Dance Books
Short Books Ltd The Dance Cure: The surprising secret to being
Book Synopsis"Peter has brilliantly put into words what I have felt my whole dancing life: that the power of dance can liberate and change all our lives." Darcey BussellHumans are born to dance. And in today's sedentary world, we would all benefit from doing more of it. Science shows that just ten minutes of dancing provides a thorough work out for the body and brain, raising the heartbeat to cause a release of feel-good endorphins, connecting us to our emotions and reducing our stress levels. Dancing quite simply makes us feel more alive.Dr Peter Lovatt, a former professional dancer turned dance psychologist, has spent the past two decades studying why we dance and what it does for us, and is on a personal mission to make dancing as natural an activity in our daily lives as walking or drinking coffee.Filled with fascinating case studies from his research as well as great stories from dance history, The Dance Cure will inspire even those who think they "can't dance" to turn the music on, get up on the floor and dance themselves happy.
£11.69
Oxford University Press Communicative Musicality Exploring the basis of
Book Synopsis''Communicative Musicality'' explores the intrinsic musical nature of human interaction. The theory of communicative musicality was developed from groundbreaking studies showing how in mother/infant communication there exist noticeable patterns of timing, pulse, voice timbre, and gesture. Without intending to, the exchange between a mother and her infant follow many of the rules of musical performance, including rhythm and timing. This is the first book to be devoted to this topic. In a collection of cutting-edge chapters, encompassing brain science, human evolution, psychology, acoustics and music performance, it focuses on the rhythm and sympathy of musical expression in human communication from infancy. It demonstrates how speaking and moving in rhythmic musical ways is the essential foundation for all forms of communication, even the most refined and technically elaborated, just as it is for parenting, good teaching, creative work in the arts, and therapy to help handicapped or emoTrade Review... useful for educators in communications, especially oncology, ... the book should be available to all oncology and palliative care units and at the medical faculties. * Norwegian Medical Association *Trevarthen and Malloch have compiled a fascinating volume of some 600 pages with 35 fellow contributors. The topics encompass human evolution, neuroscience, psychology, musical theory, childhood learning and psychotherapy. * THE TRANSACTIONAL ANALYST *Table of ContentsPART 1 - THE ORIGINS AND PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF MUSICALITY; PART 2 - MUSICALITY IN INFANCY; PART 3 - MUSICALITY AND HEALING; PART 4 - MUSICALITY OF LEARNING IN CHILDHOOD; PART 5 - MUSICALITY IN PERFORMANCE
£60.30
Human Kinetics Publishers More Dance Improvisations
Book SynopsisMore Dance Improvisations builds on the success of its predecessor, Dance Improvisations, and offers 78 brand-new activities that have been tested and refined by author Justine Reeve, a veteran dance instructor and choreographer. This text offers a wealth of creative ideas that instructors can use to help their dancers explore and experience movement. The 78 improvisation tasks and exercises support all portions of a dance class, from improvisation lessons, warm-ups, and games that stimulate creativity to choreographic tasks for creating movement material. These new activities will provide an invaluable source of creative ideas for all dancers, including those who are exploring their own professional practice.More Dance Improvisations offers expert instruction in planning, teaching, and assessing students’ improvisations; a choreographic toolkit and glossary of dance and choreographic terms; step-by-step instruction and teaching tips that will save instructors preparation time; and extensions of each improv to aid further exploration and development of the improvisation skills. Instructors can use the improvs for individual lessons or in developing an entire lesson plan. “The improvisation tasks and exercises will encourage dancers’ imaginative responses to a varied selection of stimuli, whether alone or in groups,” says author Justine Reeve. “These improvisations will give dancers the keys to unlock ideas that they will find useful on their choreographic journey.” After an introductory chapter that covers many important topics on conducting safe and effective practices and workshops and on how to use the book, the text moves into its first set of improvisations: warm-up games. These games develop quick thinking, group thinking, movement communication, and an awareness of the needs and movements of others. The next two chapters explore solo and duo improvisations as well as group creative tasks. Each improvisation task has a brief description, an image, numbered tasks for clarity, a teaching tip, and ideas to take the task further or develop the dance idea as appropriate. Chapter 5 explores how the physical and aural setting can lead to creating interesting and considered dance. Chapter 6 encourages dancers to use movements, phrases, and sequences created in previous tasks to develop and structure the movement material into something new. “These games, tasks, ideas, stimuli, and developments are here to give instructors and students a little push to find creative vision, explore movement, and discover how these ideas can be developed, adapted, and structured,” says Reeve. “Instructors will find new ways to help their dancers create original movements through both individual and group activities, and students will gain inspiration through using these improvisations.”More Dance Improvisations promotes creativity that leads to innovative breakthroughs for students from middle school through college. It is the perfect resource to help dancers enjoy their exploration of movement and dance as they gain greater awareness of the capabilities they possess.Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction and How to Use This Book This chapter explores how to use this book, warming up and safe practice, effective planning, top tips for dance improvisation, planning your workshop, inclusive practice, and finding the right music, musicality, phrases and a table of improvisations.Chapter 2. Warm-Up Games and Tasks This chapter explores the concepts of play and spontaneous movement as stimuli for warming up the body and preparing the mind for new experiences. The games and improvisations within will prepare dancers for the creative tasks ahead, improve reaction times and explore key features of movement.Chapter 3. Solo and Duo Improvisations This chapter explores the movement responses dancers can generate on their own and with partners. Through these tasks, they’ll discover spontaneous movement answers that will develop, challenge and refine their creative responses, solo or in duos.Chapter 4. Group Creative Tasks This chapter explores the movement responses dancers can generate in groups. By working with others, they can explore and discover new movement ideas. The tasks within aim to develop, challenge and refine creative responses and the feeling of working as a team that comes with making group decisions in the moment.Chapter 5. Moving Beyond the Kinaesthetic: Using Physical and Aural Improvisation Tasks This chapter explores how starting with elements of physical and aural settings can lead students to create interesting dance. It acts as a taster for being inspired by external stimuli and will hopefully inspire an abundance of future ideas.Chapter 6. Developing Improvisations This chapter encourages dancers to use the movements, phrases and sequences created in previous tasks to play with development and structuring to manipulate the movement material. They can also develop ideas using existing material and repertoire. These are only a few suggestions to inspire additional ideas on how to develop movements into dance pieces or works.
£29.70
FABER MUSIC Theory Made Easy for Little Children Level 1
Book Synopsis
£6.78
HarperCollins Publishers Billy
Book SynopsisThe inside story of the one of the most successful British stand-up comedians, as told by the person best qualified to reveal all about the man behind the comic, his wife of over 20 years Pamela Stephenson.Once in a lifetime, there strides upon the stage someone who can truly be called a legend. Such a person is the inimitable, timeless genius who is Billy Connolly. His effortlessly wicked whimsy has entranced, enthralled and split the sides of thousands upon thousands of adoring audiences.And when he isn''t doing thathe''s turning in award-winning performances on film and television.He''s the man who needs no introduction, and yet he is the ultimate enigma. From a troubled and desperately poor childhood in the docklands of Glasgow he is now the intimate of household names the world over.How did this happen, who is the real Billy Connolly? Only one person can answer that question: his wife, Pamela Stephenson. Pamela's writing combines the very personal with a frank objectivity that Trade Review‘Searingly honest, it’s an engrossing story told with all the winning warmth and insight we have come to expect from clinical psychologist and former comedian, Pamela.’ Woman’s Weekly
£10.44
The Crowood Press Ltd The Essential Guide to Tap Dance
Book SynopsisFrom the propulsive rhythm of the African dancer, to the swinging ragtime of the American jazz age, tap dancing has evolved into a unique blend of cultural expression, improvisation and creativity, open to all ages and abilities. With clear step-by-step instructions, The Essential Guide to Tap Dance covers basic steps such as the shuffle, pick up and paddle, before building these into traditional combinations such as the time step and shim sham. Additional material includes the history and development of tap dancing; rhythm and musicality; learning the language of tap dancing; the role of improvisation and choreography and finally, the basic steps to advanced techniques. This is the perfect companion to instruct the beginner tap dancer and expand the more experienced dancer's technique, offering full-colour pictures, helpful instruction and essential notes on this vibrant and accessible dance form.
£18.00
McFarland and Company, Inc. Raqs in the City
Book Synopsis
£27.54
Taylor & Francis A Choreographers Handbook
Book SynopsisOn choreography: âChoreography is a negotiation with the patterns your body is thinking.âOn rules: âTry breaking the rules on a need to break the rules basis.âThe updated and revised edition of 'A Choreographerâs Handbook' invites the reader to investigate how and why to make a dance performance. In an inspiring and unusually empowering sequence of stories, questions, ideas and paradoxes, internationally renowned choreographer Jonathan Burrows explains how itâs possible to navigate a course through this complex process.It is a stunning reflection on a personal practice and professional journey, and draws upon many years of workshop discussions, led by Burrows.Burrowsâ open and honest prose gives the reader access to a range of principles, exercises, meditations and ideas on choreography that allow artists and dance-makers to find their own aesthetic process.It is a book for anyone interested in making performance, at whatever level and in whichever style.
£25.64
Jessica Kingsley Publishers The Tao of Movement
Book SynopsisFor those who move, be it dancers, yogis, athletes, physical actors, or aerial dancers, the demands on their health go far beyond the ordinary. This book, authored by a seasoned dance teacher and leading authority in Traditional Chinese Medicine, unlocks the keys to maintaining wellbeing through Chinese medicine for dance and movement professionals.At its core, lies the exploration of Qi energy, Yin and Yang, and the Five Elements, all demystified and applied in practical terms. This book also delves into the intricate world of meridians, offering unique ways to work with them through movement. The author draws inspiration from the rich philosophy of Tao, making this an excellent resource for dancers and other movement professionals.
