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Book SynopsisInvites us to step back into an era when the hourglass figure was in vogue and striptease was a true art form. This title reveals the personal journeys of yesteryear's icons of female sexuality and power, restoring their legacy to an age that has all but forgotten them - despite resurgence of the art of burlesque.Trade Review"This coffee table treasure serves as ... a fitting paean to this once-forgotten generation of women." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Liz Goldwyn illustrates an era in classic American entertainment with hundreds of archival photographs, costume sketches and newspaper clips." -- Time "Pretty Things is now the most comprehensive study on the era of burlesque." -- V Magazine "In Liz Goldwyn's Pretty Things, stripteasers bump and grind into the often dark reality of modern burlesque queens." -- Vanity Fair "The art of burlesque is lovingly documented through long-lost photographs as well as designer sketches and interviews." -- W magazine "[Pretty Things] celebrates the performers once dismissed as second-class citizens." -- Tatler

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisFrom the #1 New York Times bestselling McElroy Brothers, creators of the hit podcasts My Brother, My Brother and Me and The Adventure Zone, comes a helpful and hilarious how-to podcast guide covering everything you need to know to make, produce, edit, and promote a podcast…and get rich* doing it! (*Results not guaranteed.)Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy made their names as “advice giving brothers who have no business giving advice” (New York Times) on the hit podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me. But while they may not have the best relationship or workplace advice, they certainly make you laugh, and they do know a thing or two about podcasting.   In fact, the McElroy Brothers have spent the last decade making podcasts, including My Brother, My Brother and Me; The Adventure Zone; Sawbones; and more. From their start, independently producing and releasing the early episodes of My Brother, My Brother and Me, to their eleven currently available podcasts, the McElroys have become experts in creating successful podcasts. And now, they want to share what they’ve learned with you. In Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You), the McElroy Brothers will walk you through the process of turning an idea into ear-candy for legions of fans, sharing their expertise on everything from deciding on an effective name (definitely not something like My Brother, My Brother and Me), what type of microphone to use (definitely not one from the video game Rock Band), to making lots and lots of money (spoiler: you probably won’t). A must-read for anyone interested in podcasting, Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You) shares the keys to success as well as the mistakes to avoid and draws on the vast experiences of three of the funniest and most successful podcasters working today.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“We Promised You a Great Main Event is a fascinating dive into the physical art of modern-day wrestling entertainment and the unbelievable characters who make it work in the ring and the back, and a curiously heartwarming indictment of what neglects we allow in the name of entertainment. Highly recommended for both wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike.” — Chris Kluwe "Bill Hanstock loves wrestling more than most people love their families, even though he knows how silly it can be. That's exactly the kind of voice you want writing a comprehensive history of the sport, and he nails it, from the early days of the McMahon empire to its future. This is an impressive tome that's required reading for wrestling fans." — Grant Brisbee, The Athletic "A welcome WWE history that takes us from the very beginning all the way to the new challengers of AEW, streaming wrestling, and COVID-19, Hanstock's (at times personal) history never loses its love for the legend, commitment to the backstory, well-earned heartbreak, and sense of the moral, the metatextual, and the absurd that—to varying degrees—always lie at the heart of loving the squared circle." — Jeb Lund, former columnist, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Gawker, OOWrestling "Bill Hanstock's We Promised You A Great Main Event looks at the complete WWE story with heartfelt nostalgia while still managing to be incisive and deeply analytical about the world of professional wrestling....This may be an "unauthorized" history but it's definitive nevertheless." — David Dennis Jr., Morehouse Journalism Professor and writer "This book is a ticket to the ridiculous, uniquely American history of WWE, and Bill Hanstock (the funny smart friend who brought you to the show) keeps up a non-stop stream of fascinating, often hilarious, sometimes disturbing backstory as an endless parade of larger-than-life characters charge into the ring." — DC Pierson, author, The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep And Never Had To

