Contemporary dance Books

Book SynopsisBefore Mark Morris became the most successful and influential choreographer alive (The New York Times), he was a six year-old in Seattle cramming his feet into Tupperware glasses so that he could practice walking on pointe. Moving to New York at nineteen, he arrived to one of the great booms of dance in America. . Morris was flat broke but found a group of likeminded artists that danced together, travelled together, slept together. This collective, led by Morris's fiercely original vision, became the famed Mark Morris Dance Group.Suddenly, Morris was making a fast ascent. Celebrated by The New Yorker's critic as one of the great young talents, an androgynous beauty in the vein of Michelangelo's David, he and his company had arrived. Collaborations with the likes of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Yo-Yo Ma, Lou Harrison, and Howard Hodgkin followed. And so did controversy: from the circus of his tenure at La Monnaie in Belgium to his work on the biggest flop in Broadw

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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 Synopsis In most forms of dancing, performers carry out their steps with a distance that keeps them from colliding with each other. Dancer Steve Paxton in the 1970s considered this distance a territory for investigation. His study of intentional contact resulted in a public performance in 1972 in a Soho gallery, and the name contact improvisation was coined for the form of unrehearsed dance he introduced. Rather than copyrighting it, Paxton allowed it to evolve and spread. In this book the author draws upon her own experience and research to explain the art of contact improvisation, in which dance partners propel movement by physical contact. They roll, fall, spiral, leap, and slip along the contours and momentum of moving bodies. The text begins with a history, then describes the elements that define this form of dance. Subsequent chapters explore how contact improvisation relates to self and identity; how class, race, gender, culture and physiology influence dance; how dance pr

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Book SynopsisWritten by a dancer who travelled and worked in Cuba from the 1970s to the present, this provides an inside look at daily life in Cuba. From watching the great Alicia Alonso, to describing the economic trials of the 1990s Special Period, the author uses history, humor, personal experience, rich description and extensive interviews to reveal contemporary life and dance in Cuba.

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Book SynopsisAs stage and screen artists explore new means to enhance their craft, a new wave of interest in expressive movement and physical improvisation has developed. And in order to bring authenticity and believability to a character, it has become increasingly vital for actors to be aware of movement and physical acting. Stage and screen artists must now call upon physical presence, movement on stage, non-verbal interactions, and gestures to fully convey themselves. In Bringing the Body to the Stage and Screen, Annette Lust provides stage and screen artists with a program of physical and related expressive exercises that can empower their art with more creativity. In this book, Lust provides a general introduction to movement, including definitions and differences between movement on the stage and screen, how to conduct a class or learn on one's own, and choosing a movement style. Throughout the book and in the appendixes, Lust incorporates learning programs that cover the use of basic physical and expressive exercises for the entire body. In addition, she provides original solo and group pantomimes; improvisational exercises; examples of plays, fiction, poetry, and songs that may be interpreted with movement; a list of training centers in America and Europe; and an extensive bibliography and videography. With 15 interviews and essays by prominent stage and screen actors, mimes, clowns, dancers, and puppeteers who describe the importance of movement in their art and illustrated with dozens of photos of renowned world companies and artists, Bringing the Body to the Stage and Screen will be a valuable resource for theater teachers and students, as well as anyone engaged in the performing arts.Trade ReviewAuthor Annette Lust has created a volume that may come to be considered a bible of physical theater. The book could take its place in any library of the classics of theater instruction. Information is sorted carefully and folded neatly to fit into a compact tome of under 400 pages—and all of it is packed with gems....The author has laid out a valuable course in the physical theater art form. She presents a history of acting styles that are the precursors to the modern methodologies of the theater of the body....Yet Bringing the Body to the Stage and Screen: Expressive Movement for Performers is far from a purely academic or theoretical book of observations about a way of acting. The author provides the opportunity for a total immersion experience of the craft. There are warm-up routines and a wide range of exercises to engage the actors’ bodies and minds....Nothing about Bringing the Body to the Stage and Screen is hasty or superficial. Author Lust offers the essences of the work in every page. She shows herself to be a teacher in the best sense of the word, a scholar who has the ability to turn her research into practical advice, and a writer whose clear, concise descriptions add significantly to the overall value of her book. * New York Journal of Books *A dense, fascinating and useful book on the key element in performance. This new book...is a trove of information and examples—including exercises, improvisation techniques, original pantomimes, nonverbal acting, mime and physical theater methods, as well as chapters and an appendix on teaching movement and creating a movement education program, plus appendices on resources (schools, festivals, publications, DVDs ...)....Bringing the Body to the Stage and Screen constitutes a generous contribution to the teaching, production and appreciation of the performing arts, both in live performance and those captured on tape and film. * Westside Observer (California) *Lust's extensive knowledge of mime, acting, and pantomime--as presented in her much-lauded From the Greek Mimes to Marcel Marceau and Beyond (CH, Dec'00, 38-2085)--serves as solid background for the present title. Here, Lust (emer., Dominican Univ. of California) expands on her thesis that physical movement is the basis for expressing feelings/emotions required in these arts and that varied movement is necessary for artistic expression in all modes of theater performance. She proposes a training program drawn from theater, mime, pantomime, improvisation, and stage and screen stylized movement--offering a treasure trove of exercises for beginning to intermediate students to introduce them to (or expand their repertoire of) movement skills. The goal is to provide experiences that elicit expressive movement to creatively build on in the future. In part 3 Lust offers essays by and interviews with internationally renowned artists from varied theater forms. These discuss how expressive movement is valued and employed in art practices. In his essay, Dan Kamin explains how Charlie Chaplin mesmerized film audiences with his movement technique; others describe the use of movement in puppetry, mime, acting, film, and clown performance. Appendixes give a wealth of resources (training centers, publications, festivals, DVDs). Summing Up: Highly recommended. * CHOICE *

