Contemporary dance Books

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisMeet Bruno Tonioli - Strictly Come Dancing judge, wildcat choreographer and stardust magnet. With his irrepressible personality and Italian exuberance, Bruno has become a TV sensation, settling the fate of Britain''s ballroom hopefuls during the nation''s favourite Saturday night show.Bruno''s journey is mind-blowing. He fled from home at eighteen to join the dance company La Grande Eugene and travelled around Europe; he later coached the actress Goldie Hawn as a dance instructor, and orchestrated lavish productions for TV, film and pop videos, where he worked alongside The Rolling Stones, Freddie Mercury, Duran Duran and Tina Turner.Along the way Bruno has Tangoed with high fashion, performed the Cha Cha Cha with untameable pop vixens Bananarama and danced an emotional Waltz with bereavement and breakdown before settling in the perfect location - a seat on the judging panel of Strictly Come Dancing, where he wowed the nation at home and in Hollywood wi

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis study focuses on dance as an activist practice in and of itself, across geographical locations and over the course of a century, from 1920 to 2020. Through doing so, it considers how dance has been an empowering agent for political action throughout civilisation. Dance and Activism offers a glimpse of different strategies of mobilizing the human body for good and justice for all, and captures the increasing political activism epitomized by bodies moving on the streets in some of the most turbulent political situations. This has, most recently, undoubtedly been partly owing to the rise of the far-right internationally, which has marked an increase in direct action on the streets.Offering a survey of key events across the century, such as the fall of President Zuma in South Africa; pro-reproductive rights action in Poland and Argentina; and the recent women''s marches against Donald Trump''s presidency, you will see how dance has become an urgent field of sTrade ReviewMills artfully weaves together a massive array of case studies, drawing connections across the globe and throughout the century. * Dance International *Mills brings an investigative style and ethnographic approach to dig deep—within contextual layers and personal stories—to discover an interpretation that positions the dialog between the social cultural moment, the dancer, and the dance … A tightly and provocatively argued book that provides a new perspective on dance as activism. * Journal of Dance Education *Dance and Activism: A Century of Radical Dance Across the World, makes an important contribution to ongoing conversations within the field of dance studies about the political nature of dance. The book explores the mobilization of dance as a language and method for activism and radical hope, extending and refining the intimate relationship between dance and politics outlined in Mills’s previous work. * Dance Chronicle *Dance and Activism’s main strength is that it is something of a pioneer ... Dance and Activism is a welcome and necessary addition to the dance history and dance studies canon. Graduate program directors would be wise to point students toward this book not only as a resource, but as a reminder that powerful and transformative dance exists outside the concert stage. * Theatre Topics *A most intriguing, erudite book. * Sydney Arts Guide *Mills’s book provides unique case studies that draw from different forms of dance across the globe. These case studies analyse the actions of the dancers and choreographers, not choreographed works. The majority of books about dance and politics rely on analysis of dance pieces or theorize from generalized notions of dance. Mills also focuses on the actions of the dancers and choreographers whose actions are explicitly political/create direct action in the world. The site of their action is the world at large, not the theatre for a select audience. The majority of books about dance and politics discuss the political effects of events that occur in the closed environment of the theatre or dance studio. * Leah Cox, Dean of the American Dance Festival *Mills shows how dance and dancers from the stage to the streets have responded to forces of alienation and oppression, and how they have moved their bodies—and others—to imagine different worlds. It is a stirring and powerful read, and a prelude to action. * Glory Liu, Harvard University, USA *The past is constantly present as Dana Mills chronicles the extraordinary potential our expressive dancing body/mind. In an age of increasingly sedentary work, her deep analysis of “dance as activism” lays bare a far-reaching radicalism and breadth of diversity in dance forms. Dance and Activism is both timely and necessary. * Blakeley White-McGuire, Dancer, Choreographer, Educator and Activist, USA *In this groundbreaking multi-disciplinary book, Dana Mills leads dance from the wings of political activism to the centre stage of human resistance and the creative struggle for freedom and our most precious, primordial material possession – the bodies in which we live and struggle for self-possession. Mills deftly choreographs a century of global theatre of street protest and popular movements through the individual stories and collective moments and movements that create surprising uprisings and new solidarities. A brilliant political theorist, activist and dancer at the forefront of the pursuit of a new dialectics for our troubled modern age, Mills shares her cogent analysis and innovative thinking in a readable, engaging form that leaps beyond intellectual boundaries and galvanises a new genre of thought in action. Vividly describing how our restless bodies can and will reach out, rise up and protect everything that is human and beautiful in our world, Dana Mills shows, with passion and commitment, why people will never stop dancing in search of freedom. * Rachel Holmes is critically acclaimed author of, most recently, Eleanor Marx: a Life and Sylvia Pankhurst: Natural Born Rebel *This book is essential for anyone who wants dance to be part of their revolution. * New Books Network *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments If we can't dance, we don't want to be part of your revolution Alienation solidarity Method Prelude to action Martha Graham: Embodied Chronicle 2. ‘Go ahead and be a bastard’ Anna Sokolow Through dance I have experienced the wordless joy of freedom: Pearl Primus Dance as intervention, dance as action Ballet beyond borders ‘No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin’ ‘Going around the house like a butterfly’ Ballet, home, Syria The canon must be fired! Ballet and the long arc of history There is only now: radical ballet going forward Erbil/ New York City: Break/ Dance The body in battle Those who leave and those who stay Not just for you, but for the rest of the earth Ballade of belonging At the still point of the turning world Break/ dance: echoing further: Erbil Steps in the street: Revolution DJ Dance on the march The People (dancing) united can never be defeated Dancing onwards! Dance as a home Transitions Home, exile, words, movement Arriving Storytelling Unraveling Homelessness- Devastation- Exile Spectre, haunting Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