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Those who like their beach books with a lot of drama will find what they’re looking for—and then some. Summer Stage is best enjoyed for its setting (in its varied loveliness Block Island becomes almost another character), for its observations about the changing nature of fame, and for its occasional sly commentary.” — Wall Street Journal “Meg Mitchell Moore kept me flipping pages late into the night in a new novel about the fleeting nature of notoriety, the darker side of fame, and how, sometimes, simply saying yes can change our lives in the most unexpected ways. Set against the backdrop of a revival of Much Ado About Nothing on beautiful Block Island, a mother, daughter, and uncle—each struggling to reinvent themselves—will learn that, while you can’t change an iconic play, it’s never too late to rewrite your own story. Summer Stage is a five-star novel that deserves a standing ovation! And Meg Mitchell Moore has a permanent place on my list of favorite authors.” — Kristy Woodson Harvey, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Veil “Moore brings summer theatre to life in her sparkling latest. The relationships feel real and engaging, and the dialogue is sharp and snappy, with smart writing that examines familial relationships with insight and aplomb. This one’s equally charming and satisfying.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Moore's latest deliciously captures the energy of a summer of creativity with this ensemble piece, combining a strong sense of place with likable narrators. From Sam’s stubborn vulnerability to Amy’s competence that belies bigger dreams, the characters are both relatable and aspirational. Give this to fans of Elin Hilderbrand and The Summer Set, by Aimee Agresti.” — Booklist (starred review) “Moore has created a story that unfolds much like a hot summer day at the beach—slow and languid and spiced up with a bit of drama. A light beach read that also examines the benefits and costs of celebrity.” — Kirkus Reviews "One of my own favorite writers." — Elin Hilderbrand “A family of actors encounter more than they bargained for during a summer on Block Island, which finds them mounting a production while dealing with secrets, ambition, and self-discovery.” — Southern Living “There’s sun, sea and major drama—you’ll be carried away.” — People on Vacationland "Irresistible." — Vogue.com on Vacationland "What a pleasure to open Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore and be invited for the summer to midcoast Maine. A novel full of rich, complex characters, deep blue-gray ocean views, and simmering secrets, Vacationland is as sophisticated and delicious as lobster bisque." — Amanda Eyre Ward, New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters and The Lifeguards "Engrossing....A truly lovely tale of families, love, mistakes, forgiveness, and, yes, happiness." — Kirkus Reviews on Vacationland "Delectable...Readers are in for a treat." — Publishers Weekly on Vacationland

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Book SynopsisThe plays of Euripides have stimulated audiences since the fifth century BC. This volume, containing Phoenician Women, Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, Orestes, and Rhesuscompletes the new editions of Euripides in Penguin Classics.Features a general introduction, individual prefaces to each play, chronology, notes, bibliography, and glossaryTable of ContentsThe Bacchae and Other PlaysGeneral IntroductionChronological TableNote on the TextTranslator's NotePreface to Phoenician WomenPhoenician WomenPreface to OrestesOrestesPreface to BacchaeBacchaePreface to Iphigenia at AulisIphigenia at AulisPreface to RhesusRhesusNotesBibliographyGlossary of Mythological and Geographical Names

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Book SynopsisBody Impossible theorizes the concept of virtuosity in contemporary dance and performance through a study of the career of dancer Desmond Richardson. A virtuoso for the ages, Richardson is renowned for delivering commanding performances over decades in contexts ranging from the stages of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballett Frankfurt to featured appearances with Michael Jackson and Prince, along with his work as co-founder of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, inaugurating a virtuosic queer black aesthetic with choreographer Dwight Rhoden. Focusing on Richardson''s creative insistence on improvisatory fun and excellence throughout the decades approaching the millennium (shaped by Reaganism, the Culture Wars, the AIDS epidemic, the New Jim Crow, and MTV), this book brings dance into conversation with paradigms of blackness, queerness, masculinity, and class in order to generate a socioculturally attentive understanding of virtuosity. Virtuosity obscures the border between p

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Book SynopsisPerforming Time explores our experience of time in dance and music, from the perspectives of both performers and audience, and informed by the most recent research in dance science, musicology, neuroscience, and psychology.Table of Contents0: Wöllner & London: Introduction to Performing Time 1 Foundations: The Flow of Time in Music and Dance 1: Bettina Bläsing: Time experiences in dance 2: Mariusz Kozak: Varieties of musical temporality 3: Keith Doelling, Sophie Herbst, Luc Arnal & Virginie van Wassenhove: Psychological and neuroscientific foundations of rhythms and timing 4: Sylvie Droit-Volet & Natalia Martinelli: The psychological underpinnings of feelings of the passage of time 2 Duration, Tempo and Pacing in Performance and Perception 5: Justin London: What is musical tempo? 6: Renee Conroy: Telling time: Dancers, dancemakers, and audience members 7: Molly Henry & Sonja Kotz: Preferred tempo and its relation to personal sense of time and temporal flow 8: Coline Joufflineau: Time through the magnifying glass of slowness: a case study in Myriam Gourfink's choreography 9: Alexander Jensenius: Standing still together: Reflections on a one-year-long exploration of human micromotion 10: David Hammerschmidt: Spontaneous motor tempo: A window into the inner sense of time 11: Mari Romarheim Haugen: An embodied perspective on rhythm in music-dance genres 3 Synchrony: Keeping Together in Time 12: Guy Madison: Moving together in music and dance - features of entrainment and sensorimotor synchronisation 13: Werner Goebl & Laura Bishop: Joint shaping of musical time: How togetherness emerges in music ensemble performance 14: Julien Laroche, Tommi Himberg & Asaf Bachrach: Making time together: An exploration of participatory time-making through collective dance improvisation 15: Birgitta Burger & Petri Toiviainen: Time and synchronisation in dance movement 16: Simone Dalla Bella: Unravelling individual differences in