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Book SynopsisDiaspora studies continue to expand in range and scope and remain fertile terrain for investigating multiple techniques of myth creation in dance performance, history as performance, dramatic narrative, and staged rituals in the field. Similarly, research in postcoloniality, gender/sexuality, intercultural, and literary studies, among others, all engage and feature core components of performance and myth in articulating and understanding their fields. This sharing of similar components also demonstrates the interrelatedness of these fields.In Myth Performance in the African Diasporas: Ritual, Theatre, and Dance, the authors contend that performance traditions across artistic disciplines reveal a sharedif sometimes variedjourney among diasporic artists to reconnect with their African ancestors. The volume begins with a historical and aesthetic overview of how dramatists, choreographers, and performance artists have approached the task of interpreting African myth. The individual chapters reveal how specific artists, dramatists, and choreographers have interpreted African myth and what performative approaches and traditions they have used. Focusing on theatre practitioners from the nineteenth century through the present, the authors examine performative traditions from Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Drawing upon research in theatre, dance, and literary texts, Myth Performance in the African Diasporas will be crucial to academics interested in African performance viewed through the prism of myth making and spiritual/ritualistic stagings. Besides those interested in diasporic studies, this book will also be useful to scholars and students of history, drama, theatre, and dance.Trade ReviewAccording to Kuwabong's introduction, myths 'are neither true nor false narratives, but [in this book] new revelations of the inner relationships of African Diaspora people with their non-African environments.' The three authors offer two chapters each on wide-ranging topics: historical dramas designed to counter Western imperialism; the presence of òrisà worship in dance; the reimagining of the female African body through the African American gaze; the codification of 'soul' in African-derived dance culture; trickster figures in Caribbean and Brazilian drama that engage myth performance through drama and dance; and mythic return journeys to the motherland that complicate rather than romanticize the relationship between the motherland and her distant children. Olsen's conclusion offers valuable contextualization of this 'series of journeys by writers and artists who strive to understand and embody mythical and historical figures from their reconstructed memory of the past in present Africa.' The strengths of the volume include its working across artistic disciplines; continual connection of identity, practice, and praxis in the diaspora to the motherland; and solid theorizing. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. * CHOICE *The essays relating to dance . . . offer compelling arguments for connecting specific African, here Yoruba, aesthetics with that of African American patterns. . . .On the whole, this collection is an enlightening and well-edited exploration into twenty-first-century diasporic critical praxis, where performance and myth in older and more contemporary subjects are combined into an effective whole. * Research in African Literatures *

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Book SynopsisWhen World War II was over, a young bomber pilot with an itch for movement and action hung up his cap and learned another way to fly. Onstage with Martha Graham is the story of Stuart Hodes, a versatile and influential dancer who got his start with Martha Graham, an icon of modern dance.Table of Contents Foreword Preface 1. Airborne 2. Moves 3. Dance Lessons 4. The Green Tours 5. TKO'd in Paris and London 6. Drink the Sky 7. With Watchers 8. The Grand Tour 9. Asia 10. A Dancing Fool 11. Post-Martha Syndrome Afterword Acknowledgments Index

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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.

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Book SynopsisTheorising the experiences of black and brown bodies in hip hop dance, it brings together a bold methodology, an interdisciplinary perspective and a rich array of primary sources.

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Book SynopsisThe Hawkins dance technique embodies the philosophy that dance should integrate the body, mind, and soul while always following scientific principles. This system of dance trainingâan approach that continues to influence dancers around the worldâis examined through a variety of illustrations. Photographs of dancers illustrate the technique in action. Drawings demonstrate the relationship between movements of the body and everyday objects, such as the similarities between a spiral action of the spine and a barberâs pole or winding staircase. This vibrant text examines Hawkinsâs originality, philosophical thinking, and teaching methods.