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.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisAnne Teresa De Keersmaeker (b. 1960) founded her dance company, Rosas, in 1983. Her work is grounded on a rigorous exploration of the relationship between dance and music, and over the years she has engaged the musical structures and scores of different periods and genres, from early music to contemporary expressions of classical and popular music. Her choreographic practice draws from geometric principles, nature, and social structures to offer unique perspectives on the articulation of the body in space and time. The minimalism of De Keersmaeker's earliest pieces gave way over the years to ingenious constructions for large ensembles. Then in 2007, the choreography underwent a fundamental change with the emergence of a new kind of minimalism, a paring down to essential principles of sparseness; the spatial constraints of geometric patterns; an unwavering commitment to elementary gestures, notably walking, breathing, and speaking; and a close adherence to a score, musical or otherwise, for the choreographic writing. Photographers Anne Van Aerschot and Herman Sorgeloos were privileged witnesses to this process, and their images, gathered here for the first time, offer an exceptionally acute look at Rosas's work over the last decade. Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Read more less

Book SynopsisAnna Halprin pioneered what became known as 'postmodern dance', creating work that was key to unlocking the door to experimentation in theater, music, Happenings, and performance art. This biography examines Halprin's life in the context of American culture - in particular popular culture and the West Coast as a center of artistic experimentation.Table of ContentsForeword by Richard Schechner Introduction 1. Why She Danced (1920--1938) 2. The Secret Garden of American Dance (1938--1942) 3. The Bauhaus and the Settlement House (1941--1945) 4. Western Spaces (1945--1955) 5. Instantaneous Experience and Beat Culture (1955--1960) 6. Urban Rituals (1961--1966) 7. Spectatorship and Embodiment (1967--1968) 8. Ceremony of Memory (1968--1971) 9. Illness as Performance (1972--1990) 10. Flesh Made Metaphor: Dances of Aging (1991--2005) Chronology of Works, Videos, and Films by Anna Halprin Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisDancing Into Darkness is Sondra Horton Fraleigh's chronological diary of her deepening understanding of and appreciation for the art form of butoh.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA new exploration of how digital media assert the relevance of dance in a wired world How has the Internet changed dance? Dance performances can now be seen anywhere, can be looped endlessly at user whim, and can integrate crowds in unprecedented ways. Dance practices are evolving to explore these new possibilities. In Perpetual Motion, Harmony Bench argues that dance is a vital part of civil society and a means for building participation and community. She looks at how, after 9/11, it became a crucial way of recuperating the common character of public spaces. She explores how crowdsourcing dance contributes to the project of performing a common world, as well as the social relationships forged when we look at dance as a gift in the era of globalization. Throughout, she asks how dance brings people together in digital spaces and what dance’s digital travels might mean for how we experience and express community. From original research on dance today to political economies of digital media to the philosophy of dance, Perpetual Motion provides an ambitious, invigorating look at a commonly shared practice.Trade Review"In Perpetual Motion, Harmony Bench achieves a stunning tour de force rendering of dance created for internet distribution. Reading the digitized bodies-in-motion as the basis for a twenty-first century common, she constructs essential theoretical models for considering asymmetrical access to dance, travel, the technologies of digital production, and modes of global distribution. A crucial offering for dance studies."—Thomas F. DeFrantz, former president, Society of Dance History Scholars"How does dance move through digital cultures and how do digital cultures move through dance? Perpetual Motion explores acts of transfer among and across on-screen and off-screen bodies that manifest as dance. A highly skilled dance scholar and a precise and accessible writer, Harmony Bench reads embodied, screenal entanglements as a matter of performative commoning and offers both historical perspective and immediate experience of mediatic, danced, choreographic, and spectatorial encounters."—Rebecca Schneider, Brown University"With an unmatched skill at plain-language engagement with dense philosophical problems, Bench lays out a wide-ranging case for the radical possibilities inherent in the online dissemination of even the corniest dances, while avoiding neoliberal language of democratization and universality."