synchronizing to the beat of music 17: Anne Danielsen: Shaping the beat bin in computer-based grooves 18: Matthew H. Woolhouse: The 'synchrony effect' in dance: how rhythmic scaffolding and vision facilitate social cohesion 4 Performance Time Experienced: Attention, Expectation and Groove 19: Clemens Wöllner: Changes in psychological time when attending to different temporal structures in music 20: Pieter-Jan Maes & Marc Leman: Expressive timing in music and dance interactions: a dynamic perspective 21: Psyche Loui: Temporal aspects of musical expectancy and creativity in improvisation: A review of recent neuroscientific studies and an updated model 22: Anna Pakes: Experiences of time in boring dance 23: Jason Noble, Tanor Bonin, Roger Dean & Stephen McAdams: Evaluating the psychological reality of alternate temporalities in contemporary music: Empirical case studies of Gérard Grisey's Vortex Temporum 24: Kristina Knowles & Richard Ashley: Measuring experienced time while listening to music 25: Jan Stupacher, Michael Hove & Peter Vuust: The experience of musical groove: body movement, pleasure, and social bonding 5 Conclusions: Capturing Time in Performance and Science 26: Marc Wittmann: Embodied time: what the psychology and neuroscience of time can learn from the performing arts 27: Russell Hartenberger: Learning to feel the time: Reflections of a percussionist 28: Henry Daniel, Justin London: Performing and feeling time in contemporary dance 29: Kent Nagano, Clemens Wöllner: Music is a unique artform because of the temporal aspect 30: Stewart Copeland & Daniel Levitin: Timing, tempo and rhythm: Evidence from the laboratory and the concert stage

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Book SynopsisChronicles the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre's journey from small modern dance company to one of the premier institutions of African-American culture. This book charts the troupe's rise to national and international renown, and contextualizes its progress within the civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights struggles of the late 20th century.Trade Review"In Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American Culture, Thomas F. DeFrantz sets out to provide an appraisal of one of the most important figures in the short history of American modern dance, as well as a 'stabilizing narrative' of his work. The result is an impeccable piece of dance scholarship--one that achieves its objectives and affirms Ailey's contribution to the African-American cultural canon...Dance students, scholars, and Ailey enthusiasts will all value this groundbreaking study."--Times Literary Supplement"Dancing Revelations is an enjoyable read, not only for those concerned with Ailey's dances as they relate to larger struggles within American society, but for anyone who loves the art and artist."--Dance Magazine"Specialists in dance will find it a provocative analysis of Ailey and his contributions to American modern dance.""DeFrantz's study...is not the first book about the protean Ailey, who was born in hardscrabble Texas in 1931 and died in 1989 after creating close to 80 works. But it is perhaps the most comprehensive, combining biography, criticism, the analysis of dance criticism, and a sort of corporate history, siting the now firmly established Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in the international cultural landscape."--Village Voice"Alvin Ailey was a warm and generous mentor and friend. He was also an artistic genius of the dance. Dancing Revelations is a valuable resource for everyone who has enjoyed a performance by the Alvin Ailey Aemerican Dance Theater."--Sylvia Waters, Artistic Director, Ailey II"Alvin Ailey founded America's most famous dance company and created in Revelations its best known dance composition. Our wish for an appraisal of Ailey the artist and for a probing analysis of his choreography has been brilliantly answered by Thomas DeFrantz in this richly textured exploration of the Ailey legacy. The scholarship is impeccable, the analysis profound. Dancing Revelations is superb. Bravo!"--Richard A. Long, author, The Black Tradition in American Dance"Surely Alvin Ailey's Choreographic Legacy deserves serious scrutiny. Finally, Thomas DeFrantz offers a complete analysis of Ailey's dances and their meaning. An important volume for anyone interested in the history of dance, African American culture, and how modern dance is viewed around the world today."--Donald Byrd, choreographer and Artistic Director, Spectrum Dance TheaterTable of ContentsContents Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Revelations 1962 Early Dances Early Company Revelations II 1969 Touring, Touring, Touring Reflecting a Spectrum of Experience Other Dances Ailey Celebrates Ellington Ailey's Construction of Gender and Spectatorship Later Dances Concluding Moves Appendix: Choreography by Alvin Ailey Bibliography Index

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Table of ContentsForeword by Martha Swope ; Preface ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Balance ; 3. Motions Without Turns ; 4. Pirouettes ; 5. Turns in the Air ; 6. The Pas de Deux ; 7. The Mechanics of Partnered Turns ; 8. The Mechanics of Lifts ; 9. The Effects of Body Size ; 10. A Step into the Future ; Appendix A - Linear Mechanics and Newton's Laws ; Appendix B - Rotational Mechanics ; Appendix C - Anatomical Data for Dancers ; Appendix D - Rotational Inertia for Some Body Configurations ; Appendix E - Acceleration Away from Balance ; Appendix F - Off-Balance Pirouettes ; Appendix G - Arabesque Turn Analysis ; Appendix H - Quantitative Analysis of the Grande Pirouette ; Appendix I - Quantitative Analysis of the Fouette Turn ; Appendix J - Quantitative Analysis of the Supported Fouette Turn ; Appendix K - Lean, Don't Slip ; Appendix L - Biomechanical Forces in a Dancer's Body ; Glossary ; Index