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Book SynopsisThis is the story of three passionate choreographers and their colleagues who created European modern dance in the 20th century despite the storms of war and oppression.

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Book SynopsisTracing embodied transformation in the context of Gaga, the Israeli dance improvisation practice, this book demystifies what Lina Aschenbrenner coins as neo-spiritual aesthetics. This book takes the reader on an analytical journey through a Gaga class, outlining the effective aesthetics of Gaga as an example for the broader field of neo-spiritualities. It distinguishes a threefold effect of Gaga practicefrom a momentary extraordinary experience, to a lasting therapeutic effect, and finally Gaga's worldview potential. It situates the effect in an assemblage of interrelating aesthetics of environment, movement, and bodies. The book shows why seemingly leisure time activities such as Gaga form fruitful research objects to an academic study of religion and opens up research on neo-spiritual practices. In understanding the sensory effect of practice and its cultural and social implications, the book follows an Aesthetics of Religion approach. It departs from the idea that cognition Trade ReviewThis book provides a rigorous analysis of how religion and dance can be studied beyond a symbolic understanding. It is a brilliant example of capturing a new movement within the landscape of the recent search for spirituality by taking embodied action seriously and offering an innovative analytical toolkit—‘neo-spiritual aesthetics.’ This study proves how underestimated the link between religion and movement still is. * Alexandra Grieser, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland *This is a thorough, serious, interesting book on a subject not yet developed in academic literature, relevant to anyone interested in the connection between new spiritualities and body practices. * Marie Mazzella, independent scholar and anthropologist, France *Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables Lists Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Interlude: A Body-Focused Research Method Part I. Gaga class—Aesthetics in Creation 1. Influential Culturescape 2. Ritual Environment Shaping Enactment 3. Body Topography in Discussion 4. The Power of Instructions 5. Transformation in Movement PART II. Gaga Participants—Aesthetics Perceived 6. Narrating Body Knowledge 7. The Wow of Gaga 8. Gaga’s Therapeutic Impact 9. Goes Worldview 10. Concluding Thoughts Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisThe critical biography of a dynamic and under-represented figure who produced and starred in some of the most innovative works of her day.Ida Rubinstein (1883?1960) captivated Paris''s dancers, composers, artists, and audiences from her time in the Ballets Russes in 1909 to her final performances in 1939. Trained in Russia as an actress and a dancer, her life spanned the artistic freedom of the Belle Époque through the ravages of World War I, the Depression, and finally World War II. This critical biography carefully examines aspects of Rubinstein''s life and career that have previously received little attention. These include her early life in Russia, her writing about performance aesthetics, her curated approach to acting and dancing roles, and her encumbered position as a woman and a Jew. Rubinstein used her considerable fortune to produce dozens of plays, lyric creations, and ballets, making her one of the foremost producers of the first half of the twentieth century. Employing the greatest scenic artists, Léon Bakst and Alexander Benois; the distinguished composers Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Honegger, and Claude Debussy; celebrated writers including Paul Valéry and André Gide; and the brilliant choreographer Bronislava Nijinska, Rubinstein transformed twentieth-century theater and dance.

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Book SynopsisThe critical biography of a dynamic and under-represented figure who produced and starred in some of the most innovative works of her day.Ida Rubinstein (1883?1960) captivated Paris''s dancers, composers, artists, and audiences from her time in the Ballets Russes in 1909 to her final performances in 1939. Trained in Russia as an actress and a dancer, her life spanned the artistic freedom of the Belle Époque through the ravages of World War I, the Depression, and finally World War II. This critical biography carefully examines aspects of Rubinstein''s life and career that have previously received little attention. These include her early life in Russia, her writing about performance aesthetics, her curated approach to acting and dancing roles, and her encumbered position as a woman and a Jew. Rubinstein used her considerable fortune to produce dozens of plays, lyric creations, and ballets, making her one of the foremost producers of the first half of the twentieth century. Employing the greatest scenic artists, Léon Bakst and Alexander Benois; the distinguished composers Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Honegger, and Claude Debussy; celebrated writers including Paul Valéry and André Gide; and the brilliant choreographer Bronislava Nijinska, Rubinstein transformed twentieth-century theater and dance.

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Book Synopsis Beginning early in the 1980s, a dance music revolution swept across Europe and Britain, merging rock, new wave, disco and worldbeat sounds. The resulting explosion of high-energy, increasingly electronic dance-pop caused a sensation worldwide. In this book of original interviews, 32 of the era''s most celebrated artists, producers and industry professionals discuss their lives and careers: Thomas Anders (Modern Talking''s You''re My Heart, You''re My Soul), Pete Burns (Dead or Alive''s You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)), Desireless (Voyage Voyage), Phil Harding (PWL Mixmaster), Junior (Mama Used to Say), Leee John (Imagination''s Just an Illusion), Liz Mitchell (Boney M.''s 1988 Megamix), Fab Morvan (Milli Vanilli''s Girl You Know It''s True), Taco (Putting On the Ritz), Jennifer Rush (The Power of Love), Sabrina (Boys), Spagna (Call Me), Amii Stewart (Knock on Wood), Yazz (The Only Way Is Up) and many more. Includes special commentary by Academy Award winner MeTrade Review"You can tell from the fascinating articles that this music is the author's heart. The book is written smoothly and presents nice anecdotes. This will give you more insight into the pop culture of the 80s. Strongly recommended to music lovers who wear that decade in their hearts! I certainly enjoyed it." - Keys and Chords