—Performance Research "This book is a rewarding way to further study dance in the digital age, with deep considerations of access and distribution, and explorations of what technology means for audience engagement, collaboration and more."—Dance TeacherTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Dance as Common1. Interactivity and Agency: Making-Common and the Limits of Difference2. Dance in Public: Of Common Spaces3. A World from a Crowd: Composing the Common 4. Screen Sharing: Dance as Gift of the CommonNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisA new exploration of how digital media assert the relevance of dance in a wired world How has the Internet changed dance? Dance performances can now be seen anywhere, can be looped endlessly at user whim, and can integrate crowds in unprecedented ways. Dance practices are evolving to explore these new possibilities. In Perpetual Motion, Harmony Bench argues that dance is a vital part of civil society and a means for building participation and community. She looks at how, after 9/11, it became a crucial way of recuperating the common character of public spaces. She explores how crowdsourcing dance contributes to the project of performing a common world, as well as the social relationships forged when we look at dance as a gift in the era of globalization. Throughout, she asks how dance brings people together in digital spaces and what dance’s digital travels might mean for how we experience and express community. From original research on dance today to political economies of digital media to the philosophy of dance, Perpetual Motion provides an ambitious, invigorating look at a commonly shared practice.Trade Review"In Perpetual Motion, Harmony Bench achieves a stunning tour de force rendering of dance created for internet distribution. Reading the digitized bodies-in-motion as the basis for a twenty-first century common, she constructs essential theoretical models for considering asymmetrical access to dance, travel, the technologies of digital production, and modes of global distribution. A crucial offering for dance studies."—Thomas F. DeFrantz, former president, Society of Dance History Scholars"How does dance move through digital cultures and how do digital cultures move through dance? Perpetual Motion explores acts of transfer among and across on-screen and off-screen bodies that manifest as dance. A highly skilled dance scholar and a precise and accessible writer, Harmony Bench reads embodied, screenal entanglements as a matter of performative commoning and offers both historical perspective and immediate experience of mediatic, danced, choreographic, and spectatorial encounters."—Rebecca Schneider, Brown University"With an unmatched skill at plain-language engagement with dense philosophical problems, Bench lays out a wide-ranging case for the radical possibilities inherent in the online dissemination of even the corniest dances, while avoiding neoliberal language of democratization and universality."—Performance Research "This book is a rewarding way to further study dance in the digital age, with deep considerations of access and distribution, and explorations of what technology means for audience engagement, collaboration and more."—Dance TeacherTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Dance as Common1. Interactivity and Agency: Making-Common and the Limits of Difference2. Dance in Public: Of Common Spaces3. A World from a Crowd: Composing the Common 4. Screen Sharing: Dance as Gift of the CommonNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe vital role of dance in enacting the embodied experiences of Indigenous peoples In Dancing Indigenous Worlds, Jacqueline Shea Murphy brings contemporary Indigenous dance makers into the spotlight, putting critical dance studies and Indigenous studies in conversation with one another in fresh and exciting new ways. Exploring Indigenous dance from North America and Aotearoa (New Zealand), she shows how dance artists communicate Indigenous ways of being, as well as generate a political force, engaging Indigenous understandings and histories.Following specific dance works over time, Shea Murphy interweaves analysis, personal narrative, and written contributions from multiple dance artists, demonstrating dance’s crucial work in asserting and enacting Indigenous worldviews and the embodied experiences of Indigenous peoples. As Shea Murphy asserts, these dance-making practices can not only disrupt the structures that European colonization feeds upon and strives to maintain, but they can also recalibrate contemporary dance. Based on more than twenty years of relationship building and research, Shea Murphy’s work contributes to growing, and largely underreported, discourses on decolonizing dance studies, and the geopolitical, gendered, racial, and relational meanings that dance theorizes and negotiates. She also includes discussions about the ethics of writing about Indigenous knowledge and peoples as a non-Indigenous scholar, and models approaches for doing so within structures of ongoing reciprocal, respectful, responsible action.Trade Review "This remarkable text effectively establishes Indigenous dance studies as a vibrant time-based field of inquiry. Crafting theoretical models in direct relationship to repeated practices of witnessing and experiencing, Jacqueline Shea Murphy models a rich future for scholarship as a shared encounter among stakeholders to performance. Urgent, important, and written to endure as a document of continued creativity, Dancing Indigenous Worlds confirms the intellectual possibilities of translating gesture to text and of moving with care."