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Book SynopsisIn How to Market the Arts: A Practical Approach for the 21st Century, expert authors Anthony Rhine and Jay Pension provide a new and practical paradigm to explain how nonprofit arts marketing can and should work.Trade ReviewThis is a much-needed resource and exploration of what it takes to promote the nonprofit arts sector at this time of change and transformation. Rhine and Pension have created a new approach, not only to how we sell our work, but how we can view the process of making and selling more holistically, as two halves of the same necessary whole. * Melia Bensussen, Artistic Director, Hartford Stage & Professor, Emerson College *This book proposes a compelling new approach that transforms conventional marketing paradigms into a more flexible and appropriate framework for nonprofit arts organizations. By redefining notions of marketing and "engagement," the authors help us see that the art we create and present is not an end in itself, but rather a powerful vehicle to serve our community and transform the world. Artists and arts administrators alike should take notice. * Jeffrey Nytch, author of The Entrepreneurial Muse: Inspiring Your Career in Classical Music *Through a practical lens, Rhine and Pension provide the reader with a clear understanding on marketing and engagement. The text covers a complete range of topics fundamental to the four Ps of marketing to the four Es of engagement. This invaluable resource is not only effective for performing arts administrators, but also business and management students, liberal arts students, and anyone enrolled in a leadership program. Their theoretical approach emphasizes a review of nonprofit arts, as well as useful steps an organization might take to increase its visibility and appeal. * James A. Filippelli, Associate Professor of Fine and Performing Arts, Dominican University, located in Rockland County, New York *Education, experience, engagement, environment, and ease of access complete the model for success. This book clearly develops a new approach to marketing the arts and, as a result, will prove beneficial for all. * James Filipelli, Dominican University New York *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Part 1: Marketing Versus Engagement Chapter 1: Setting the Stage: A Shift from Traditional Marketing Chapter 2: Engagement Part 2: Education Chapter 3:Contrasting Frameworks: Promotion and Education Chapter 4: Promotion and the Arts Chapter 5: Education and the Arts Part 3: Experience Chapter 6: Contrasting Frameworks: Product and Experience Chapter 7: Product and the Arts Chapter 8: Experience and the Arts Part 4: Environment Chapter 9: Contrasting Frameworks: Place and Environment Chapter 10: Place and the Arts Chapter 11: Environment and the Arts Part 5: Ease of Access Chapter 12: Contrasting Frameworks: Price and Ease of Access Chapter 13: Price and the Arts Chapter 14: Ease of Access and the Arts Conclusion: Piecing Everything Together

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Book SynopsisThis book introduces the reader to the reflective practice of Functional Awareness®. It uses foundational information of anatomy and motor learning to guide the reader toward a deeper understanding of their personal body structure. Each chapter provides essentials in functional anatomy with movement explorations and over 60 beautiful illustrations to buoy the reader through the content.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Relationship of Habit to Dance Training 2. Dynamic Alignment and the 4Rs 3. Impact of Thinking on Doing 4. Motions of the Trunk and Use of Spiral 5. Core Support 6. The Pelvis and Hip Joint 7. The Knee 8. The Ankle and Foot 9. Walking and Weight Shift 10. Expressivity of Arms 11. Breath 12. Restore Toward Balance Works Cited Glossary of Terms in Human Anatomy Index

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Book SynopsisLa Nijinska is the first biography of twentieth-century ballet's premier female choreographer, shedding new light on the modern history of ballet, and recuperating the memory of lost works and forgotten artists, all while revealing the sexism that still confronts women choreographers in the ballet world.Trade ReviewLa Nijinska reveals why some choreographers become canonized and illustrates the process's inseparability from external funding, gender, race, class, and ethnicity. * MARA MANDRADJIEFF, DANCE CHRONICLE *Esteemed dance historian Lynn Garafola meticulously chronicles this life -- in the first full Nijinska biography ever * Mindy Aloff, Wendy Perron *La Nijinska realigns dance history and does long-overdue justice to one of the twentieth century's great women artists. * Alastair Macauley, The New York Review of Books *In a year of great books about dance, this biography of Vaslav Nijinskys sister, Bronislava, stands out... Sensational and enraging. * Sarah Crompton and Robbie Millen, 7 best film and theatre books of 2022, Sunday Times *Blessedly free of academic dance jargon... Garafola's writing style is clear, unfussy, and easy to digest. She presents us, however, with the life of an immensely talented choreographer whose artistic ambition remained thwarted and unfulfilled. It's a sad story but one I urge you to discover for yourself. * Jonathan Gray *... an engrossing book, which gives full weight to an extraordinary life... It is the art that is the ultimate subject of Garafolas book, and she does a triumphant job of reasserting its importance and recreating its impact. So few of Nijinskas works survive that is good to be reminded of just how significant many were when they were first seen, and how wide her influence was on succeeding generations... * Sarah Crompton, The Spectator *Lynn Garafola, doyenne of ballet historians, has produced a scrupulously researched biography of a remarkable woman... Garafola's biography of this brave and complex woman is as judicious as it is sensitive. I recently completed a modest book covering some of the same field. I only wish I had been able to incorporate her meticulous