£23.74
Headline Publishing Group Ruin
Book SynopsisAs seen on TikTok, from Samantha Towle, the New York Times bestselling author of Wardrobe Malfunction and Breaking Hollywood, comes the first dramatically powerful and passionate novel in the Gods series.Readers are raving about Ruin!''Samantha Towle at her best''''Wow! What a story, I can''t even begin to tell you just how much I loved . . . this mind blowing book''''I adored this story! . . . Samantha Towle really knows how to make her characters jump out of the page and into our hearts as their journey becomes our own''''I love a good second chance romance story and this one was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G''..............................................................................And the new heavyweight champion of the world is... Those are the words that Zeus Kincaid has been waiting to hear since
£10.44
Washington Square Press Inc.,N.Y. Julius Ceasers
Book SynopsisThe authoritative edition of Julius Caesar from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.Shakespeare may have written Julius Caesar as the first of his plays to be performed at the Globe, in 1599. For it, he turned to a key event in Roman history: Caesar’s death at the hands of friends and fellow politicians. Renaissance writers disagreed over the assassination, seeing Brutus, a leading conspirator, as either hero or villain. Shakespeare’s play keeps this debate alive. This edition includes: -Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Newly revised explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a m
£6.64
Rowman & Littlefield Thinking with the Dancing Brain
Book SynopsisAs seasoned dancers and dance educators, Minton and Faber approach brain function from inside the body as embodiment of thought. Their collection of neurological research about the thought processes in learning and performing dance encompasses a vision of dance as creative art, communication, education, and life. The book informs neuroscientists, educators, and dancers about the complex interdependence of brain localities and networking of human neurology through an integration of physiology, cognition, and the art of dance. Chapters address observation, engagement, critical thought, emotion, memory, imagery and imagination, learning, problem solving, and 21st century skills. Finer components are explored through neurological networks, classroom pedagogy, dance, and movement experiences that provide:Description of the thought processes, their components, and their neurological functional needs. The neurological physiology that has been discovered in the cognitive process. How braTrade ReviewThinking with the Dancing Brain is a must read book for educators, artists, and scientists. This gem is revolutionary in its structure. Current brain research and valuable educational theories are interspersed in every chapter with simple movement explorations that make the research understandable and the theories memorable. The book proves once and for all that the body and brain work as one unit and that thought cannot take place without movement. -- Anne Green Gilbert, founding Director of Creative Dance Center, author of Brain Compatible Dance Education and BrainDanceThinking with the Dancing Brain should be part of every dance educator’s library, especially if they want to move forward in the 21st century with keener content and pedagogical skills. The authors have done an excellent job exploring the interdependence of brain function and critical thinking, how the interplay impacts learning and teaching dance, and its embodiment in movement. Each chapter ends with an application section in which students experience the effect. Remarkably, the book unifies the Cartesian duality between body and mind, physicality and thought. -- Jane M. Bonbright, Ed.D, Executive Director Emerita of the National Dance Education OrganizationThinking with the Dancing Brain is a wonderfully written text that genuinely brings the nature of brain and body together in dance and learning. Soundly grounded in neuroscience, the book carefully walks the reader through the research on the brain and its contributions to the beauty of dance and how dance improves brain functioning and learning. The embedded exercises help the reader reach a new awareness of the intricate interaction between the brain and body that helps make dance such an emotional and rewarding form of communication and how dance can improve learning and memory. -- Linda Lockwood, Department of Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience, Metropolitan State University of DenverThe movement explorations are a functional and practical way to bring the didactic portion of the book to life. They benefit the kinesthetic learner, thus incorporating every learning style. As someone who specializes in movement, and teaching it to a wide patient population, these explorations were extremely useful. -- Emily Becker, PT, Dance Medicine SpecialistThinking with the Dancing Brain brings decades of experience together to teach us about the science of movement, brain integration and the opportunity to more completely understand the applications of movement in education. The work invites dance educators, artists, therapists and others to the practice of observation and awareness. As our students’ needs are increasing and becoming more complex, we need more tools to access all learners. Minton and Faber continue to feed our community with insight and wisdom and to promote conversation and inquiry into how dance and movement help us to understand human interaction, expression, communication and function. -- Lisa Morgan, Instructor, Dance Program, Colorado State UniversityTable of ContentsForeword: Robert G. Shulman Preface Acknowledgments 1. Groundwork for Thinking in Dance 2. Observation 3. Engagement 4. High Level Thinking Skills 5. Emotion 6. Memory 7. Imagination and Imagery 8. Learning 9. Problem Solving 10. 21st Century Skills Glossary Index
£44.56
Random House USA Inc Making Movies
Book SynopsisONE OF THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S 100 GREATEST FILM BOOKS OF ALL TIME â? â??Invaluable.... I am sometimes asked if there is one book a filmgoer could read to learn more about how movies are made and what to look for while watching them. This is the book.â? â??Roger Ebert, The New York Times Book ReviewWhy does a director choose a particular script? What must they do in order to keep actors fresh and truthful through take after take of a single scene? How do you stage a shootoutâ??involving more than one hundred extras and three colliding taxisâ??in the heart of New Yorkâ??s diamond district? What does it take to keep the studio honchos happy? From the first rehearsal to the final screening, Making Movies is a masterâ??s take, delivered with clarity, candor, and a wealth of anecdote. For in this book, Sidney Lumet, one of our most consistently acclaimed directors, gives us both a professional memoir and a definitive guide t
£14.40
Amsterdam University Press Mime Handbook: A Handbook for Mime Corporel
Book SynopsisThe Mime Handbook covers the theory of mime corporel (Corporeal Mime) and explains the technique through dozens of clearly illustrated exercises. It provides an overview of the work and life of Etienne Decroux (1889-1991), founder of the ‘mime corporel’ and father of modern mime. Building onto Decroux’s mime corporel, additional concepts are introduced on the use of space in physical theater and the creation of mime performances. Mime corporel is a physical theater technique that has revolutionized the physical expression for actors, dancers, and mime players. The philosophy of Etienne Decroux has permanently influenced approaches to performance, the use of space and the study of movement composition in the theater. The Mime Handbook is intended for anyone who creates, studies, or teaches physical theater. Directors, actors, dancers, mime players, and performance artists will discover fundamental ideas and techniques that will enrich their work. You can download page 88 of the book here.
£35.14
Human Kinetics Publishers Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery
Book SynopsisEric Franklin’s classic reference is back in a new full-color edition, complete with new material and exercises for instructors to use with their dancers, other performing artists, athletes, and classes.In Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, Third Edition, Franklin—an internationally renowned teacher, dancer, and choreographer who has been sharing his imagery techniques for more than 35 years—teaches the use of imagery to increase self-awareness, improve body image, and apply anatomical and biomechanical principles for more efficient movement.This expanded new edition includes more than 600 anatomical imagery exercises to improve posture and body alignment, release excess tension, and prevent injuries; over 500 full-color illustrations to help readers visualize the exercises and use them in various contexts; four audio files containing guided imagery exercises led by Franklin and set to music; and updated chapters throughout the book, including new material and exercises to address fasciae and connective tissue. “The pictures and the words in your mind influence the feelings in your body, which in turn feed your thoughts and mental pictures,” Franklin says. “To create powerful and dynamic alignment, you need to fertilize your mind and body with constructive information and weed out destructive thoughts.”This book will help readers do just that as they discover their natural flexibility and increase their power to move. Franklin expertly guides readers through foundational concepts of posture, dynamic alignment, and imagery; explores different types of imagery and guidelines for using them; and delves into biomechanical and anatomical principles, including the body’s center and gravity, the laws of motion and force systems, and joint and muscle function. He then provides exercises for anatomical imagery, covering every area of the body from head to toe. The book closes with two critical chapters on defining dynamic alignment and on integrating dynamic alignment exercises into workouts and programs.Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, Third Edition, will help readers experience the biomechanical and anatomical principles that are crucial to athletes, dancers, other performing artists, and yoga and Pilates practitioners. The techniques and exercises presented in the book will guide readers in improving their posture—and will positively affect their thoughts and attitudes about themselves and others and help them feel better, both mentally and physically.Earn continuing education credits/units! A continuing education exam that uses this book is also available. It may be purchased separately or as part of a package that includes both the book and exam.Trade Review“The Franklin Method training as outlined in this book is the most intelligent approach to learning about the workings of the body that I have ever attended. It is not just information but the experience of our design as we learn that is transforming.”—Tom McCook, Fitness Instructor, Founder and Director, Center of Balance"In Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, Eric Franklin offers an easy-to-read, practical, and educational resource, which I wholly recommend."—Dr. Emma Redding, Head of Dance Science, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, President, International Association for Dance Medicine & Science"Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery is a must-have resource. Eric Franklin creates a truly powerful tool for improving movement and function."—Marie-Jose Blom, PMA Gold-Certified Master Pilates Teacher, Founder and Owner, Long Beach Dance Conditioning, Founder and Owner, Angel City Body Kinetics, Founder and Partner, SmartSpine Works“The Franklin Method has had a profound influence on my personal and professional life. Eric Franklin’s evolution of imagery and its application contain the knowledge and power to create a quantum leap in our understanding of human movement and our own potential.