—Thomas F. DeFrantz, Northwestern University "In Dancing Indigenous Worlds, Jacqueline Shea Murphy performs a deeply ethical, deliberate ‘witnessing’ of Indigenous dance making. In these stories of how to create radical relationality between bodies, land, history, food—and milk as more than food—the reader should be aware they are being readied; a space has been prepared, the invocations have been made, contemporary movements connected to dance genealogies, past brutalities cast in the surrounding shadows, the spotlight is on bright, and you must step into this world that has been danced for you. There is room for all, and everything, as Shea Murphy reminds us, begins with respect."—Michelle Erai, author of Girl of New Zealand: Colonial Optics in Aotearoa "The widely varied contexts within Dancing Indigenous Worlds demonstrates the vibrancy of current respectful, relational, Indigenous choreographies."—CHOICE Table of Contents Contents Preface Introduction Choreographing Relationality Modern Dance and Modernity/Coloniality Recalibrations of Relational Exchange Intersections of Dance and Indigenous Studies 1. Choreographies of Relational Reciprocity Hosts and Visitors, Aotearoa, 2009 Manaakitanga in Motion: Choreographies of Possibility With Jack Gray Hashtag Mitimiti: Where You At? With Andrew Kendall, Diane Kendall, Tia Reihana-Morunga, Deborah Cocker, and Toni Temehana Pasion 2. Choreographies of Perspectival Relationality Dance Workshop, Riverside, California, 2006 With Rulan Tangen Expansive Relationality/Of Bodies of Elements Identities and Accountabilities, 2019 With Rulan Tangen Interlude/Pause/Provocation Refuge Rock: Otonabee River, Ontario, 2010 With Tanya Lukin Linklater 3. Choreographies of Relational Abun-dance Precarity Abundance and Abun-dance Emily Johnson/Catalyst 4. Choreographies of Relational Refusings Yirramboi, Melbourne, Australia, 2017 Facing Refusal Teachings in Listening Indigenous Dance Works/Indigenous Dance Making/Indigenous Writing With Rosy Simas, Mishuana Goeman, Tanya Lukin Linklater, and Daystar/Rosalie Jones Conclusion: Closing and Opening Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe vital role of dance in enacting the embodied experiences of Indigenous peoples In Dancing Indigenous Worlds, Jacqueline Shea Murphy brings contemporary Indigenous dance makers into the spotlight, putting critical dance studies and Indigenous studies in conversation with one another in fresh and exciting new ways. Exploring Indigenous dance from North America and Aotearoa (New Zealand), she shows how dance artists communicate Indigenous ways of being, as well as generate a political force, engaging Indigenous understandings and histories.Following specific dance works over time, Shea Murphy interweaves analysis, personal narrative, and written contributions from multiple dance artists, demonstrating dance’s crucial work in asserting and enacting Indigenous worldviews and the embodied experiences of Indigenous peoples. As Shea Murphy asserts, these dance-making practices can not only disrupt the structures that European colonization feeds upon and strives to maintain, but they can also recalibrate contemporary dance. Based on more than twenty years of relationship building and research, Shea Murphy’s work contributes to growing, and largely underreported, discourses on decolonizing dance studies, and the geopolitical, gendered, racial, and relational meanings that dance theorizes and negotiates. She also includes discussions about the ethics of writing about Indigenous knowledge and peoples as a non-Indigenous scholar, and models approaches for doing so within structures of ongoing reciprocal, respectful, responsible action.Trade Review "This remarkable text effectively establishes Indigenous dance studies as a vibrant time-based field of inquiry. Crafting theoretical models in direct relationship to repeated practices of witnessing and experiencing, Jacqueline Shea Murphy models a rich future for scholarship as a shared encounter among stakeholders to performance. Urgent, important, and written to endure as a document of continued creativity, Dancing Indigenous Worlds confirms the intellectual possibilities of translating gesture to text and of moving with care."