scholarship before it went to press. * Rupert Christiansen, Literary Review *... serious and thoroughly researched study of ballet's leading female choreographer... [an] excellent and thoughtful book. * Gillian Spickernell, The Lady *fascinating, and very well researched * Avatâra Ayuso, ONE *It's gratifying when a biographer and her subject are as perfectly matches as these two are. Everything in Lynn Garafola's prior life - her authorship of a major work on Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, her investigations into other ballet and modern dance companies, her years of teaching in Barnard's eminent dance department - prepared her to accomplish this challenging task. And for Bronislava Nijinska, the long-neglected sister of Vaslav Nijinsky, it's nothing short of a resuscitation. Left out of the ballet history in which she actively participated ... she now has been brought to life by this first-ever biography. * Wendy Lesser, New York Times *Finally the biography she deserves. * Dance International *Nijinska could not have hoped for a more sympathetic and conscientious biographer than Garafola.... She understands the physical, educational, visual, dramatic, political, interpersonal, and financial aspects of the dance industry from the inside out. * Harlow Robinson, Los Angeles Review of Books *[Nijinska's] life after 1924 is known only in sketchy form, though Garafola does a tremendous job of resurrecting it. * Marcia Siegel, Hudson Review *A biography ... told in rich, fascinating detail. * Jennifer Wilson, The Nation *Garafola documents the ways in which a misogynistic establishment undermined Nijinska's achievements and argues that, despite this, her ideas about the relationship between movement and music helped shape the modern art of ballet. * The New Yorker *La Nijinska is a wonderful read; a window into the life of a woman who, for decades, was the world's leading female choreographer.... A big but gratifying read. Garafola provides a previously sketchy, monochrome account of history in color for the first time. * Seeing Dance *A fascinating account of life and work of the great and enigmatic Bronislava Nijinska, who left us a couple of ballets of genius and many unanswered questions. Nijinska, the most influential woman choreographer in classical ballet, was an inspiration for many generations of dance makers, and yet many aspects of her life remained poorly researched and unknown, partly because her memoirs only covered the early years. I was especially interested to read about Nijinska's choreographic debuts in Kiyv, Ukraine, and the second part of her life in California. The interviews of the dancers who worked with her last are priceless. Congratulations to Lynn Garafola. This book, thoroughly researched, full of unknown facts and inspiring details, is a book we were all waiting for. * Alexei Ratmansky, Choreographer, American Ballet Theatre *In this inspirational first biography of Bronislava Nijinska, based on global research, Lynn Garafola has successfully drawn the great choreographer from the shadow of her famous brother. She reveals a complex woman who experienced more than her fair share of tragedies and was constantly betrayed by men, while creating experimental ballets and inspiring successive generations of performers, directors and choreographers. * Jane Pritchard, Curator of Dance, Victoria and Albert Museum, London *This book is an astonishing achievement. Nijinska, sister of tragic dancer-genius Nijinsky, emerges here as a larger-than-life heroine, an Amazon endowed with visionary talent, yet blocked at every turn by forces arrayed against an ambitious woman. It's an epic tale, based on impeccable sources, narrated with rare lucidity, set against a three-continent-wide panorama of European, American and émigré-Russian artists and impresarios, all chasing after this magical quality we now call Modernity. * Elizabeth Kendall, author of Balanchine and the Lost Muse: Revolution and the Making of a Choreographer *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Transliteration and Russian Names Preface Chapter 1: Nijinska's Apprenticeship Chapter 2: Amazon of the Avant-Garde Chapter 3: Back from the Future Chapter 4: Where is Home? Chapter 5: Les Noces Chapter 6: Les Biches Chapter 7: Le Train Bleu and its Aftermath Chapter 8: A Free-lance Choreographer Chapter 9: Globalizing Modernism Chapter 10: Les Ballets de Madame Ida Rubinstein Chapter 11: A Choreographer for Russia Abroad Chapter 12: Les Ballets Russes de Bronislava Nijinska Chapter 13: On the Road Chapter 14: In Wartime America Chapter 15: The Final Act Chapter 16: Resurrection List of Works Illustrations Credits Archives, Collections, and Other Sources Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisUnmaking Contact interrogates contact, understood in Global North dance discourse as a shorthand for the movement discipline of contact improvisation (CI) and its characteristic shifting points of weight-sharing between two or more bodies through physical touch, by attending to power asymmetries that are foundational to this practice.By placing South Asian aesthetics, bodies, discourses, and philosophies on touch at the heart of its interrogation through the lenses of caste, ecology, faith, gender, and sexuality, author Royona Mitra argues for an intersectional, intercultural, and inter-epistemic understanding of contact, that may or may not involve touch. The book shifts and expands understandings of contact in dance-making through intercultural epistemologies that examine notions of touch and contact. In this book the term contact signals both a shorthand for CI and a shift away from it to more expansive choreographic considerations. It becomes an apparatus for dismantling power regimes; it is conjured as a catalyst to examine power in social relations; it appears as a fulcrum of ecological relationality; it arises as critical encounters full of generative and transformative potential; and finally, it manifests as community.