“—Jan Dunn, M.S., Past President, International Association for Dance Medicine & Science Table of ContentsIntroduction. How I Came to Use ImageryReinforcing What You WantPurpose and WillUsing Imagery for AlignmentUsing the Audio FilesPart I. Posture and Dynamic AlignmentChapter 1. Roots of Imagery for AlignmentA Brief Look at Imagery Throughout HistoryAlignment in History and ArtImagery and Ideas of Ideal PostureSomatic DisciplinesSummaryChapter 2. Postural Models and Dynamic AlignmentPostural HabitsDynamically AligningSummaryChapter 3. Foundations of Mental ImageryBrain, Consciousness, and ImageryNervous SystemThe World in the Brain: Neuroplasticity and ImageryDevelopmental PatternsDeveloping Mind: The Role of ImagerySummaryChapter 4. The Art of Change Through ImageryFour Steps in the Art of ChangeA Closer Look at the Four Steps for ChangeSummaryChapter 5. Imagery’s Five Ws: What, Who, When, Where, and WhyWhat?Who?When?Where?Why?SummaryChapter 6. General Guidelines for How to Use ImageryFactors That Influence Successful ImageryModulating and Adapting Images and MetaphorsSequencing the ImageryProblems and Opportunities When Cuing ImageryResting Positions for Imagery PracticeSummaryPart II. Biomechanical and Anatomical Principles and ExercisesChapter 7. Befriending Gravity and Finding Your CenterGravityForcesAnatomical Terminology for Location and DirectionSummaryChapter 8. Laws of Motion and Force SystemsNewton’s Laws of MotionForce SystemsLever SystemsEnergy ConservationAbility of Materials to Resist ForceDynamic StabilitySummaryChapter 9. Joint, Bone, Muscle, and FasciaJoint TypesBonesMusclesConnective Tissue and FasciaSummaryPart III. Exercises for Anatomical ImageryChapter 10. Pelvis, Hip Joint, and CompanyPelvic ArchesBalancing the PelvisMotion of the Pelvic HalvesCounterrotation and Three-Dimensional AlignmentPelvic PowerhouseHip Joint and FemurIliopsoas and PiriformisThe Fascia of the Thigh and LegSummaryChapter 11. Knee, Lower Leg, and FootGet to Know Your KneeFascia of the Lower LimbTibia, Fibula, and AnkleFootInteraction of Fasciae, Muscles, and Ligaments of the Leg and FootSummaryChapter 12. Spine and Body WallVertebraeIntervertebral DiscsThe Spine’s Curved DesignSacrum and PelvisSpinal LigamentsMusculature of the Abdomen and BackAbdominal WallAbdominal Muscles and the Concept of Core StabilitySummaryChapter 13. Shoulders, Arms, and HandsSuspension of the Shoulder GirdleGlenohumeral JointHumeroscapular RhythmElbowWrist and HandSummaryChapter 14. Head and NeckAtlas and AxisFasciae of the NeckSkullFasciae of the Head and FaceSuboccipitalsMandibleHyoid and TongueEyesNose and MouthSummaryChapter 15. Rib Cage, Breath, and OrgansRib CageBreathSupport and Breathing for Abdominal OrgansHeartSkin as an OrganSummaryPart IV. Returning to Holistic AlignmentChapter 16. Definitions of Dynamic AlignmentPlumb LineMedian AlignmentDefining Ideal AlignmentDynamic Versus Static AlignmentDynamic and Static StabilityPulling Up and Ideal AlignmentSummaryChapter 17. Integrating Dynamic Alignment ExercisesAlignment in Supine PositionsAlignment in Sitting PositionsStanding and Walking AlignmentReleasing Excess TensionContinuing Imagery Exercises
£42.30
Harvard University Press The Mass Ornament
Book SynopsisSiegfried Kracauer was one of the twentieth century’s most brilliant cultural critics, a daring and prolific scholar, and an incisive theorist of film. In this volume his finest writings on modern society make their long-awaited appearance in English. This book celebrates the masses—their tastes, amusements, and everyday lives.Trade ReviewReading his reviews for the Frankfurter Zeitung of some 70 years ago, one would expect Siegfried Kracauer to seem more of his time than he sometimes does. That’s the first salutary shock in The Mass Ornament… Here’s a German Marxist writing about Franz Kafka and Max Weber and Martin Buber hot off the press; or giving an on-set report to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. And yet, when he writes about the fashion for biography, or the crisis of the novel, or of science, he seems to be elaborating arguments that mean more today than ever before. -- Mark Sinker * New Statesman and Society *To those familiar with Kracauer only as the analyst and theorist of film, capable of sustained argument linking film to history, to cultural philosophy, to myth and to popular imagination, The Mass Ornament will come as a revelation. The feuilleton provided the opportunity to range across a multitude of subjects from arcades to boredom, from Max Weber to the Tiller Girls. He emerges as an outstandingly sharp-sighted witness to the cultural diversity of the Weimar Republic and to the loss of value that underlay what he calls the ‘surface-level expressions’ of that culture. -- Philip Brady * Times Higher Education Supplement *Known to the English-language public for the books he wrote after he reached America in 1941, most famously for From Caligari to Hitler, Siegfried Kracauer is best understood as a charter member of that extraordinary constellation of Weimar-era intellectuals which has been dubbed retroactively (and misleadingly) the Frankfurt School. This collection of Kracauer’s early essays—like his friends Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, he began as an essayist-provocateur on a wide variety of social and cultural themes—does more than explain the origins of the eminent film critic and theorist. It includes some of his most original and important writing. -- Susan SontagPractitioners of cultural studies generally, and particularly in the field of modern architecture, are rushing, it seems, to read The Mass Ornament… With two dozen essays and excerpts in The Mass Ornament—admirably translated and accompanied by a substantial introduction and forty-five pages of additional notes—Anglophone scholars in the field of cultural studies can now explore Kracauer’s Weimar essays for themselves. -- Juliet Koss * Assemblage *Kracauer’s free-associational curiosity is brilliantly displayed in the 24 essays gathered in the long overdue English translation of The Mass Ornament. The volume’s idiosyncratic glosses on Paris street maps and hotel lobbies, on best-sellers and popular biographies, are supple, at times lyrical, meditations on cultural transition, respectful of the enigmatic meanings and turbulent emotions elicited by the mass-produced and the marginal… Like Benjamin, Kracauer saw himself as a brainy secret agent, a cultural provocateur: The Mass Ornament decodes the surface meanings of the new, finding, in their hypnotic shallowness, personal and political significance… Among the first to assess popular culture on its own terms, with a mind open to the tumble of new ideas set rolling by the technology and communications avalanche, Kracauer articulated an impressionistic critique of popular culture that’s as provocative today as it was 70 years ago… The Mass Ornament dreams wild dreams about the ultimate meaning of the banal and the beautiful. -- Bill Marx * Millennium Pop *Thanks to Thomas Levin, we have an invaluable collection of Siegfried Kracauer’s more ‘occasional’ Weimar essays, available in a beautiful English-language translation… Following both the selection and the order for a collection of essays chosen by Kracauer himself, The Mass Ornament only now begins to make the magnitude of its effect felt. Anyone part of a film-theory class or German cultural-history seminar in the last two years will agree that this earlier and more biting Kracauer has become de rigueur for any analysis of cultural products and practices, whether located in the Weimar Republic or more generally associated with Western capitalist culture. -- Jeffrey S. Timon * Modernism/Modernity *Adorno’s tutor in philosophy, Walter Benjamin’s editor, friend of Ernst Bloch and Leo Lowenthal, Siegfried Kracauer played a pivotal role in the early development of the so-called Frankfurt School, but his own reputation has never been securely established… The publication of The Mass Ornament, a collection of Kracauer’s essays from the 1920s first issued in Germany in 1963, should go some distance towards rectifying that situation, and renewing interest in one of the leading figures in the Weimar debates about cultural criticism and modernity… The essays collected in The Mass Ornament range from observations on boredom and bullfights, dance crazes and detective novels, to reviews of sociology (‘Georg Simmel’); theology (‘Catholicism and Relativism’); and Biblical translation (on the Martin Buber-Franz Rosenzweig recasting of the Hebrew text)… The Mass Ornament offers a unique opportunity to reflect historically on the prose of cultural studies, the idiomatic difficulties of coordinating theoretical or philosophical propositions (‘academic discourse’) with the passing flux of fashion and the inexorable demands of quotidian accessibility (‘journalism’)… As a report from the past, [The Mass Ornament] holds a distant mirror up to the dilemmas facing cultural analysis, and invites us to renewed reflection on the relation between theory and history, fashion and tradition… [Kracauer’s] edgy and restlessly incisive relation to the entire range of cultural phenomena…offers an exhilarating instance of critical intelligence at work. -- Robert Eric Livingston * Prose Studies *The essays prove that Kracauer could not only write bracingly on photography and film, but also that his erudition extended to a great number of cultural subjects, from religion and science to hotel lobbies, city geography, and the phenomenon of the bestseller. In a lively and interesting introduction, Thomas Y. Levin, the book’s translator and editor, discusses Kracauer’s life and works, and demonstrates why more attention should be paid to this fascinating, neglected member of the Frankfurt School. * Virginia Quarterly Review *Kracauer himself chose the 24 pieces collected in this volume… They reflect a sharp analytical interest in a wide spectrum of cultural themes and social phenomena, extending from the new entertainment industries to more arcane subjects: Martin Buber’s Bible translation, the philosophy of Georg Simmel, Kafka’s prose. They all focus on the forces that propel historical change and produce a new culture—i.e., the mass culture of a secular and fragmented democracy. Levin’s edition is exemplary in every respect: his translations have adapted themselves accurately and smoothly to the varying styles of the original, his introduction is perceptive, his notes and documentation are precise and to the point. A book most highly recommended. -- M. Winkler * Choice *Kracauer, a leading cultural critic in the Germany of the turbulent 1920s and early 1930s, shows himself in these essays to be a wide-ranging and penetrating interpreter of the everyday life of this era. The essays expand on his insights into such themes as modernity, isolation, and alienation, urban culture, and the relation between the group and the individual… He explores such topics as shopping arcades, hotel lobbies, best-selling books and their readers, the cinema, and photography. -- Harry Frumerman * Library Journal *We finally have in translation a sample of Kracauer’s Weimar writings which establish him as a major cultural critic, theorist of modernity, and superb writer. In his passionate attempt to grasp the logic of historical change, he approaches both canonized texts and the phenomena of a new leisure culture with radical curiosity, keen observation, deadpan humor and surrealist sensibility. There is hardly any idea in Benjamin’s and Adorno’s writing on film and mass culture of the 1930s and ’40s that does not already appear, in some shape or other, in Kracauer’s essays of the Weimar period. -- Miriam Hansen, University of ChicagoThe pieces collected in Siegfried Kracauer’s The Mass Ornament are the musings of an inveterate flaneur, a rapt spectator, and an inexorable detective as he wanders through the streets of the Weimar Republic. In these singular commentaries, the big city of modernity appears as a vast dreamscape and a mind-boggling phantasmagoria. Ever indefatigable, Kracauer explores the many different stores, hotel lobbies, dance halls, and ornate cinemas, seeking the signs of the past and presentiments of the future which lurk behind the appearances of the everyday, scrutinizing how the changing shapes of urban spaces and the mass media alter human experience. Employing an inimitable format, a blend of sociological analysis, historical-philosophical allegory, and literary miniature, Kracauer provides a veritable lexicon of German modernity and Weimar mythologies. Finally available for English-language audiences in Thomas Levin’s careful and fluid translation, The Mass Ornament provides an important primer for today’s Culture Studies. -- Eric Rentschler, University of California, IrvineTable of ContentsTranslator's Note Introduction by Thomas Y. Levin Lead-In: Natural Geometry Lad and Bull Two Planes Analysis of a City Map External and Internal Objects Photography Travel and Dance The Mass Ornament On Bestsellers and Their Audience The Biography as an Art Form of the New Bourgeoisie Revolt of the Middle Classes Those Who Wait Constructions The Group as Bearer of Ideas The Hotel Lobby Perspectives The Bible in German Catholicism and Relativism The Crisis of Science Georg Simmel On the Writings of Walter Benjamin Franz Kafka The Movies Calico-World The Little Shopgirls Go to the Movies Film 1928 Cult of Distraction Fadeaway: Toward the Vanishing Point Boredom Farewell to the Linden Arcade Notes Bibliographic Information Credits Index