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Book SynopsisHorizontal together tells the story of 1960s art and queer culture in New York through the overlapping circles of Andy Warhol, underground filmmaker Jack Smith and experimental dance star Fred Herko. Taking a pioneering approach to this intersecting cultural milieu, the book uses a unique methodology that draws on queer theory, dance studies and the analysis of movement, deportment and gesture to look anew at familiar artists and artworks, but also to bring to light queer artistic figures’ key cultural contributions to the 1960s New York art world. Illustrated with rarely published images and written in clear and fluid prose, Horizontal together will appeal to specialists and general readers interested in the study of modern and contemporary art, dance and queer history.Trade Review'Paisid Aramphongphan brings together theories of dance, queer studies, and fine art to lay a glittering tapestry of connection and conversation across the practitioners of the period... Horizontal together is a hopeful work that offers new insight and critique in the service of a more inclusive historical practice.'Fen Kennedy, Dance Research JournalHorizontal Together: Art, Dance, and Queer Embodiment in 1960s New York has been nominated for the 2024 Charles C. Eldredge Prize. -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: a dancerly art history1 The moves that queer bodies make2 The queer horizontal repertoire: Andy Warhol and Jack Smith lie down3 Plastiques: Jack Smith, Ruth St. Denis, and the dance of gestures4 Dancing queers: Andy Warhol, Fred Herko, and the A-Men5 Repetition and queer difference: Fred Herko’s history lessonCodaIndex

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Book SynopsisClement Crisp, the world's best known dance critic, writing for the Financial Times, has seen them all, the stars, the choreographers and every national performing style. From wartime to the present day, through Europe and Asia, from Moscow to New York, the book covers the world of dance in a unique style. Chosen from many thousands written over six decades, these 160 reviews of first night and classic performances cover ballet to contemporary, hip-hop, tango and comic; from perceptive explanations why some productions stand the test of time and, in riotously funny reports which captivated his FT readers over decades, why others so miserably fail. Well, someone had to say it, and Clement Crisp did! With 133 contemporary photographs. Edited by Gerald Dowler.

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Book Synopsis“Meredith Monk is one of the most important composers alive. I remember hearing her Dolmen Music as a teenager. It most definitely provided me with one of my musical DNAs... As a person she is a fierce spirit, optimistic, spiritual, and soulful.” —Björk “If Monk is seeking a place in the classical firmament, classical music has much to learn from her. She conveys a fundamental humanity and humility that is rare in new-music circles.” —Alex Ross, The New Yorker “Meredith Monk has given new voice to the spirit, knit the word together with her universal vision to music, and balanced movement and stillness in ways that illuminate and transform us all. Eternity will never be the same.” —Pico Iyer This expanded edition of Conversations with Meredith Monk offers a fascinating portrait of the internationally renowned composer, performer, director, and filmmaker, from her early years to the present. It has now been updated to include discussion of her latest music-theatre work, Cellular Songs, and a work-in-progress, Indra’s Net, in addition to the recent revival of her opera Atlas at the Los Angeles Philharmonic—a work that the New York Times critic called “her masterpiece and one of the defining operatic experiments of the 20th century”—and the showing of the remastered film of Monk’s great work Quarry. The five long conversations that comprise the volume part of PAJ’s “Performance Ideas” series, generate invaluable insights into artistic process, the human voice, interrelationships of time, space, and music, and the complexity of artistic legacies. What is a “contemporary” work? How does an artwork retain its integrity of form over time? In these deeply engaging conversations, Monk speaks in great detail on her creation of music-theatre works, operas, and films, reflecting on the large-cast theatrical works and the more recent poetically distilled, abstract pieces. In her preface to the new edition, “Performance as a Life Science,” Bonnie Marranca writes: “Now, against the background of life in extremis, it is evident that Monk had already acknowledged both the always unknown future and the resilience of human beings. For decades her body of work has been rooting itself in the recurrent themes of spiritual quest (Songs of Ascension), healing (The Politics of Quiet), compassion (mercy), plague (Book of Days), fragility of life (impermanence), cultural identity (Ellis Island), historical trauma (Quarry), ecology (On Behalf of Nature), and community (Cellular Songs).” The volume also includes an eight-page color insert.Trade Review"Meredith Monk is one of the most important composers alive. I remember hearing her Dolmen Music as a teenager. It most definitely provided me with one of my musical DNAs … As a person she is a fierce spirit, optimistic, spiritual, and soulful." -- Björk"If Monk is seeking a place in the classical firmament, classical music has much to learn from her. She conveys a fundamental humanity and humility that is rare in new-music circles." -- Alex Ross * New Yorker *"Meredith Monk is one of American Music’s greatest treasures and most original voices. I cherish her brave, singular creative journey." -- Rick Moody"Meredith Monk has given new voice to the spirit, knit the word together with her universal vision to music, and balanced movement and stillness in ways that illuminate and transform us all. Eternity will never be the same." -- Pico Iyer