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Book SynopsisFrom the dance floor of a tango club to group therapy classes, from ballet to community theatre, improvised dance is everywhere. For some dance artists, improvisation is one of many approaches within the choreographic process. For others, it is a performance form in its own right. And while it has long been practiced, it is only within the last twenty years that dance improvisation has become a topic of critical inquiry. With The Oxford Handbook of Improvisation in Dance, dancer, teacher, and editor Vida L. Midgelow provides a cutting-edge volume on dance improvisation in all its facets. Expanding beyond conventional dance frameworks, this handbook looks at the ways that dance improvisation practices reflect our ability to adapt, communicate, and respond to our environment. Throughout the handbook, case studies from a variety of disciplines showcase the role of individual agency and collective relationships in improvisation, not just to dancers but to people of all backgrounds and abilities. In doing so, chapters celebrate all forms of improvisation, and unravel the ways that this kind of movement informs understandings of history, socio-cultural conditions, lived experience, cognition, and technologies.Trade ReviewMost contributors are from the US, the UK, and Continental Europe, and they range from young scholars to scholars with years of experience. This range makes the volume useful for a broad audience. The fairly consistent and approachable length of each essay (15-20 pages) will encourage comparative readings. Well-sourced references accompany each piece, and a helpful index is included. ... Highly recommended * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction. Improvising Dance: A Way of Going About Things Vida L Midgelow Section 1: Life worlds and Ethics 1. Life Practices Ann Cooper Albright 2. Ethico-aesthetic practice of improvising: relations through motion Fiona Bannon 3. Reflections on dance improvisation and its dynamic interrelationship with everyday movement Libby Worth 4. A Philosophy of the Improvisational Body Sondra Fraleigh 5. Chance encounters, Nietzschean philosophy and the question of improvisation Philipa Rothfield 6. Moving in medias res: Towards a phenomenological hermeneutics of dance improvisation Nigel Stewart Section 2: Attunement and Perception 7. I notice that I'm noticingEL Sally Doughty 8. Embodied Consciousness in Improvised Performance Nalina Wait 9. 'Mass may be the single most important sensation': Perceptual Philosophies in Dance Improvisation Malaka Sacro-Thomas 10. Rethinking Improvisation from a Daoist perspective of Qi-energy I-Ying Wu 11. Exploring Uncertainties of Language in Dance Improvisation Louise McDowall Section 3: Habit, Freedom and Resistance 12. Improvisation and Habit Gary Peters 13. Unpredictable Maneuvers: Eva Karczag's Improvised Strategies for Thwarting Institutional Agendas Doran George 14. Movements of freedom: performing popular liberty in the early cancan Claire Parfitt-Brown 15. Valorizing Uncertainty: Chance, Totalitarianism and Soviet Ballet Janice Ross 16. The Emancipation of Improvisation Larry Lavender Section 4: Memory and Transmission 17. Improvisation and Argentinean Tango: On playing with body memories Susanne Ravn 18. Dancing Life Norah Zuniga Shaw 19. What Remains Robert Bingham & Stephanie Hanna 20. Improvisational Practices in Jazz Dance Battles Jane Carr and Irven Lewis 21. Twelve Days in Tarbena: an evolutionary approach to moving through silence and sound to speech in Ruth Zaporah's Action Theater training Robert Vesty 22. Intention and Surrender Stephanie Skura Section 5: Agency and Transformation 23. Transcending Boundaries: Improvisation and disability in dance Sarah Whatley 24. Artful humanising conversations: Improvisation in Early Years dance Kerry Chappell and Lizzie Swinford 25. Instinctive Connections: Improvisation as a research methodology in health and care settings Lisa Dowler 26. Somatic Sensing and Creaturely Knowing in the University Improvisation Class Ali East 27. Improvising Happiness: Belly Dance's Evolution through Improvisation Barbara Sellers Young Section 6: Interconnectivity, emergence and technologies 28. Dancing the Interface: Improvisation in Zones of Virtual Exchange Thomas DeFrantz 29. Programmed Improvisation Inspied from Autonomous Humanoids Amy LaVeirs 30. Contact Improvisation and Embodied Social Cognition April Flakne 31. Modelling Improvisation as Emergence: A Critical Investigation of the Practice of Cognition Colleen Dunagan, Roxane Fenton, and Evan Dorn 32. Towards a cognitive theory of joint improvisation: The case of tango argentino Micheal Kimmel Section 7: Ecology and Environments 33. Improvisation and the Earth: Dancing in the Moment as Ecological Practice Tamara Ashley 34. Dancing the Land: An Emerging Geopoetics Melinda Buckwalter 35. Scoring and Siting: Improvisatory Approaches to Site-Specific Dance Victoria Hunter 36. The Dancer, the Philosopher and the Tramp Hilary Elliot 37. Audience Improvisation and Immersive Experiences: the sensuous world of the body in the work of Lundahl & Seitl Josephine Machon Section 8: Techniques, Strategies and Histories 38. Lost in the Footlights: The Secret Life of Improvisation in Contemporary American Concert Dance Kent De Spain 39. In the Moment: Improvisation in Traditional Dance Anthony Shay 40. Playing with the Beat: Choreomusical Improvisation in Rhythm Tap Dance Allison Robbins & Christopher J. Wells 41. Moving Sound: New Relationships between Contemporary Dance and Music in Improvisation Anna Sanchez Colberg & Dimitris Karalis 42. Mens Agilis Corpore Agili Ivar Hagendoorn 43. Embodiology®: A Hybrid Neo-African Improvisation-as-Performance Practice distinguished by Dynamic Rhythm Sheron Wray

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Book SynopsisMaking Music for Modern Dance is a fascinating collection of source readings that offer first-hand accounts of musical collaboration for early modern dance in America.Trade ReviewWow! A book with such glorious content and organization that I would enthusiastically use it in my own courses, and recommend it to students and all readers in modern dance history, music for dance, collaborative and interdisciplinary arts, and American music history. How wonderful to have all these primary sources (many rare or previously unavailable) under one cover, each one placed in a clear context. A fantastic contribution illuminating an often neglected subject. * Greg Presley, Music Instructor, Gonzaga University, and former pianist for Martha Graham *This meticulously researched and annotated collection of articles gives invaluable context to the development of dance as an American art form and the intertwining and influences of leading composers and dance figures to its history. * Janet Mansfield Soares, author, Martha Hill and the Making of American Dance and Professor of Dance Emerita, Barnard College, Columbia University *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Threads of America's Heritage in Music and Dance Part One: Musical Collaboration for a New Era in Dance Overview: The Question of Using Old Music for New Dance 1. Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. How to Revive Dancing Music and the Dancer 2. Isadora Duncan. Dancing to Beethoven's Seventh Symphony 3. Baird Hastings. Music for Isadora Duncan's Dance 4. Helen Caldwell. The Dance Poems of Michio Ito: The White Peacock, to Music by Griffes 5. Denishawn program. America and the Dance Music Visualization 6. Norman Cazden. On Dancing to Bach: Humphrey-Weidman Programs 7. Ted Shawn. American Music and Composers: What Dancers Need Part Two: Creative Procedures and Ingredients Overview: Some Challenges of Collaboration, and Composers Debate What Works 8. Louis Horst. Music and Dance: The New Generation's Change in Methods 9. Henry Gilfond. Louis Horst 10. Gertrude Lippincott. A Quiet Genius Himself: A Dance Teacher's Tribute to Louis Horst 11. Wallingford Riegger. Synthesizing Music and the Dance 12. Ernestine Stodelle. Sensing the Dancer's Impulse: A Dancer Talks about the Art of Composer-Accompanists 13. Vivian Fine. My Scores for Modern Dance: Tragedy and Comedy 14. Doris Humphrey. The Race of Life: My Side of the Story The Relationship of Music and Dance 15. Lehman Engel. Under Way: Composing for Martha Graham Details of Contemporary Collaboration 16. Henry Cowell. Relating Music and Concert Dance: An Idea for Elastic Form 17. Norman Lloyd. Sound-Companion for Dance: Henry Cowell's Talent 18. Norman Lloyd. Composing for the Dance: A Retrospective Overview of Procedures; Personal Experiences; and Advice to Collaborators Part Three: Towards New "American" Styles Overview: Defining "American" Music; Common Musical Concerns of Ballet and Modern Dance 19. Verna Arvey. The Cosmopolitan Scene of the 1920s and '30s: Avant-Garde Experiments; Symphonic Ballet Scores; Jazz 20. Virgil Thomson. The Theatrical Thirties 21. Katherine Teck: Virgil Thomson's Later Reflections 22. Dance Observer. Editorial: Dance and American Composers Drawing Upon Folk Music and War-Time Patriotism 23. Woody Guthrie. People Dancing 24. Nora Guthrie. Sophie Maslow and Woody 25. Agnes de Mille. Music for Martha 26. Aaron Copland. The Commission for Appalachian Spring 27. Gail Levin. Aaron Copland's America 28. Richard Philp. Appalachian Spring: An Appreciation 54 Years Later Building on the Horton Experience 29. Larry Warren and Others. Lester Horton: Of Money, Music, and Motivation 30. Katherine Teck. Kenneth Klauss: Musician for California Dancers 31. Katherine Teck. Carmen de Lavallade: Dancing to Many Musical Styles 32. Alvin Ailey. Instructions: How to Play the Drums 33. Jennifer Dunning. Alvin Ailey's Revelations 34. Alvin Ailey with A. Peter Bailey. How Revelations