£35.66
Yale University Press The Plays the Thing
Book Synopsis
£42.75
Oxford University Press Inc Brotherhood in Rhythm The Jazz Tap Dancing of the
Book SynopsisA richly detailed history of jazz music and jazz dance, the 20th-Anniversary Edition of Brotherhood in Rhythm brings the Nicholas Brothers' act to life, explaining their significance through a colourful analysis of their eloquent footwork, their full-bodied expressiveness, and the evolution of their style.Trade ReviewThose with limited dance background will find that the book is accessible and offers plentiful photographs throughout...An invaluable resource for those interested in tap dance from the Harlem Renaissance and swing era to bebop. * M. Goldsmith, CHOICE *The Nicholas Brothers! Legends of the dance and blazers of the trail. Thank you, Constance Valis Hill, for sharing their magnificent story once again. * Dulé Hill, Tap Dancer/Actor *The Nicholas Brothers are otherworldly superheroes to me...Hill's book is not only a masterful telling of who they were, but also a testimony to what is possible with an imagination and a commitment to excellence. * Kevin Powell, Poet, Journalist, and Biographer of Tupac Shakur *A peerless jazz-tap biography and an example of dance history writing at its best. * Mindy Aloff, Dance in America (Library of America) *Table of ContentsDedication Foreword to the First Edition Gregory Hines Foreword to the 20th Anniversary Edition Maurice Hines Preface Introduction Acknowledgements 1. Born into Jazz 2. Brothers (1914-1931) 3. Blackbirds in New York (1932-1934) 4. All-Colored Comedy (1934-1936) 5. Babes on Broadway (1936-1938) 6. Class Act and Challenge (1938-1945) 7. Forties Swing, Hollywood Flash (1940-1945) 8. Converging Styles (1942-1945) 9. Swing to Bop (1945-1958) 10. Nostalgia, and All That Jazz (1964-1989) 11. Resurgence (1980-1989) 12. Legacy Notes Glossary Chronology of Performance Bibliography Index
£27.99
Pearson Education Limited Interpersonal Communication Book The Global
Book SynopsisJoseph A. DeVito received his BA from Hunter College, MA from Temple University, and his PhD from the University of Illinois. After earning his doctorate in speech and linguistics, DeVito returned to teach in the CUNY system, first at his alma mater, Hunter College, and then at Queens College. During his teaching career, DeVito taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses with a focus on introductory courses. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Hunter College. At various times, DeVito has served on the editorial boards of Quarterly Journal of Speech, Communication Monographs, Communication Education, Communication Quarterly, Journal of Communication and Etc: A Review of General Semantics. He has also served as a consulting editor to the following publishers: Random House, Harper & Row, Waveland Press and HarperCollins. He was an ETS coordinator of the committee to construct the DANTES Public Speaking Test for the Educational Testing Service aTable of ContentsPART I: PRELIMINARIES TO INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION Foundations of Interpersonal Communication Culture and Interpersonal Communication Perception of the Self and Others PART II: INTERPERSONAL MESSAGES Verbal Messages Nonverbal Messages Listening Emotional Messages Conversational Messages PART III: INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS Interpersonal Relationship Stages, Communication, and Theories Interpersonal Relationship Types Interpersonal Conflict and Conflict Management Interpersonal Power and Influence
£40.84
Jessica Kingsley Publishers Authentic Movement: Moving the Body, Moving the
Book SynopsisPraise for the first volume:'It is very valuable to have [this collection of articles] all together in one place…a rich repository of insights and experiences for all the somatic disciplines. It is a wonderful collection of articles.' - Somatics This second volume on Authentic Movement - a new discipline aiding the creative process in choreography, writing, theatre performance, dance, graphic and expressivearts, as well as spirituality - is an engaging and dynamic collection of scholarly essays, personal stories, practical suggestions and resources. It reflects cutting edge work on creative expression, meditative discipline and psychotherapeutic endeavour.Part I comprises five chapters written by the most prominent Authentic Movement practitioners and teachers and introducing the foundations and principles of Authentic Movement. In Part II, the contributors return to the source of Authentic Movement - the psychotherapeutic setting - and provide an in-depth examination of the personal processes in the therapeutic relationship and the potential of Authentic Movement to facilitate personal growth and change. Part III traces the development of Authentic Movement as a spiritual path and as interface with other spiritual practices. Part IV provides an overview of new developments in Authentic Movement, Part V offers inspiring personal accounts and Part VI provides guidelines drawn from practice as well as tools and resources. These latter chapters sow the seeds for a new understanding and directions for the developments of Authentic Movement.This authoritative text is indispensable for practitioners of Authentic Movement, students and teachers working in the field of dance therapy, art therapists, all creative arts therapists and body psychoanalysts.Trade ReviewAn Exquisite offering to Therapists, Artists and anybody with a desire to look deeply into the relationship with the self, with other, the earth and the devine. Satisfied intellectually, creatively, emotionally and spiritually I can happily recommend this book as a long term investment for Creative Art Therapists. -- JIDCATAn impressive array of historical, clinical, theoretical and educational papers by the two living pioneers... And over three dozen practitioners who have developed this form in various settings and communities throughout the world. -- Body, Movement and Dance in PsychotherapyMy experience of this collection of essays is that many of the chapters stand on their own as entirely fascinating, expanding and enriching of insights,perspectives and accounts of highly creative work being done by skilled and adaptable practitioners. -- British Psychodrama and Sociodrama JournalPatrizia Pallaro has compiled a collection of must-read works from contemporary authors and practitioners experienced in the discipline of Authentic Movement...Pallaro's book will kindle a passion for the process of Authentic Movement in all who read these excellent articles, novice and expert alike. It is particularly recommended for those advanced in the fields of psychology, dance/movement therapy, and body-based psychotherapies. -- American Journal of Dance TherapyThis book, like Authentic Movement, opens doors to the outside world as well as the inside one. -- Dance and Body Psychotherapy JournalTable of ContentsContents. Acknowledgments. Introduction, Patrizia Pallaro. Part One: The foundation. 1. From Autism to the Discipline of Authentic Movement. Janet Adler. 2. Inner-Directed Movement in Analysis: Early Beginnings. Joan Chodorow. 3. Reflections on Mary Starks Whitehouse. Susan Frieder. 4. A Dancing Spirit: Remembering Mary Starks Whitehouse. Edith Sullwold with Mary Ramsay. 5. Authentic Movement. Daphne Lowell. 6. The Road In: Elements of the Study and Practice of Authentic Movement. Tina Stromsted and Neala Haze. 7. Witnessing and the Chest of Drawers. Alton Wasson. Part Two: Psychotherapy. 8. Authentic Movement as Active Imagination. Penny Parker Lewis. 9. Moving Towards Complexity: The Myth of Echo and Narcissus. Antonella Adorisio. 10. On synchrony. Julie Joslyn Brown and Zoë Avstreih. 11. Journeying Between Will and Surrender in Authentic Movements: A Personal and Clinical Perspective. Marcia Plevin. 12. Authentic Movement in Clinical Work. Shira Musicant. 13. Authentic Movement: Clinical and Theoretical Considerations. Shira Musicant. 14. Against the Wall, Her Beating Heartt: Working with the Somatic Aspects of Transference, Countertransference and Dissociation. Barbara Holifield. 15. Merging and Differentiating. Wendy Wyman-McGinty. 16. Somatic Countertransference: The Therapist in Relationship. Patrizia Pallaro. 17. Authentic Movement: A Safe Place for Group Therapy. Anne Hebert Smith. 18. The Dancing Body in Psychotherapy: Reflections on Somatic Psychotherapy and Authentic Movement. Tina Stromsted. 19. The Body in Analysis: Authentic Movement and Witnessing in Analytic Practice. Wendy Wyman-McGinty. Part Three: Spirituality. 20. The Discipline of Authentic Movement as Mystical Practice: Evolving Moments in Janet Adler's Life and Work. Tina Stromsted. 21. From Seeing to Knowing. Janet Adler. 22. Achieving Body Permanence: Authentic Movement and the Paradox of Healing. Zoë Avstreih. 23. Calling Spirit Home: How Body Becomes Vessel for Spiritual Animation. Jeanne Castle. 24. Authentic Movement: A Theoretical Framework Based in Tibetan Buddhist thought. Carol Fields. Part Four: New horizons. 25. Authentic Movement as a Form of Dance Ritual. Daphne Lowell. 26. Being Seen, Being Moved: Authentic Movement and Performance. Andrea J. Olsen. 27. Learning to Love: How Art Therapy and Authentic Movement Transform Being. Suzanne Lovell. 28. Moving Toward Health: Authentic Movement and Breast Cancer. Sandy Dibbell-Hope. 29. The Discovery of Deep Ecology through the Body: A Practice in Authentic Movement. Cassielle Alaya Bull. 30. Oracles: Authentic Movement and the I Ching. Susan Bauer. 31. Authentic Movement: From Embryonic Curl to Creative Thrust. Ariane Goodwin. 32. The Pleasure of the Text: Embodying Classical Theatrical Language through the Practice of Authentic Movement. Judith Koltai. 33. The Movement of All Things: Authentic Movement and Quantum Physics. Marcia Plevin. 34. Moving the Outer Rim In: Authentic Movement and Nonviolence. Lisa Tsetse. Part Five: Personal stories. 35. Shadow and Other. Sandy Dibbell-Hope. 36. Dances Left in Time and Space: Passing on Lineage with Grace. Heidi Ehrenreich. 37. Unlocking, Unblocking the Temple Door. Wendy Goulston. 38. There is an Angel. Soraia Jorge. 39. The Seeker and the Seer. Bill McCully. 40. Tracing the Brace. Margareta Neuberger. 41. Riding the Wave's Edge. Jan Sandman. 42. Moving and Seeing: Manhood Come Tumbling Down. Sox Sperry. 43. Stirred to Action. David Mars. Part Six: After notes. 44. Questions: Teaching the Discipline. Janet Adler. 45. Guidelines in Practice: Authentic Movement in a Leaderless Group. Leaderless Berkeley Collective 1995. 46. Authentic Movement: Guidelines for a Providence Shared-Lead Group. Lynn Garland. 47. Resources. Contributors. Subject Index. Author Index.