—Thomas F. DeFrantz, Northwestern University "In Dancing Indigenous Worlds, Jacqueline Shea Murphy performs a deeply ethical, deliberate ‘witnessing’ of Indigenous dance making. In these stories of how to create radical relationality between bodies, land, history, food—and milk as more than food—the reader should be aware they are being readied; a space has been prepared, the invocations have been made, contemporary movements connected to dance genealogies, past brutalities cast in the surrounding shadows, the spotlight is on bright, and you must step into this world that has been danced for you. There is room for all, and everything, as Shea Murphy reminds us, begins with respect."—Michelle Erai, author of Girl of New Zealand: Colonial Optics in Aotearoa "The widely varied contexts within Dancing Indigenous Worlds demonstrates the vibrancy of current respectful, relational, Indigenous choreographies."—CHOICE Table of Contents Contents Preface Introduction Choreographing Relationality Modern Dance and Modernity/Coloniality Recalibrations of Relational Exchange Intersections of Dance and Indigenous Studies 1. Choreographies of Relational Reciprocity Hosts and Visitors, Aotearoa, 2009 Manaakitanga in Motion: Choreographies of Possibility With Jack Gray Hashtag Mitimiti: Where You At? With Andrew Kendall, Diane Kendall, Tia Reihana-Morunga, Deborah Cocker, and Toni Temehana Pasion 2. Choreographies of Perspectival Relationality Dance Workshop, Riverside, California, 2006 With Rulan Tangen Expansive Relationality/Of Bodies of Elements Identities and Accountabilities, 2019 With Rulan Tangen Interlude/Pause/Provocation Refuge Rock: Otonabee River, Ontario, 2010 With Tanya Lukin Linklater 3. Choreographies of Relational Abun-dance Precarity Abundance and Abun-dance Emily Johnson/Catalyst 4. Choreographies of Relational Refusings Yirramboi, Melbourne, Australia, 2017 Facing Refusal Teachings in Listening Indigenous Dance Works/Indigenous Dance Making/Indigenous Writing With Rosy Simas, Mishuana Goeman, Tanya Lukin Linklater, and Daystar/Rosalie Jones Conclusion: Closing and Opening Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisEarly 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 contrast, presented inclusive and unconventional filial groupings that included all members of the neighborhood. These alternative social configurations directly referenced specific urban social problems, which affected the stability of inner city families following diminished governmental assistance in communities of color during the 1980s.Breakdancing, a central element of hip hop musicals, is also reconsidered. It gained widespread acclaim at the same time that these films entered the theaters, but the nation's newly discovered dance form was embattled--caught between a multitude of institutional entities such as the ballet academy, advertising culture, and dance publications that vied to control its meaning, particularly in relation to delineations of gender. As street-trained breakers were enticed to join the world of professional ballet, this newly forged relationship was recast by dance promoters as a way to invigorate and ""remasculinize"" European dance, while young women simultaneously critiqued conventional masculinities through an appropriation of breakdance. These multiple and volatile histories influenced the first wave of hip hop films, and even structured the sleeper hit Flashdance (1983). This forgotten, ignored, and maligned cinema is not only an important aspect of hip hop history, but is also central to the histories of teen film, the postclassical musical, and even institutional dance. Kimberley Monteyne places these films within the wider context of their cultural antecedents and reconsiders the genre's influence.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA major biography—the first in three decades—of one of the most important artistic forces of the twentieth century, the legendary American dancer and choreographer who upended dance, propelling the art form into the modern age, and whose profound and pioneering influence is still being felt today.Brings together all the elements of Graham’s colorful life...with wit, verve, critical discernment, and a powerful lyricism.”—Mary Dearborn, acclaimed author of Ernest HemingwayTime magazine called her “the Dancer of the Century.” Her technique, used by dance companies throughout the world, became the first long-lasting alternative to the idiom of classical ballet. Her pioneering movements—powerful, dynamic, jagged, edgy, forthright—combined with her distinctive system of training, were the epitome of American modernism, performance as art. Her work continued to astonish and inspire

Read more less

Book SynopsisVernon and Irene Castle popularized ragtime dancing in the years just before World War I and made dancing a respectable pastime in America. The Castles were depicted in the Fred Astaire--Ginger Rogers movie The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), but the film omitted most of the interesting and controversial aspects of their lives.

Read more less

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

Read more less