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Book Synopsis The Nazis burned books and banned much modern art. However, few people know the fascinating story of German modern dance, which was the great exception. Modern expressive dance found favor with the regime and especially with the infamous Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda. How modern artists collaborated with Nazism reveals an important aspect of modernism, uncovers the bizarre bureaucracy which controlled culture and tells the histories of great figures who became enthusiastic Nazis and lied about it later. The book offers three perspectives: the dancer Lilian Karina writes her very vivid personal story of dancing in interwar Germany; the dance historian Marion Kant gives a systematic account of the interaction of modern dance and the totalitarian state, and a documentary appendix provides a glimpse into the twisted reality created by Nazi racism, pedantic bureaucrats and artistic ambition.Trade Review “This book points the way for the next steps of further research … [It] will be a seminal work in facilitating the analysis of understanding the roles of dance and body under fascism.” • H-Net Reviews “…a bristling book … Rarely have we been invited to read polemical history charged with both emotional intensity and – thankfully – voluminous documentation … Reading along with rapt attention, I can’t decide which is more surprising: the blistering clarity and conviction of Kant’s claims and their documantation, or the fuzzy preoccupation with self that Hitler’s dancers seemed to embody during this period.” • Dance Critics Association Newsletter “This is a welcome publication … [It] provides a valuable insight into the period for English-speaking readers … The authors provide much new information and pose some serious questions … essential read.” • Dance Theatre Journal Praise for the German edition: “This book will change a lot in dance history. And it will indeed be a painful awakening for the idol worshippers who forgive artists all sins and place them above all moral responsibility.” • Judisk Kroenika “This books is indispensable because of its many important documents.” • Ballettanz “Highly recommended … The most important publication on dance in the Third Reich.” • Tanzwissenschaft “An important contribution to the discussion [on Nazism and dance] - obligatory reading on the history of dance - that makes parts of this book as gripping as a thriller.” • Der Tanz der DingeTable of Contents Translator's Foreword Jonathan Steinberg Preface Marion Kant PART I RECOLLECTIONS Lilian Karina Introduction How this work came about Have artists an interest in political and social circumstances? The Faces of my Past Chapter 1. A Historical Overview of the Labanist Period Pre Labanism: The Rise of the Culture of the Body (1900-1920) The Era of Labanism at its Peak: the Development of "New Dance," Modern and Stage Dance (1920s-1937) Opposition to Labanism – Realistic Dance Theater Chapter 2. Art and Culture under National Socialism The New Legislation The Doctrines of Race and Inheritance The Invention of the Jewish Race: from Wagner to Rosenberg Chapter 3. Sectarianism and Dance The Historical Path of Racial Hygiene Sects, Cults and Secret Societies The New Magicians of Dance: Steiner, Klamt, Duncan, Laban The Search for a Dance "True to Type" ["arteigen"] Chapter 4. The Fates of Emigrants Evgenia Eduardova and Josef Lewitan Victor Gsovsky Kurt Jooss Sascha Leontieff Aurél von Milloss Lia Schubert Chapter 5. The Situation in Scandinavia The Association of Swedish Dance Pedagogues Gertrude Engelhardt Elsa Lindenberg Edgar Frank Lilian Karina Chapter 6. Laban's Downfall and Post-Labansim Post-Labanism PART II: "DANCE IS A RACE QUESTION." THE DANCE POLITICS OF THE REICH MINISTRY OF POPULAR ENLIGHTENMENT AND PROPAGANDA Marion Kant Introduction The State of Dance Research Dance in Germany in 1930 Chapter 7. The Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda The Foundation of the Reich Chamber of Culture Rivalries about Culture and Art The Propaganda Ministry and the Reich Theater Chamber Chapter 8. The Nazi Redirection of Dance The Plan for a Nazi Dance Policy Chapter 9. Ministerial Dance Politicos – Rudolf von Laban and Otto von Keudell The Dance Festivals of 1934 and 1935 Chapter 10. The German Dance Theater and The German Master Workshops Regulations for the Conduct of the Dance Examinations The Olympic Games The Temporary Finale Chapter 11. The Next Stage The Laban Case The Wigman Case Chapter 12. After Laban's Fall From German Dance to German Ballet A Ban on Dance Total Dance Post Script PART III: THE NAZI ATTEMPT TO SUPPRESS JAZZ AND SWING: A CASE STUDY Marion Kant PART IV: DANCE UNDER THE NAZIS: DOCUMENTARY APPENDIX Selected and Edited by Marion Kant Appendix: The Administrative Structure of the Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda and the Reich Culture Chambers Chronology References Abbreviations and Glossary Sources Archives and Collections Bibliography Index Name entries Subject entries