£35.14
Human Kinetics Publishers Essentials of Dance Psychology
Book SynopsisThe topic of sport psychology is hardly new—but Essentials of Dance Psychology applies it to dance in a way that sets it apart from all other sport psychology texts available to dance students, instructors, and professionals.Through Essentials of Dance Psychology, readers will come to understand why dancers think and behave as they do and how to design healthy, creative dance environments that lead to both well-being and optimal performance.The book is built on a foundation of evidence from dance and sport psychology research, with applied experiences used as examples throughout. Where appropriate, evidence from other areas of psychology—for example, cognitive behavioral therapy—is used. A thorough coverage of topics relevant to dancers, teachers, and others working to support dancers is included, making the book suitable for one slightly longer course or two short courses in introductory dance psychology.The book is organized into four parts. Part I delves into dancers’ individual differences, examining how personality, perfectionism, self-esteem, self-confidence, and anxiety factor into performance and well-being. Part II explores topics related to dance-specific characteristics such as motivation, attentional focus, and creativity. In part III, readers learn about a range of psychological skills, including mindfulness, goal setting, self-regulation, and imagery. Part IV examines topics related to dance environments and challenges, zeroing in on the social aspects of teaching and learning dance, the challenges of talent identification and development, injuries, body image, and disordered eating.Student-friendly textbook features in each chapter include the following: Relevant definitions A case study that shows how the chapter’s topics can be expressed or experienced in practice One or more Get Practical exercises, which prompt readers to apply or reflect on the chapter’s concepts (These exercises come with either downloadable worksheets or audio, delivered through HKPropel Access.) A roundup of further research needed in each content area, which can inspire research projects for students and professionals alike Key points to reinforce the learning, with particular emphasis on applications Materials available through HKPropel Access include downloadable worksheets, three audio files with guided exercises, vocabulary study aids, lettering art, and two goal-setting templates. In addition, an instructor pack provides chapter summaries, a course outline, a test bank, and a PowerPoint presentation package.Essentials of Dance Psychology offers readers the opportunity to understand sport psychology from the vantage point of a dancer. The text will help develop dance teachers who are able to inspire and sustain high levels of performance and psychological health among dancers. It will also help other professionals who work with dancers to implement evidence-based practices that enhance and sustain dancers’ lives and careers.Note: A code for accessing HKPropel is included with all new print books.Table of ContentsIntroduction to Dance PsychologyWhat Is Dance Psychology?Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Dance PsychologyPart I. Individual DifferencesChapter 1. PersonalityWhat Is Personality?Structure of PersonalityOrigins of PersonalityConsequences of PersonalityNarrow Identity: Are Dancers at Risk?Chapter 2. PerfectionismWhat Is Perfectionism?Origins of Perfectionism in DanceConsequences of PerfectionismHow Can Perfectionism Be Managed?Chapter 3. Self-Esteem and Self-ConfidenceWhat Are Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence?Origins of Self-EsteemConsequences of Self-EsteemOrigins of Self-ConfidenceConsequences of Self-ConfidenceHow Can Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence Be Strengthened?Chapter 4. AnxietyWhat Is Anxiety?Sources of AnxietyConsequences of AnxietyHow Can Anxiety Be Managed?Part II. Dance-Specific Characteristics and DispositionsChapter 5. MotivationWhat Is Motivation?Achievement Goal Theory Perspective on MotivationSelf-Determination Theory Perspective on MotivationHow Can Healthy Motivation Be Nurtured? An Intrapersonal PerspectiveChapter 6. Attentional FocusWhat Is Attentional Focus?Performance-Related Consequences of Different Attentional FociAttentional Focus Research in DanceWhy Attentional Focus Has an ImpactHow Can Optimal Attentional Focus Be Nurtured?Chapter 7. CreativityWhat Is Creativity?Sources of CreativityCorrelates of CreativityHow Can Creativity Be Nurtured?Part III. Psychological SkillsChapter 8. MindfulnessWhat Is Mindfulness?Origins of MindfulnessConsequences of MindfulnessMindfulness Research in DanceWhy Mindfulness Has an ImpactHow Can Mindfulness Be Nurtured?Chapter 9. Goal Setting and Self-RegulationWhat Is Goal Setting?Sources of Goals: Assigned Goals Versus Personal ValuesConsequences of Goal SettingWhy Goal Setting Has an ImpactWhat Is Self-Regulation?How Can Goal Setting and Self-Regulation Be Optimized?Chapter 10. ImageryWhat Is Imagery?Revised Applied Model of Deliberate Imagery UseSources of ImageryConsequences of ImageryWhy Imagery Has an ImpactHow Can Imagery Be Optimized?Part IV. Dance Environments and ChallengesChapter 11. Motivational ClimatesWhat Is a Motivational Climate?Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) Perspective: Task- and Ego-Involving ClimatesSelf-Determination Theory Perspective: Need-Supportive Versus Controlling LeadershipOrigins of Motivational Climates: What Makes Teachers Support or Thwart Healthy Motivation?Consequences of Motivational ClimatesHow Are Healthy Motivational Climates Created?Chapter 12. TalentWhat Is Talent?Sources of TalentConsequences of Talent Beliefs and of Talent IdentificationHow Can Talent Identification and Development Be Optimized?Chapter 13. InjuryWhat Are the Key Psychological Aspects of Injury in Dance?Psychological Risk Factors for Acute Injury: Stress-Injury ModelBeyond the Stress-Injury Model: Other Psychological Risk Factors for Dance InjuryDancers’ Experiences of Becoming and of Being InjuredPsychological Aspects of Injury RehabilitationUsing Psychology to Reduce Injury Risk and Optimize RehabilitationChapter 14. Body Image and Disordered EatingWhat Is Body Image?Eating Disorders Versus Disordered EatingOrigins of Negative Body Image and Disordered Eating in DanceConsequences of Body Image and Disordered EatingHow Can Healthy Body Image Be Nurtured?How Can Disordered Eating Be Prevented, Identified, and Managed?
£72.90
Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd Royal Academy of Dance: Celebrating 100 Years
Book SynopsisWith a global membership of 14,000 and a presence in 84 countries, the Royal Academy of Dance has grown from its foundation in 1920 into one of the world's most influential dance education organisations. This lavishly illustrated volume celebrates 100 years of dancing and education, performances and competitions, and the Academy's many successful outreach projects. The book features special sections on music, choreography and costume, and on the traditions that many of those who have taken a ballet exam will remember.
£26.25
McFarland and Company, Inc. Dance and Somatics
Book Synopsis Training in somatic techniques--holistic body-centered movement that promotes awareness and well-being--provides an effective means of improving dance students'' efficiency and ease of movement. However, dance educators do not always have the resources to incorporate this knowledge into their classes. This volume explains the importance of somatics, introduces fundamental somatic principles that are central to the dance technique class, and offers tips on incorporating these principles into a dance curriculum. The authors demystify somatic thinking by explaining the processes in terms of current scientific research. By presenting both a philosophical approach to teaching as well as practical instruction tools, this work provides a valuable guide to somatics for dance teachers of any style or level. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination c
£20.89
Penguin Putnam Inc Rossuns Universal Robot Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisA visionary work of science fiction that introduced the word robotWritten in 1920, premiered in Prague in 1921, and first performed in New York in 1922—garnered worldwide acclaim for its author and popularized the word robot. Mass-produced as efficient laborers to serve man, Capek’s Robots are an android product—they remember everything but think of nothing new. But the Utopian life they provide ultimately lacks meaning, and the humans they serve stop reproducing. When the Robots revolt, killing all but one of their masters, they must strain to learn the secret of self-duplication. It is not until two Robots fall in love and are christened “Adam” and “Eve” by the last surviving human that Nature emerges triumphant.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best woTable of ContentsR.U.R.Introduction by Ivan KlimaR.U.R.CastPrologueAct OneAct TwoAct Three
£13.30
Hodder & Stoughton Jojo
Book Synopsis*THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER!*Champion dancer and Strictly Come Dancing professional Johannes Radebe has captured our hearts with his mesmerising talent, bringing joy to millions of fans and wowing the most critical of judges. He is loved not only for his dancing, but for his beautiful, infectious spirit and energy.Jojo: Finally Home is his never-before-told story, where he shares the experiences and challenges he''s faced - from growing up in Zamdela, a township in South Africa, as a young boy with a passion for dance (and playing with Barbies), to becoming the star he is today. Dance transformed Jojo''s future, giving him a tool to express himself - but as you will learn, this was not always easy.Captivating and moving, these are Jojo''s tales of euphoric highs and all-time lows, of making history, of grief, love, family and opportunity. It is a celebration of him finally feeling at home in his own skin. These are the per
£10.44
MH - Indiana University Press Dance Spectacle and the Body Politick 12501750
Book SynopsisAn engaging overview of dance from the Medieval era through the BaroqueTrade ReviewA big bite of dance history scholarship is undertaken in this study, and it does not seem to be too big for Jennifer Nevile, the editor of the volume, to chew. She manages to weave an introduction into the book, and each of its six subsections make the promise of its lofty title (and the ideas it appears to embrace) within her grasp. Given the book's vast chronological sweep-rather more than the 500 years suggested in the title, since the very useful essay on 'Plato's Philosophy of Dance' by Graham Pont increases the range substantially-it was my guess, when I embarked on my journey through its pages, that I would find some themes on spectacle or the carnivalesque that would override chronology. Or maybe there would be a sociological/anthropological approach to the embodiment of status relationships (politics) through dance that would render chronology secondary to social configurations. With excited anticipation I dove in, expecting to find something along these lines. Although I was not disappointed, I discovered something quite different. The book features a nice selection of generally excellent essays by some leading authorities in historical dance. Each essay offers information situated in its own time frame, and each presents a secure control of primary and secondary sources and includes a very useful list of recommended reading at its conclusion. Some essays provide tantalizing new details (John S. Powell's piece on Beauchamps and public theaters in 17th-century France and David R. Wilson's review of the basse danse are good examples). Some interpret well-known material in new and promising ways. Jennifer Thorp's piece on 'Dance in the London Theatres c.1700-1750' makes me look forward to her important new work. Two essays review material the authors have already addressed, but nevertheless do so here in a compellingly compact way; Ken Pierce's offering on the choreographic structure of Barouque dance and Margaret M. McGowan's essay on court dancing in 16th and 17th-century France. Only a pair of essays (not counting the deceptively erudite and versatile 'Introduction and Overview' by Nevile herself) really fit the themes of bodies, politics, and spectacle announced by the title. Julia Prest's offering on politics and ballet in Louis XIV's France is pretty perfunctory. But Linda J. Tomko's essay on 'Mr. Issac's