge Companion to Contemporary European Theatre and Performance gives undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers and practitioners an indispensable reference resource that can be used broadly across curricula.

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Book SynopsisThe untold story of how breaking one of the most widely practiced dance forms in the world today began as a distinctly African American expression in the Bronx, New York, during the 1970s. Breaking is the first and most widely practiced hip-hop dance in the world, with around one million participants in this dynamic, multifaceted artform and, as of 2024, Olympic sport. Yet, despite its global reach and nearly 50-year history, stories of breaking's origins have largely neglected the African Americans who founded it. Dancer and scholar Serouj Midus Aprahamian offers, for the first time, a detailed look into the African American beginnings of breaking in the Bronx, New York. The Birth of Breaking challenges numerous myths and misconceptions that have permeated studies of hip-hop's evolution, considering the influence breaking has had on hip-hop culture. Including previously unseen archival material, interviews, and detailed depictions of the dance at its outset, this boTrade ReviewThe Birth of Breaking is the most complete and in-depth study of the origins of hip-hop to date. Midus's research is unmatched and he sets the bar high for all future scholarship. Praise True. * Pete Nice, Co-Curator, Universal Hip Hop Museum *The Birth of Breaking offers an insightful and vitally important account of hip-hop history, presenting it in a way that properly acknowledges the crucial contributions of African-Americans and their cultural traditions, highlights the central role of women, and underlines the importance of breaking in hip-hop's development. This book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in or involved in hip-hop culture. * Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, 2020 and 2021 Top Ranked b-girl by the Australian Breaking Association, and Lecturer in Media and Creative Industries, Macquarie University, Australia *A tour de force study of the African American wellsprings of breaking, written with academic rigor and empathetic care. With outstanding complexity, Serouj Midus Aprahamian explains how race and class have shaped hip-hop dance histories. Exploring unpublished archives and conducting new interviews with hip-hop legends from the 1970s, The Birth of Breaking demonstrates how dance has been central to understanding hip-hop’s powerful global influence. * Thomas F, DeFrantz, Professor of Performance Studies, Northwestern University, USA *As a b-boy and scholar, Dr. Aprahamian could not be better positioned to author this groundbreaking historical study that sets the record straight on the genesis of breaking culture. A combination of archival research, practitioner interviews, and embodied knowledge, The Birth of Breaking details how innovations in this Black vernacular dance influenced the advent of hip-hop music, dispels myths that link the dance to Black criminality, and recognizes the contribution of women to this vibrant dance culture. * Sherril Dodds, Professor of Dance, Temple University, USA *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1. Detecting Breaking’s Beginnings 2. Going Off in the Bronx 3. Keeping the Movement Moving 4. Make Way for the B-Boys 5. Mothers of the Movement 6. Breaking’s Latino Adoption Epilogue: Back to the Beginning Notes Index

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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

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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.

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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.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisIn 1959, the Bolshoi Ballet arrived in New York for its first ever performances in the United States. The tour was part of the Soviet-American cultural exchange, arranged by the governments of the US and USSR as part of their Cold War strategies. This book explores the first tours of the exchange, by the Bolshoi in 1959 and 1962, by American Ballet Theatre in 1960, and by New York City Ballet in 1962. The tours opened up space for genuine appreciation of foreign ballet. American fans lined up overnight to buy tickets to the Bolshoi, and Soviet audiences packed massive theaters to see American companies. Political leaders, including Khrushchev and Kennedy, met with the dancers. The audience reaction, screaming and crying, was overwhelming.But the tours also began a series of deep misunderstandings. American and Soviet audiences did not view ballet in the same way. Each group experienced the other''s ballet through the lens of their own aesthetics. Americans loved Soviet dancers but beliTrade ReviewSupported by an exacting scholarly apparatus, this is a valuable resource for those interested in dance, choreography, and the history of performance and the arts and diplomacy. Bravissima! * M. E. Snodgrass, CHOICE *Supported by an exacting scholarly apparatus, this is a valuable resource for those interested in dance, choreography, and the history of performance and the arts and diplomacy. Bravissima! Summing Up: Essential. * CHOICE *Dr. Searcy's research is invigorating. She guides us with a sure hand through the political thickets to a deeper appreciation of the art. Highly recommended. * Danielle Fosler-Lussier, The Ohio State University *Ballet in the Cold War offers a vibrant portrait of Cold War cultural exchange, brimming with insights into cultural politics, institutions, and the social meanings of music and dance. This engaging and carefully researched study is essential reading for anyone interested in the arts during the Cold War and the effects of culture on global politics. * Kevin Bartig, Michigan State University *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Note on Transliteration and Translation Introduction 1. A Cold War Welcome: The Bolshoi Ballet's 1959 Tour of the United States 2. Bringing an American Report Card to Russia: American Ballet Theatre's 1960 Tour of the Soviet Union 3. A Question of Taste: The Bolshoi Ballet's 1962 Tour of the United States 4. "Ballet is a Flower!": New York City Ballet's 1962 Tour of the Soviet Union Epilogue: Exchange in the Twenty-first Century Note on Abbreviations Endnotes Index