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Book SynopsisLa Guía de campo de iLANDing contiene 75 partituras para la investigación de espacios urbanos que fueron desarrolladas a lo largo de diez años por el Laboratorio Interdisciplinario de Arte, Naturaleza y Danza. En estos laboratorios, artistas y científicos generaban metodologías híbridas para un acercamiento a la ecología urbana fundamentado en la danza y diseñado para cualquiera que desee experimentar la incursión de la naturaleza en la ciudad o descentrar los métodos antropocéntricos habituales de navegar por el mundo. Lleva una introducción de la fundadora de iLAND, Jennifer Monson.

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Book SynopsisChoreographer Jacky Lansley has been practicing and performing for more than four decades. In Choreographies, she offers unique insight into the processes behind independent choreography and paints a vivid portrait of a rigorous practice that combines dance, performance art, visuals and a close attention to space and site. Choreographies is both autobiography and archive – documenting production through rehearsal and performance photographs, illustrations, scores, process notes, reviews, audience feedback and interviews with both dancers and choreographers. Covering the author’s practice from 1975 to 2019, the book delves into an important period of change in contemporary British dance – exploring British New Dance, postmodern dance and experimental dance outside of a canonical US context. A critically engaged reflection that focuses on artistic process over finished product, Choreographies is a much-needed resource in the fields of dance and choreographic art making.Trade Review'Drawing upon decades of experience and enquiry, Jacky Lansley shares her expanded sense of choreography – or rather, choreographies – as spaces that hold the traces of many areas: other art forms, histories both personal and political, training, processes of research and creation. Lansley has written Choreographies as a kind of “open book” - open to other fields, to varying voices, open to reading.' -- Sanjoy Roy, dance writer (The Guardian)'Jacky Lansley’s significant insights into the working processes of choreographic practices and collaboration are an invaluable contribution to dance, drawing on her rich experience over four decades of working with cross art form strategies as a choreographer and writer.' -- Christy Adair, Professor Emerita, York St John University'Lansley has written about her trajectory as an independent artist over four decades and at last there is some much needed information provided by someone who has been immersed in experimental dance within the UK. Since the early 1970s, when she was a founder of the seminal X6 Dance Space, Lansley has maintained a unique thread of activity rising from that period and continuing for the next generations of artists to relate to. I think of her as someone who has been involved in the questions that have helped to shape dance practice in Britain. Politically and artistically her research and performance have understood the strengths and responsibilities of dance as an art form.' -- Siobhan Davies CBE, choreographer and founder of Siobhan Davies Dance'While it is a remarkable and personal account of a lifetime’s commitment to making work, it also provides a valuable insight into the independent dance sector, in particular the movement known as ‘New Dance’. For dance students seeking to research and understand this point of dance history this is particularly valuable, as it provides not only a historical reference but also a practical link to their choreographic studies and the age-old question ‘How do artists make work’? From this point of view it becomes a very valuable resources for students and lecturers alike to share thoughts on the British dance movement and creative practice.' -- Rosie Lehan, IRIE! Dance Theatre'[...] it is not a book to be read and left to brood on a shelf but should be consulted regularly like a chiropractor. Reminding us that there can be no critical engagement with an art form that does not provoke a critical dialogue, Lansley’s voice makes an eloquent case for a written choreography that can be expressed and read as a counterpoint to the readily accessible product of a gradual shift to social conservatism. Choreographies is a timely call to arms that recognises choreography, in the words of critic and dance historian Laurence Louppe, as one of the most important artistic phenomena of our time.' -- Nicholas Minns, Writing About Dance'In her book, Lansley describes and reflects upon successive works in detail and includes dialogues, interviews with and detailed notes on the performers and collaborators who have worked with her. In doing so, she has created a rich, accessible and engaging panorama of a creative process through which she continues to interrogate and expand just what it is that choreography, “the making of art that disappears” has been for her and could become for us all.' -- Lynn MacRitchie, Artist and arts writer'Copious photos, original notes, diagrams and illustrations round out a wide-ranging and meticulously detailed description of a very individual process and oeuvre, one which may be read for insight into any of the various aspects of dance practice, including an engagement with social concerns.' -- Jane Alexandre, Dance Citizen'[A]n invaluable resource for dance and art historians with its documentation of British New Dance and postmodern dance. Artists of all genres will draw inspiration from the author’s unique process as she details how she builds a concept from start to finish and traces her history through the years as a choreographer, filmmaker, and artist.' -- Susan Haines, Journal of Dance Education'What is refreshing is that Lansley encapsulates interdisciplinary and site-specific performance, and a range of collaborative endeavour with artists she has worked with. Equally, she provides us with historical insights through personal stories, interviews with artists, pictures, journal notes, and all the challenges and tensions of being an experimental dance artist.' -- Evelyn Jamieson, New Theatre Quarterly Book ReviewsTable of ContentsChapter 1: Minimal Dance Jacky Lansley Chapter 2: Dance Object Jacky Lansley Chapter 3: Out of Thin Air Jacky Lansley Chapter 4: Holding Space Jacky Lansley Chapter 5: View from the Shore Jacky Lansley Chapter 6: Standing Stones Jacky Lansley Chapter 7: Researching Guests Jacky Lansley Chapter 8: Guest Suites Jacky Lansley Chapter 9: Other Voices Jacky Lansley