The Pastorall and Issues of "Party"' really does embrace the kind of inquiry I was expecting. Tomko's is a truly analytical study that responds with vibrancy to the themes called for by the volume's editor. Most of the authors represented here undertake their tasks with precision and skill. Many succeed, and all should be acknowledged for their contribution: those not already mentioned include Alessandro Arcangeli; Katherine Tucker McGinnis, and Karen Silen. Jennifer Nevile's multiple contributions to the volume cannot be praised sufficiently; her essays on Renaissance dance are impressive, her introduction to the volume full of perception. I suppose we must await some future in which an individual truly finds a connection among the various manifestations of social, stage, and court dancing over the ages. But I wonder if this is really important. Dance, after all, is body, is spectacle, is 'politik' (however we configure it). I'm just not sure that Guglielmo Ebreo (15th century), Cesare Negri (c. 1535-after 1604), or Mr. Isaac (late 17th, early 18th century) shared some common agenda (let alone believed they did) when they created their splendid dances. Nevile, nevertheless, would have us believe that something like the same bodies, the same spectacles, the same kinds of politics were enacted (perhaps unintentionally) over and over again across the centuries addressed in this volume. Maybe she is right. The scholars she has brought together, however, do not appear to espouse such a grandiose vision but appear more concerned with a narrower, well-informed view of dancing in a given place at a given time. Congratulations to them all, and to Nevile for bringing this impressive collection to life. I have profited considerably from reading the offerings presented here, and I am certain others will, too. I will recommend readings from this volume to my students for years to come. -- Richard Semmens * Early Music America : Mag Historical Perf *Jennifer Nevile's accessibly written anthology seeks to explore many now obscure aspects of early dance: contributions by twelve scholars elucidate the fascinating, multifarious nature of dance from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. . . . contributors demonstrate a high scholarly standard and pursue their chosen themes with assurance and passion. The great forte of this collection is its ambitious, multidisciplinary range, and the authors' practical insight, honed by years of performance experience, represents a rare feat indeed. The book should be required reading in dance studies.62 Summer 2009 -- Barbara Ravelhofer * Univeristy of Dunham *A big bite of dance history scholarship is undertaken in this study, and it does not seem to be too big for Jennifer Nevile, the editor of the volume, to chew. . . . Congratulations to . . . Nevile for bringing this impressive collection to life. I have profited considerably from reading the offerings presented here, and I am certain others will, too. I will recommend readings from this volume to my students for years to come. Spring 2009 -- Richard Semmens * University of Western Ontario, Professor of Music History *Nevile . . . has assembled an intriguing book that in many ways serves as an encyclopedia of early dance—a feat not easily accomplished in one volume. . . . [T]his is a fine resource for those who research this specialized period of dance history. An excellent glossary and bibliography and a 'list of dance treatises, manuscripts, modern editions, and translations' complete the book. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and researchers.March 2009 * Choice *This is a great book for understanding music, dance and the part they played in the period covering 1250-1750, in Europe. It is filled with a whole cosmology of ideas. How the arc of five centuries connect, are enmeshed, develop and flow into our own day. This book is a treasure.Winter 2008 -- Paul-James Dwyer * Toronto Early Music Quarterly *The balanced assortment of general introductions and detailed case studies makes Dance, Spectacle, and the Body Politick, 1250-1750 a useful collection and an engaging 'read' for dance enthusiasts, reconstructors, and scholars alike. -- Emily Winerock * Dance Chronicle *[This] collection more than fulfills its goal of opening up pre-1750 dance studies to a general readership, but will also be of interest to the more informed dance historian. * Historical Dance *Dance, Spectacle, and the Body Politick makes an important contribution to existing dance scholarship ... The essays in Nevile's collection add significantly to this diligent work. Every essay is both informative and interesting, and each author provides a valuable list of further readings on the topic.Volume 16 Issue 2 2011 * European Legacy *This well-researched and original collection of essays on early dance addresses the picture of dance in society from 1250 to 1750. The interdisciplinary and wide-ranging approach of the book makes it very valuable for dance historians, musicologists and historians of ideas alike, as well as anyone interested in dance history. Issue 78, Autumn 2010 * Cahiers Elisabethains *. . . this ambitious anthology . . . manages to fill an academic void . . . .Vol. 35.1 2010 -- Nicole Haitzinger * University of Salzburg *An important book for any musician, theatrical performer, dancer, historian, reconstructor or anyone involved in recreating the work of this time period. Essays with detailed notes, glossary, bibliography and a list of dance treatises, manuscripts, modern editions and published translations are worth the price of the book alone. A great book for understanding music, dance and the part they played in the period covering 1250-1750, in Europe.Summer 2009 -- Paul-James Dwyer * Dance International *Table of ContentsPart 1. Introduction and Overview1. Dance in Europe 1250–1750Part 2. Dance at Court and in the City2. Dance in Late Thirteenth-Century Paris3. Dance and Society in Quattrocento Italy4. Dance in Sixteenth- and Early Seventeenth-Century FrancePart 3. Dance and the Public Theater5. Pierre Beauchamps and the Public Theater6. Dance in the London Theaters c. 1700–1750Part 4. Choreographic Structure and Music7. The Relationship between Dance and Music in Fifteenth-Century Italian Dance Practice 8. The Basse Dance c. 1445–c. 15459. Choreographic Structure in Baroque DancePart 5. Dance and the State10. Your Most Humble Subject, Cesare Negri Milanese11. The Politics of Ballet at the Court of Louis XIV12. Mr. Isaac's The Pastorall and Issues of "Party"Part 6. Dance, Society, and the Cosmos13. Plato's Philosophy of Dance14. Moral Views on Dance15. Order, Proportion, and Geometric Forms: The Cosmic Structure of Dance, Grand Gardens, and Architecture during the RenaissanceList of Dance Treatises, Manuscripts, Modern Editions, and TranslationsGlossaryBibliographyList of ContributorsIndex
£19.79
Random House USA Inc Child Bride
Book Synopsis
£15.30
£14.32
McFarland & Company Dancing with Dharma Essays on Movement and Dance
Book SynopsisThis collection of new essays documents the innovative work being done at the intersection of Buddhism and dance. The contributors-scholars, choreographers and Buddhist masters-discuss movement, performance, ritual and theory, among other topics. The final section provides a variety of guided practices.
£27.54
McFarland & Company To See the Saw Movies Essays on Torture Porn and
Book Synopsis
£20.89
OMNIBUS PRESS ESSNTL ELEMENTS 2000 1 VLA BKCDDVD
Book Synopsis
£11.89
Harvard University Press Pursuits of Happiness The Hollywood Comedy of
Book SynopsisDuring the ’30s and ’40s, Hollywood produced a genre of madcap comedies that emphasized reuniting the central couple after divorce or separation. Here, Cavell examines seven of those classic movies for their cinematic techniques, and for such varied themes as feminism, liberty and interdependence.Trade ReviewThe great achievement of…Pursuits of Happiness is that it finally provides a solid framework for the serious discussion of the great dialogue comedies of the thirties and forties, perhaps the most revived and loved movies of Hollywood’s golden period. -- Al LaValley * American Film *This just must be, in its close readings and its stunning associations, one of the most compelling accounts of its kind. The fact is, it just is its kind. -- Geoffrey Hawthorn * London Review of Books *This is a voice like no other in philosophy, today or ever. -- Arthur C. Danto * October *No book about the art of Hollywood I have ever read can make its readers stop and think more effectively than this one. -- S. S. Prawer * Times Literary Supplement *Stanley Cavell’s book succeeds brilliantly… The individual ‘readings’ of the films and the general conceptual plan in which they are embedded are both so rich and rewarding that…‘brilliant’…seems an understatement. -- Gerald Mast * Journal of Aesthetic Education *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Words for a Conversation 1. Cons and Pros The Lady Eve 2. Knowledge as Transgression It Happened One Night 3. Leopards in Connecticut Bringing up Baby 4. The Importance of Importance The Philadelphia Story 5. Counterfeiting Happiness His Girl Friday 6. The Courting of Marriage Adam's Rib 7. The Same and Different The Awful Truth Appendix: Film in the University Acknowledgments Index
£25.46
Harvard University Press Keeping Together in Time
Book SynopsisMcNeil pursues the possibility that coordinated rhythmic movement—and the shared feelings it evokes—has been a powerful force in holding human groups together. As he has done for historical phenomena as diverse as warfare, plague, and the pursuit of power, he brings a dazzling breadth and depth of knowledge to his study.Trade ReviewIn his imaginative and provocative book...William H. McNeill develops an unconventional notion that, he observes, is 'simplicity itself.' He maintains that people who move together to the same beat tend to bond and thus that communal dance and drill alter human feelings. -- John Mueller * New York Times Book Review *Every now and then, a slender, graceful, unassuming little volume modestly proposes a radical rethinking of human history. Such a book is Keeping Together in Time...Important, witty, and thoroughly approachable, [it] could, perhaps, only be written by a scholar in retirement with a lifetime's interdisciplinary reading to ponder, the imagination to conceive unanswerable questions, and the courage, in this age of over-speculation, to speculate in areas where certainty is impossible. Its vision of dance as a shaper of evolution, a perpetually sustainable and sustaining resource, would crown anyone's career. -- Penelope Reed Doob * Toronto Globe and Mail *McNeill is one of our greatest living historians...As usual with McNeill, Keeping Together in Time contains a wonderfully broad survey of practices in other times and places. There are the Greeks, who invented the flute-accompanied phalanx, and the Romans, who invented calling cadence while marching. There are the Shakers, who combined worship and dancing, and the Mormons, who carefully separated the functions but who prospered at least as much on the strength of their dancing as their Sunday morning worship. -- David Warsh * Boston Sunday Globe *[A] wide-ranging and thought-provoking book...A mind-stretching exploration of the thesis that `keeping together in time'--army drill, village dances, and the like--consolidates group solidarity by making us feel good about ourselves and the group and thus was critical for social cohesion and group survival in the past. * Virginia Quarterly Review *[This book is] nothing less than a survey of the historical impact of shared rhythmic motion from the paleolithic to the present, an impact that [McNeill] finds surprisingly significant...McNeill moves beyond Durkheim in noting that in complex societies divided by social class muscular bonding may be the medium through which discontented and oppressed groups can gain the solidarity necessary for challenging the existing social order. -- Robert N. Bellah * Commonweal *The title of this fascinating essay contains a pun that sums up its thesis" keeping together in time, or coordinated rhythmic movement and the shared feelings it evokes, has kept human groups together throughout history. Most of McNeill's pioneering study is devoted to the history of communal dancing...[This] volume will appeal equally to scholars and to the general reader. -- Doyne Dawson * Military History *As with so many themes [like this one], whether in science or in symphonies, one wonders (in retrospect) why it has not been invented before...[T]he book is fascinating. -- K. Kortmulder * Acta Biotheoretica (The Netherlands) *This scholarly and creative exploration of the largely unresearched phenomenon of shared euphoria aroused by unison movement moves across the disciplines of dance, history, sociology, and psychology...Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsMuscular Bonding Human Evolution Small Communities Religious Ceremonies Politics and War Conclusion Notes Index