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Book SynopsisThe most familiar format of electronic dance music is the DJ set. Performed live with turntables, headphones, twelve-inch vinyl records, and a mixing board, these performances are largely improvised, evolving in response to the demands of a particular situation through interaction with a dancing audience.Trade ReviewPlaying with Something That Runs is an immaculate piece of popular musicology, with the potential to become one the cornerstone texts in our discipline. Its interdisciplinary approach provides an incredibly compelling insight into the performance and consumption of live EDM, and the companion website offers a great tool in bringing the discussions of recordings and performances to life through carefully curated audio and video examples. * Toby Young, Dancecult.net *These reflections do not fail to pose many difficulties to the musical theory: where does the identity of the work lie? Is there a hierarchy between different "versions" of the same "composition"? Why are some compositions not intended to be listened to publicly but only to provide the raw material of improvisation?...What is the relationship between human and technology? In asking these questions, Mark Butler invites us to go beyond many of the common places of musicology that have been settled since the nineteenth century as the objections between product and process, work and performance, composition and improvisation - and many othersIt shows us that popular electronic music is the current place for an intense widening of the spectrum of possible on the future of musical creation, both in the field of avant-garde and mainstream music. * Emmanuel Parent, L'Université Rennes 2, Volume! *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Remixing One's Self: Ontologies of the Provisional Work ; 2. Performing Performance: Interface, Design, Liveness and Listener Orientation ; 3. Making it Up and Breaking it Down: Improvisation in EDM Performance ; 4. Looking for the Perfect Loop: Musical Technologies of Mediated Improvisation ; Appendix ; Works Cited

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Book SynopsisUngoverning Dance examines recent contemporary dance in continental Europe. Placing this in the context of neoliberalism and austerity, it argues that dancers are developing an ethico-aesthetic approach that uses dance practices as sites of resistance against dominant ideologies. It attests to the persistence of alternative ways of thinking and living.Trade ReviewIt provides an overview of some of the most important contemporary philosophical discourses in relation to dance. Above all, it makes an irresistible and convincing claim for the importance of dance as a critical tool. * Dance Research *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Chapter 1. Contemporary dance and the commons Chapter 2. Transatlantic comparisons Chapter 3. Rethinking virtuosity Chapter 4. Dance and post-fordism Chapter 5. Responsible for laughter Chapter 6. Alone to the world: the solo dancer Chapter 7. Performing friendship Chapter 8. Responsibility without obligation, dancing relationality Chapter 9. History and collective memory in contemporary dance. Chapter 10. Memory, imagination, and the virtual in dance. Chapter 11. Conclusion: keywords Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSalsa Rising provides the first full-length historical account of Latin Music in this city guided by close critical attention to issues of tradition and experimentation, authenticity and dilution, and the often clashing roles of cultural communities and the commercial recording industry in the shaping of musical practices and tastes.Trade ReviewThe book is sure to become an indispensable point of reference in the cultural history of salsa. * Juan Carlos Quintero-Herencia, New West Indian Guide *in this vividly narrated account he [Flores] narrows his focus from a wholesale history of so-called Latin music to a specific cultural moment in a single (albeit uniquely large and diverse) city ... most illuminating. * Brian Morton, Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction. Guaracha to Mambo: Style Shifts of the Earlier Generations (1930-60) Chapter 1. Pachanga Alegre Chapter 2. La PerfectaFit Chapter 3. Boogaloo Soul Chapter 4. Revolt in Típico Chapter 5. Fania's Latin Thing Chapter 6. Salsoul Challenges Coda

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Book SynopsisTelling a riveting true story of the emergence and development of an American icon, this book traces swing dancing from its origins to its status as a modern-day art form.Table of ContentsSeries Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Swing Dance: Born in the USA Chapter 2: Bred in Minstrelsy, Raised in Rhythm Chapter 3: Ragtime, Jazz, and Swing Dance Gets a Name Chapter 4: It Started at the Savoy Chapter 5: Whitey's Lindy Hoppers Chapter 6: Swingin' in Hollywood Chapter 7: A Dance by Any Other Name …(Various Styles of Partnered Swing) Chapter 8: The Decline Chapter 9: The Road to Resurgence Chapter 10:The Second Era of Swing, and Beyond Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA compilation of interviews with Martha Graham's ""family"" of dancers, teachers, choreographers and actors, which also includes biographical material about her life and influence as the creator of classic modern dance. The book features a syllabus of Graham's work.Trade ReviewA much-needed update to Horosko's earlier book on Graham, offering an insightful look into the world of Martha Graham from those who worked very closely with her throughout the years. - Elizabeth Bergmann, dance director, Harvard University

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisA reclamation and interpretation of a once-dismissed aspect of American film historyEarly hip hop film musicals have either been expunged from cinema history or excoriated in brief passages by critics and other writers. Hip Hop on Film reclaims and reexamines productions such as Breakin'' (1984), Beat Street (1984), and Krush Groove (1985) in order to illuminate Hollywood''s fascinating efforts to incorporate this nascent urban culture into conventional narrative forms. Such films presented musical conventions against the backdrop of graffiti-splattered trains and abandoned tenements in urban communities of color, setting the stage for radical social and political transformations. Hip hop musicals are also part of the broader history of teen cinema, and films such as Charlie Ahearn''s Wild Style (1983) are here examined alongside other contemporary youth-oriented productions. As suburban teen films banished parents and children to the margins of narrative action, hip hop musicals, by c

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