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Book SynopsisIn response to a scarcity of writings on the intersections between dance and Christianity, Dancing to Transform examines the religious lives of American Christians who, despite the historically tenuous place of dance within Christianity, are also professional dancers. Emily Wright details how these dancing Christians transform what they perceive as secular professional by transforming concert dance into different kinds of religious practices in order to express individual and communal religious identities. Through a multi-site, qualitative study of four professional dance companies, Wright explores how religious and artistic commitments, everyday lived experience and varied performance contexts influence and shape the approaches of Christian professional dancers to creating, transforming and performing dance. Subsequently, this book provides readers with a greater awareness and appreciation for the complex interactions between American Christianity and dance. This study, in turn, delivers audiences a richer, more nuanced picture of the complex histories of these Christian, dancing communities and offers more fruitful readings of their choreographic productions.Trade Review"Advancing the study of religion and performance." * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction Making Christian Movements: Differentiation and Adaptation in Christianity from the Patristic Era to the Middle Ages American Christianity from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century Dancing as American and/or Christian in the Twentieth Century ‘Let Us Praise His Name with Dancing’: Ballet Magnificat! and the Transformation of Concert into Church Servant Artists: Ad Deum Dance Company and the Transformation of Suffering Befriending the Both/And: Dishman + Co. Choreography and the Transformation of the Choreographic Process Dancing Divine Love: Karin Stevens Dance and the Transformation of the Spiritual Journey Conclusion

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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 SynopsisMartha Graham’s name was internationally recognized as part of the modern dance world, and though trends in choreography continue to change, her influence on dance as an art form endures. In this book, the first extended feminist look at the modern dance pioneer, Victoria Thoms explores the cult of Graham and her dancing through a critical lens that exposes the gendered meaning behind much of her work. Thoms synthesizes a diverse archive of material on Graham from films, photographs, memoir and critique in order to highlight Graham’s unique contribution to the dance world and arts culture in general.Trade Review'This extremely well-documented book is a marvelous resource for those interested in choreographic and feminist thought. Summing Up: Highly recommended.' -- Choice, L. K. Rosenberg

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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 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

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Book SynopsisThis edited collection provides an in-depth and wide-ranging exploration of pragmatist philosopher Richard Shusterman’s distinctive project of “somaesthetics,” devoted not only to better understanding bodily experience but also to greater mastery of somatic perception, performance, and presentation. Against contemporary trends that focus narrowly on conceptual and computational thinking, Shusterman returns philosophy to what is most fundamental—the sentient, expressive, human body with its creations of living beauty. Twelve scholars here provide penetrating critical analyses of Shusterman on ontology, perception, language, literature, culture, politics, aesthetics, cuisine, music, and the visual arts, including films of his work in performance art.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Figures Notes on Contributors Introduction   Jerold J. Abrams part 1 Pragmatism and Somaesthetics 1 Shusterman’s Pragmatist Philosophy   Stefán Snævarr 2 From Pragmatism to Somaesthetics as Philosophy   Alexander Kremer 3 Somaesthetics, Somapower, and the Microphysics of Emancipation   Leszek Koczanowicz 4 Living Beauty, Rethinking Rap Revisiting Shusterman’s Philosophy of Hip Hop   Max Ryynänen 5 Somaesthetics and Pathic Aesthetics   Tonino Griffero 6 Eating as an Aesthetic Activity Somaesthetics and Food Studies   Dorota Koczanowicz part 2 Performative Philosophy and the Man in Gold 7 Somaesthetics, Photography, and the Man in Gold   Jerold J. Abrams 8 An Exquisitely Beautiful Longing A Lacanian Reading of The Adventures of the Man in Gold   Diane Richard-Allerdyce 9 Shusterman as Philosopher and the Man in Gold   Yvonne Bezrucka 10 The Golden Turn in Shusterman’s Somaesthetics The Magical Figure of the Man in Gold   Else Marie Bukdahl 11 On Shusterman’s Somaesthetic Practice The Case of the Man in Gold   Yang Lu 12 Somaesthetics and Cinema The Man in Gold in the Film Walk the Golden Night   Jerold J. Abrams part 3 Shusterman in His Own Words 13 Somaesthetics, Pragmatism, and the Man in Gold Remarks on the Preceding Chapters   Richard Shusterman 14 On the Path of Somaesthetics An Interview with Richard Shusterman   Yanping Gao Index