£27.16
Templar Publishing Welcome to the Arts: Dance
Book SynopsisBrilliantly curated and beautifully illustrated, the Welcome to the Arts series offers all-hours admission to some of the world's most wondrous performances.From Swan Lake to Riverdance, flamenco to tap, Dance features some of the most iconic performances and popular dances from around the world. Learn about the history, culture, evolution and technique of each dance, while also discovering the stars of past and present, including Fred Astaire, Carlos Acosta, Martha Graham and much more. Exclusive backstage access also allows you to see what goes on behind the theatre doors, including prop and costume design.Expertly written by Sir Alistair Spalding and published in conjunction with Sadler's Wells, this beautifully illustrated book is also a large format, so the whole family can be immersed in the wonderful world of dance.The perfect gift for any Strictly fan, musical lover or budding dancer.Trade ReviewPut on your dancing shoes and waltz, shimmy and tap your way through a spectacular reading journey in the pages of one of this year's most dazzling books....A book for all the family to treasure! * Lancashire Evening Post *A beautiful read. * Woman's Weekly *A showstopper that practically demands applause. -- Lucy Bannerman * The Times *An oversized thrilling introduction to all forms of dance [...] it's a superb gift for dance lovers aged eight-plus. -- Imogen Russell-Williams * Metro *
£21.25
Lulu.com ICE COLD
£40.47
Jessica Kingsley Publishers The Moving Researcher: Laban/Bartenieff Movement
Book SynopsisThis comprehensive book will serve as a step-by-step guide to Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis, updating and expanding concepts and practices. Following extensive research on the method developed by Rudolf von Laban and his disciples, this book explains movement principles, exercises, and motif symbols in detail. Organized according to the four categories of Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis (Body-Effort-Shape-Space), additional chapters present the different developments of the theory in relation to performing arts and movement therapy. The author draws on Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis as a dynamic and connective approach, traveling from classroom and studio to everyday life, stage performance, and film acting. The Laban perspective serves as a multimedia artistic viewpoint, intertwining theory, learning, and imagery.This unique approach to this internationally used method is essential reading for educators and students of dance and other performing arts and movement-related professions.Trade ReviewFernandes' book is as comprehensive an overview of Laban Movement Analysis as any book thus far. It is detailed, specific, and full of clear definitions, examples, and stories about the work. A must-have for all students and professional movement analysts! -- Karen Bradley, Director of Graduate Studies in Dance, University of MarylandThis is an extensive and intensive body of research. A new text book for Laban practitioners and scholars, a first-class resource for all in pursuit of articulation of the grammar and semantics of Movement and its field of application. A real highlight is the scopic yet detailed exposition of Bartenieff Fundamentals™. This should be "shared among all of us who have the passion drive for movement and the action drive for research". -- Anna Carlisle, MA MBE, President of the Laban GuildTable of ContentsForeword. Regina Miranda. Preface to the English edition. 1. The Development of Rudolf Von Laban's Movement Theories. 1.1 The process of movement: An expanded outline of the application of Laban theory to movement. Jackie Hand, Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, USA. 1.2. Voicing the practice: Laban's embodied immigration to Brazil. Melina Scialom. 1.3. Choreology and Choreological Studies. Júlio Mota, Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná. 1.4 How to move things and words: Laban's Moving Analysis as Somatic-Performative Research. 1.5. Autistic or Artistic? Laban's theories applied to child disability as somatic performative integration. 2. Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis: Interartistic Practice, Creativity, and Dynamic Writing. 2.1. Dance theater and Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis. 2.2. Infinite dance: Dynamic bodies and concepts. 2.3. Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis and Labanotation. 2.4. The 'Mastery of Movement': The categories of Body-Effort-Shape-Space. 2.5. The dialogue among the arts in total body expression. 3. Among Rocks, Reptiles and Connective Wind Currents: The Body. 3.1. Bartenieff Principles. 3.1.1. Breath Support and Kinetic Chains. 3.1.2. Core Support. 3.1.3. Dynamic Alignment. 3.1.4. Body Organizations and Developmental Movement Patterns. 3.1.5. Bony Connections. 3.1.6. Weight Shift for Locomotion. 3.1.7. Initiation and Sequencing. 3.1.8. Gradated Rotation. 3.1.9. Effort Life for Body Connectivity. 3.1.10. Spatial Intent. 3.2. Bartenieff Fundamentals. 3.2.1. Preparatory Exercises. 3.2.2. The Basic Six. 3.3. Posture/Gesture Merger. 3.4. Gesture and Posture according to Laban and Lamb. Júlio Mota. 3.4.1. The Legacy of Rudolf von Laban. 3.5. Other Concepts and Symbols of Body. 3.5.1. Body Parts. 3.5.2. Upper and Lower Limbs. 3.5.3. Bodily Actions. 4. Effort or Eukinetics: Pitches and Colors of a Poetic Body. 4.1. The Flow Factor. 4.1.1. Free flow. 4.1.2. Bound flow. 4.2. The space factor. 4.2.1. Indirect space. 4.2.2. Direct space. 4.3. The weight factor. 4.3.1. Light weight. 4.3.2. Strong weight. 4.4. The time factor. 4.2.1. Sustained time. 4.2.2. Quick time. 4.5. The Effort Factors and Quaternary Correspondences. 4.6. Pre-Effort. 4.6.1. Space Pre-Effort. 4.6.2. Weight Pre-Effort. 4.6.3. Time Pre-Effort. 4.7. The Combination of Factors. 4.7.1. Effort States. 4.7.2. Effort Drives. 4.8. Effort Phrases and Phrasing. 4.8.1. Effort Phrases. 4.8.2. Effort Phrasing. 5. Putting the Body Relationships in Shape. 5.1. Shape Flow. 5.1.1. Growing/opening/unfolding. 5.1.2. Shrinking/closing/folding. 5.1.3. Growing and Shrinking Alternately. 5.2. Spoke-Like and Arc-Like Directional. 5.3. Shaping. 5.4. Specific Shapes Created by the Body. 5.5. Relationships. 6. The Architecture of Moving Spaces. 6.1. Space Harmony. Susanne Schlicher, Professor/Dramaturg, Theaterakademie Hamburg/Hochschule für Musik und Theater (Hamburg University of Music and Theatre. 6.1.1. Space Harmony and Bartenieff Fundamentals. 6.2. Kinesphere. 6.3. Reach Space. 6.3.1. Small Kinesphere- Near Reach. 6.3.2. Medium Kinesphere- Mid Reach. 6.3.3. Large Kinesphere- Far Reach. 6.4. Crosses of Axes. 6.4.1. Standard Cross of Axes. 6.4.2. Body Cross of Axes. 6.4.3. Constant Cross of Axes. 6.5. Crystalline Forms. 6.5.1. The Tetrahedron. 6.5.2. The Octahedron and its Three Dimensions. 6.5.3. The Cube and its Four Diagonals. 6.5.4. The Icosahedron and its Three Planes. 6.5.5. The Dodecahedron and its Three Planes. 6.6. Spatial Pathway. 6.6.1. Central Pathway. 6.6.2. Transverse Pathway. 6.6.3. Peripheral Pathway. 6.7. Spatial Tension. 6.7.1. Central Tension. 6.7.2. Transverse Tension. 6.7.3. Peripheral Tension. 6.8. Other concepts and symbols of Space. 7. Associating Body-Effort-Shape-Space. 7.1. Choreutics: Tuning and turning compositions. 7.1.1. Affinities in the Octahedron Dimensions. 7.1.2. Affinities in the Cube Diagonals. 7.1.3. Affinities in the Isocahedron Planes. 7.1.4. From points in Space to movement composition: The Personal Scale. 7.1.5. From Shape Flow to movement composition: Authentic Movement. 7.2. Body Attitude. 7.2.1. Body. 7.2.2. Effort Stress. 7.2.3. Shape Stress. 7.2.4. Space Stress. 7.3. Themes of Continuous Dynamics and Change. 7.3.1. Inner/Outer. 7.3.2. Exertion/Recuperation. 7.3.3. Function/Expression. 7.3.4. Mobility/Stability. 8. Mapping Bodily Histories: Drawing the Moving Body-Text. 8.1. The observation of human movement for description. 8.2. The description of human movement. 8.2.1. The Effort-Shape Horizontal Motif. 8.2.2. The Discursive Description and the Vertical Motif Description. 8.2.3. The Detailed Description. 8.3. Simplified Movement Analysis. 8.3.1. LMA Simplified Coding Sheet. 8.3.2. Filling Out the Simplified Coding Sheet- An Example. 8.3.3. Applying the Simplified Coding Sheet to dance movement analysis: Bahian urban environment and daily life in the moves of 'Hidden Agenda' by Tran Chan Dance Company. 8.4. Detailed Movement Analysis. 8.4.1. LMA Detailed Coding Sheet. 8.4.2. Filling out the Detailed Coding Sheet- An Example. 8.4.3. Applying the Detailed Coding Sheet to character movement analysis: Carmen Maura in the Pedro Almodóvar's film 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.' Ciane Fernandes. Susanne Schlicher. Rosel Grassmann, Artist and Director at Wilderness BodyPainting, Independent Concept and Photo Artist of Movement Studies. Works Cited.
£31.34
MIT Press Ltd Digital Performance A History of New Media in
Book SynopsisThe historical roots, key practitioners, and artistic, theoretical, and technological trends in the incorporation of new media into the performing arts.The past decade has seen an extraordinarily intense period of experimentation with computer technology within the performing arts. Digital media has been increasingly incorporated into live theater and dance, and new forms of interactive performance have emerged in participatory installations, on CD-ROM, and on the Web. In Digital Performance, Steve Dixon traces the evolution of these practices, presents detailed accounts of key practitioners and performances, and analyzes the theoretical, artistic, and technological contexts of this form of new media art. Dixon finds precursors to today's digital performances in past forms of theatrical technology that range from the deus ex machina of classical Greek drama to Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk (concept of the total artwork), and draws parallels between contemporary work and the
£45.00
Trolley Books Sristi
Book SynopsisSharmila Desai and the art of her unique performance are the source of inspiration for Sristi. Here she presents, through photographs and illustrations, how her art is derived from the practice of ancient Indian worship, and fused with contemporary art and spirituality. Edited by Olivier Berggruen, Sristi also contains a foreword by Trudie Styler and Sting, with essays by Karole Armitage, Olivier Berggruen and Jeffrey Deitch. In Indian worship, Yantra - a pure geometric diagram - is a tool to stimulate inner visualisations, meditations and experiences. One of the predominant elementary diagrams is the triangle, representing the three fold process of creation (Sristi), preservation (Sthithi) and dissolution (Samhara). Shot over a period of seven years by a variety of photographers, this captivating book is an offering to the creative principle of Sristi. It follows the practice of the young, New York-based inspirational force, Sharmila Desai, who has merged many forms of Indian movement beginning with Ashtanga yoga and including elements of the martial art Kalaripayattu and the classical dance, Bharata Natyam. Sristi is edited by Olivier Berggruen, and also contains a foreword by Trudie Styler and Sting, with essays by Karole Armitage, Olivier Berggruen and Jeffrey Deitch. "When I become especially excited about someone who is creating a new type of form, I ask them to present a project at our gallery. I asked Sharmila to develop a project for us without specifying whether or not it should be dance, music or sculpture. It turned out to be a remarkable mixture of all three. Her performance was absorbing and inspiring, an invitation to enter Sharmila's unique spiritual and aesthetic world" - Jeffrey Deitch. "When she teaches you are in the company of an ancient. When she dances, she transforms herself, the goddess emerges and the watcher is transfixed. A beautiful being on whom God shines his light. She is goodness, she is kindness, she is as noble as she is simple. She moves with grace, she embodies grace. There it is: Sharmila Desai is Grace" -Trudie Styler and Sting.