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Book SynopsisThis edited collection provides an in-depth and wide-ranging exploration of pragmatist philosopher Richard Shusterman’s distinctive project of “somaesthetics,” devoted not only to better understanding bodily experience but also to greater mastery of somatic perception, performance, and presentation. Against contemporary trends that focus narrowly on conceptual and computational thinking, Shusterman returns philosophy to what is most fundamental—the sentient, expressive, human body with its creations of living beauty. Twelve scholars here provide penetrating critical analyses of Shusterman on ontology, perception, language, literature, culture, politics, aesthetics, cuisine, music, and the visual arts, including films of his work in performance art.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Figures Notes on Contributors Introduction   Jerold J. Abrams part 1 Pragmatism and Somaesthetics 1 Shusterman’s Pragmatist Philosophy   Stefán Snævarr 2 From Pragmatism to Somaesthetics as Philosophy   Alexander Kremer 3 Somaesthetics, Somapower, and the Microphysics of Emancipation   Leszek Koczanowicz 4 Living Beauty, Rethinking Rap Revisiting Shusterman’s Philosophy of Hip Hop   Max Ryynänen 5 Somaesthetics and Pathic Aesthetics   Tonino Griffero 6 Eating as an Aesthetic Activity Somaesthetics and Food Studies   Dorota Koczanowicz part 2 Performative Philosophy and the Man in Gold 7 Somaesthetics, Photography, and the Man in Gold   Jerold J. Abrams 8 An Exquisitely Beautiful Longing A Lacanian Reading of The Adventures of the Man in Gold   Diane Richard-Allerdyce 9 Shusterman as Philosopher and the Man in Gold   Yvonne Bezrucka 10 The Golden Turn in Shusterman’s Somaesthetics The Magical Figure of the Man in Gold   Else Marie Bukdahl 11 On Shusterman’s Somaesthetic Practice The Case of the Man in Gold   Yang Lu 12 Somaesthetics and Cinema The Man in Gold in the Film Walk the Golden Night   Jerold J. Abrams part 3 Shusterman in His Own Words 13 Somaesthetics, Pragmatism, and the Man in Gold Remarks on the Preceding Chapters   Richard Shusterman 14 On the Path of Somaesthetics An Interview with Richard Shusterman   Yanping Gao Index

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Book SynopsisSomaesthetics and Sport brings together a diverse set of explorations into the embodied experience of watching and playing sport. Sport can at once be a source of sensual beauty and pleasure, and also of pain and anguish; spectators can both celebrate and glorify athletes, but also expect certain forms of behaviour, and intentionally or otherwise police the movements of their bodies; sport and physical exercise can improve our health and increase the self-awareness of our abilities and limitations, but they also help us to shape our sense of what it means to live a good life. Trade Review“The ten essays collected in Somaesthetics and Sport, edited by Andrew Edgar and published as part of Brill’s book series Studies in Somaesthetics, show us the many ways the interdisciplinary project of somaesthetics can inspire and reinvigorate the aesthetics of sport... Somaesthetics and Sport is a multifaceted collection of essays: Shusterman’s theoretical framework is robust enough to lend unity to the volume, but it mostly functions as a springboard for the individual papers, never suffocating their theoretical explorations or making the book repetitive or a boring read. The ten essays also communicate with one another through certain recurring notions” - Botond Csuka, in: Journal of the Philosophy of Sport (29 January 2023)Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors Introduction   Andrew Edgar 1 A Dove in Flight Metaphysical Shackles, Transformative Soaring, and Sportive Somaesthetics   Jesús Ilundáin-Agurruza 2 Somaesthetics and Sport?   Graham McFee 3 Sport and the Body An Aesthetic Inquiry   William J. Morgan 4 Changing Perceptions of Beautiful Bodies The Athletic Agency Model   Peg Brand Weiser 5 The Sachin Mandala Somaesthetic Construction of a Cricket Legend   Vinod Balakrishnan 6 Somaesthetics of the Grunt Policing Femininity in the Soundscapes of Women’s Professional Tennis   Anita Stahl 7 Somatic Reflection during Skilled Action   John Toner and Barbara Gail Montero 8 Yoga as World Literature Somaesthetic Ekphrasis and (Mis)Translation   Claire Solomon 9 Difficult Activities – Difficult Experiences   Matti Tainio 10 Sport and Pain   Andrew Edgar Index

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