£16.99
University of California Press Radical Bodies
Book SynopsisDance was a fundamental part of the art world in the 1960s, the most volatile decade in American art, offering a radical image of bodily presence in a moment of revolutionary change. Halprin, Forti, and Rainer - all with Jewish roots - found themselves at the epicenter of this upheaval. This book tells their stories.Trade Review"...[an] attractive, large-format volume [that] gives props to 96-year-old Anna Halprin." * The Village Voice *"Through photos, objects and rare footage [featured in the book], the experiments on Ms. Halprin's deck are revealed to be crucial to the Judson revolution and so much that has happened since in New York postmodern dance." * New York Times *"The book significantly revisit[s] the body of the sixties as a living and breathing resource of inspiration, complexity, and revolution." * The Woman's Art Journal *"More than an exhibition catalogue, the text, populated by images of the exhibit’s artifacts, offers an absorptive record that celebrates Halprin, Forti, and Rainer’s historical oeuvres. While maintaining a critical, discursive perspective, especially in the three grounding essays by the book’s editors, the text additionally weaves together artist writings, critical reflection, and personal anecdotes by Forti, John Rockwell, and Morton Subotnick. These supplementary pieces invite the voices of the artist, critic, and collaborator, respectively, giving the book a diverse stylistic ethos that performatively addresses the intangible aspects of its subjects: the body, performance, and time-based materials." * The Drama Review *"This catalog brings new insights into the essential and world-changing new ideas on art making that these three women ignited and nurtured and continue to do so—all three remain active in the dance world." * Journal of Dance Education *"The book is punctuated with visuals: performance photos, film stills, rehearsal notes, manuscripts, drawings, and improvisational scores. The visual organization asks its reader to engage with Halprin, Forti, and Rainer’s radical bodies through images of them in motion and written representations of their work." * PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art *"This catalog brings new insights into the essential and world-changing new ideas on art making that these three women ignited and nurtured and continue to do so—all three remain active in the dance world." * Journal of Dance Education *"Radical Bodies and Judson Dance Theater raise a final relevant to intellectual history: how do we consider the ephemerality of the past? . . . The historical essays as well as the photographs, notebook pages, scores, and other archival sources richly documented in the book mean that while we can’t go back again to the dancing bodies themselves, we can still activate the meanings left in their wake." * Society for US Intellectual History *
£55.32
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc Playing Shakespeare
Book Synopsis
£14.88
Princeton University Press Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle
Book SynopsisFocusing on the age of Giselle at the Paris Opera (from the 1830s through the 1840s), this book looks at the structural and thematic relationship between ballet and opera. It argues that an understanding of both the genres - and of nineteenth-century theater-going culture in general - may be gained by examining them within the same framework.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2001 De la Torre Bueno Prize for Most Distinguished Book in Dance Scholarship, Dance Perspectives Foundation (New York) "To readers interested in the evolution of opera and ballet performance practice, Smith's meticulously documented study offers a chance to see many familiar works in a new and surprising light."--M. Lignana Rosenberg, Opera News "Marian Smith's book is a swift and easy read, fully researched, informative, genuinely insightful about her subject. Definitely one for the bookshelf."--David Blewitt, Opera NowTable of ContentsLIST OF TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS ix PREFACE xi ACKN0WLEDGMENTS xix NOTE T0 READER xxi CHAPTER ONE: Introduction: Music and the Story 3 CHAPTER TWO: A Family Resemblance 19 CHAPTER THREE: The Lighter Tone of Ballet-Pantomime 59 CHAPTER FOUR: Ballet-Pantomime and Silent Language 97 CHAPTER FIVE: Hybrid Works at the Opera 124 CHAPTER SIX: Giselle 167 APPENDIX ONE: Ballet-Pantomimes and Operas Produced at the Paris Opera, 1825-1850 201 APPENDIX TWO: The Giselle Libretto 213 APPENDIX THREE: Sources for Musical Examples 239 NOTES 241 INDEX 301
£29.75
Harvard University Press Josephine Baker and the Rainbow Tribe
Book SynopsisHer performing days numbered, Josephine Baker did something outrageous: she transformed her chateau into a theme park whose main attraction was her Rainbow Tribe—12 children from around the globe, adopted as the family of the future. Matthew Pratt Guterl concludes that Baker was a serious activist, determined to make a positive difference.Trade ReviewThis book shimmers. The prose is spun gold, the ideas sparkle with intelligence, and the fun’s as high as Josephine Baker—topless in a banana skirt, her caramel skin gleaming —can take it. But in the end, it’s a tragedy… Baker bought a French castle, adopted a dozen children, and made them stand for every race and nation in the world. It went about as well as any other supersized celebrity adoption with a political agenda. But instead of reducing it to farce, Guterl shows us what it all meant… He weaves in new ways to think about identity, success, family, race, celebrity, and Baker herself. -- Jeannette Cooperman * St. Louis Magazine *Guterl is astute about the contradictions in Baker’s experiment and her celebrity, both of which rested on her capacity for reinvention. * New Yorker *Astute and readable… In many ways, this is cultural studies at its best. -- Steven Carroll * Sydney Morning Herald *A few pages into the finely worded, deeply evocative prologue, Guterl asks readers to set aside everything they know about Josephine Baker—but it’s too late, for Guterl has already begun what almost seems a fabulous fairy tale, one commandingly, colorfully told by a masterful contemporary storyteller. Rarely does an author’s voice come across as audibly as Guterl’s, in cadence and sometimes in directives to the reader, and the effect is enchanting—Baker’s story, even more so. Years after chanteuse-dancer Baker’s soaring star fell, she rose once more, this time as a relentless civil rights advocate and the adoptive mother of 12 multiracial children, the ‘Rainbow Tribe,’ whom she then raised and paraded in a theme-park-type castle, Les Milandes, in the French countryside. Here, Guterl winnows out a truth from the many fragments (in biographies, in the press, from the children themselves), positing that ‘it was an inspirational, exaggerated symbol of what was possible at the extreme end of wealth and fame, globally speaking, for anyone and everyone, no matter their skin tone or racial classification.’ A fascinating book about a magnificent woman. -- Eloise Kinney * Booklist *The persona with which Baker (1906–75) captivated the world had already been retooled once by her manager Giuseppe Pepito Abatino. Following World War II, Baker transformed herself again, this time into a universal mother presiding over a dozen children of every race on permanent display at her castle in France’s Dordogne… This work will be enjoyed by all readers. -- Jenny Brewer * Library Journal *Matthew Guterl’s astonishing Josephine Baker and the Rainbow Tribe tells the wholly unsuspected life-story of one of the twentieth-century’s most amazing visionaries. It is an engrossing biography of an extraordinary woman. -- David Levering Lewis, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning W. E. B. Du Bois, 1868–1919 and W. E. B. Du Bois, 1919–1963
£30.56
ALFRED PUBLISHING CO.(UK)LTD NURTURED BY LOVE REVISED EDITION
Book SynopsisThe edition is taken from the original japanese text. it provides an insight into the mind of the master.
£15.68
McFarland & Company Tap Roots The Early History of Tap Dancing
Book SynopsisTracing the development of tap dancing from ancient India to the Broadway stage in 1903, when the word ""tap"" was first used in publicity to describe this new American style of dance, this text addresses the cultural, societal and historical events that influenced the development of tap dance.
£27.54
McFarland & Company Ukrainian Dance
Book Synopsis Ukrainian dance is remarkably enduring in its popularity and still performed in numerous cultural contexts. This text unpacks the complex world of this ethnic dance, with special attention to the differences between vival dance (which requires being fully engaged in the present moment) and reflective dance (dance connected explicitly to the past). Most Ukrainian vival dances have been performed by peasants in traditional village settings, for recreational and ritual purposes. Reflective Ukrainian dances are performed more self-consciously as part of a living heritage. Further sub-groups are examined, including national dances, recreational/educational dances, and spectacular dances on stage.
£32.39
Schiffer Publishing Ltd Burlesque
Book Synopsis
£20.69
Octopus Publishing Group Catch Your Breath
Book Synopsis''Brilliantly funny.'' - Matt Lucas''You have to read this book.'' - Tim Harford''It''s funny, touching and gobsmacking in equal measure. At its heart is a breathtaking account of life on the COVID frontline.'' - Jay Rayner''Ed''s journey is funny, sad, harrowing, hilarious... I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO READ THIS.'' - Colin Mochrie''Very Funny.'' - Fern Brady''I love your book Catch your Breath, it just feels so personal and so refreshing.'' - Adil Ray, Saturday LiveA gut punch of a memoir by a doctor - and comedian - whose job is to keep people alive by putting them to sleep.Ed Patrick is an anaesthetist.Strong drugs for his patients, strong coffee for him. But it''s not just sleep-giving for this anaesthetist, as he navigates emergencies, patients not breathing for themselves and living with a terrifying sense of responsibility. It''s enough to leave anyone feeling numb.B
£15.29
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Dance in Handel's London Operas
Book SynopsisExamines the pivotal role of dance in the Italian operas of Handel, perhaps the greatest opera composer between Monteverdi and Mozart. George Frideric Handel set himself apart from his contemporaries by employing choreographed instrumental music to complement and reinforce the emotional impact of his operas. Of his fifty-three operas, no fewer than fourteen -- including ten written for the London stage -- feature dances. Dance in Handel's London Operas explores the relationship between music, drama, and dance in these London works, dispelling the notion that dance was a largely peripheral element in Italian-language operas prior to those of Gluck. Taking a chronological approach, Sarah McCleave examines operas written throughout various periods in Handel's life, beginning with his early London operas,including his time at the Royal Music Academy and the "Sallé" operas of the 1730s, and concluding with his unstaged dramatic opera Alceste (1750). In considering the various influences on Handel (particularly the London stage), McCleave blends analysis of information from eighteenth-century treatises with that found in more modern studies, offering an informed and imaginative understanding of the role dance played in the work of this major figure --one who remained responsive throughout his career to the vital and innovative theatrical environment in which he worked. Sarah McCleave is a lecturer at The School of Creative Arts at Queen's University Belfast.Trade ReviewPlaces Handel's creative decisions in the wider context of European dance traditions and dance on the London stage, frequently referring to contemporary documents. Answers questions such as how the dissemination of French dances through choreographies or through chamber music might have been reflected in the dance types Handel used in his operas, hence addressing how far the types of dances he employed related to public taste. * EARLY MUSIC *Impeccably researched. An exemplary model of how to breathe new life into operas that have been studied as a [purely] vocal repertory. [McCleave's] findings will no doubt be of consequence for singers and opera directors looking to revive Handel's operas. Offers an extraordinary amount of useful information. A valuable resource for any dance, theater, or music historian of eighteenth-century England. * MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTES *The first full-length study of the subject, likely to transform the traditional view. Weaves a rich tapestry from relationships between Handel's output and the presence of dance in the contemporary theatrical scene. . . .The book explore[s] virtually every aspect of dance in Handel's operas. Packed with fresh information. The amount of fresh, detailed information greatly enhances our view of dance and spectacle [in this repertoire]. Anyone interested in Handel's dances -- not only scholars but also performers, conductors, and directors -- will find [this book] essential. An impressive and much-needed piece of scholarship, this book deserves a warm welcome. * JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGICAL RESEARCH *A data-rich study dealing in uncertainties and ambiguities. . . . Instructive and often revelatory. * MUSICAL TIMES *Dance was a significant area of overlap between opera and other theatrical genres staged in London during the first half of the eighteenth century, and an integral part of the theatrical experience. In Dance in Handel's London Operas, Sarah McCleave shows Handel as the consummate theatrical professional, illuminating his work with and for dancers. --Kathryn Lowerre, author of Music and Musicians on the London Stage, 1695-1705 * . *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Genres of Opera, Styles of Dance Handel's Operas of the 1710s The Royal Academy Operas Handel and the London Theater, 1729-35 Theatrical Dance and Opera in London, 1735-55 The French Connection Pastoral versus Heroic: Handel's Operas with Dance Epilogue: Opera Dance in a Changing Marketplace Appendix 1: A Study of Handel's Compositional Process Appendix 2: Theater and Dance Chronology
£87.30