Came to Be Part Four: Instruments, Technology, and the Avant-Garde Overview: Expanding Timbre Possibilities with Percussion, Vocalization, Electronic Instruments, and the Sounds Around Us 35. Franziska Boas. Percussion Music and Its Relation to the Modern Dance 36. Henry Cowell. East Indian Tala Music 37. Lehman Engel. Choric Sound for the Dance 38. John Cage. Goal: New Music, New Dance 39. Otto Luening. Electronic Music for Doris Humphrey's Theatre Piece No. 2 40. Alwin Nikolais. My Total Theater Concept 41. John Cage. Experimental Music 42. John Cage. Communication 43. Carolyn Brown. Dancing with the Avant-Garde Part Five: Well-Springs of Creative Collaboration Overview: Diverse Methods and Aesthetic Ideas 44. Leonard Bernstein. "Fun" in Music and the Dance 45. Paul Taylor. Why I Make Dances 46. Carlos Surinach. My Intention to Serve Spanish Ballet Serves American Modern Dancers Instead 47. Lou Harrison. Meditations on Melodies, Modes, Emotion, and Creation 48. Lucia Dlugoszewski. New Music for the Dance: Choices Open to Collaborators at Mid-Century Part Six: Master Artists Speak to Future Generations Overview: Postwar Trends, and Music in the Training of Dancers 49. Erick Hawkins. My Love Affair With Music 50. Bessie Schönberg. Finding Your Own Voice 51. Paul Draper. Music and Dancing 52. José Limón. Dancers Are Musicians Are Dancers Afterword: Creativity in One's Own Time Appendix: Checklist of Composers Notes, Commentary, and Recommended Resources Bibliographic Essay Index

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Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Chapter 1 Introduction: Publicity, Counterpublicity, Antipublicity ; Chapter 2 Public and Intimate Sociability in First Nations and Metis Fiddling ; Chapter 3 "#1 on NCI": Country Music and the Aboriginal Public ; Chapter 4 "Your Own Heart Will Make its Own Music": Gospel Singing, Individuation, and the Comforting Community ; Preface to Chapter 5 ; Chapter 5 "We Don't Want to Say No to Anybody Who Wants to Sing": Gospel Music in Coffee-House Performance ; Chapter 6 Antipublicity: Family Tradition and the Aboriginal Public ; Chapter 7 Circulation Controversies ; Conclusion ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis book shows how le hip hop reflects a republic of culture rather than a culture industry; a minority identity politics that takes shape as a movement poetics or figural language; and the public valorization of dance as a technique, meriting unemployment compensation and understood as a high-tech knowledge practice.Trade ReviewFelicia McCarren has succeeded brilliantly in taking dance out of its disciplinary confines, showing how vital a consideration of hip-hop is to any attempt to understand the dynamics of race and identity in contemporary France; the progress of the globalization of culture; the transformational power of moving bodes; and the mutually constitutive relation between bodies and technologies. McCarren makes it impossible for semiotics or cultural theory to remain indifferent to dance. * Carrie Noland, author of Agency and Embodiment: Performing Gestures/Producing Culture *The strengths of McCarren's research lay both in the cross-disciplinary structural analysis of national ideology and state funding of the arts (and research on the arts) insofar as they relate to particular communities and individuals in complex national, social, and cultural situations. Likewise, McCarren's introduction to works that might not be widely known to scholars bring new perspectives on French concert dance and the ways in which dance might be read as part of debates on national and global politics. * H-France Review *...Offers an original perspective on contemporary hip-hop theatre. * Dance Review Journal *Table of ContentsContents ; Introduction: "French?": Circulation, Immigration and Assimilation ; Part I: Politics and poetics ; Chapter 1: Hop Hop Citizens: politics, culture and performance ; Chapter 2: Hip Hop Dance "speaks" French: droit de citer ; Chapter 3: Hip Hop as post-colonial representation: Farid Berki's Invisible Armada and Exodust ; Part II: Technology and techniques ; Chapter 4: Dancing In and Out of the Box: Frank II Louise's Drop It!(2000) and Compagnie Choream's Epsilon (1999) ; Chapter 5: Breaking history: Helene Cixous' L'histoire terrible mais inachevee de Norodom Sihanouk, Roi du Cambodge and Yiphun Chiem's Apsara (2007) ; Chapter 6: Techniques: French urban dance in intellectual context ; Conclusion

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Book SynopsisDancers as Diplomats chronicles the role of dance and dancers in American cultural diplomacy, telling the story of how these tours in shaped and sometimes re-imagined ideas of America in unexpected, often sensational circumstances-pirouetting in Moscow as the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded and dancing in Burma in the days just before the country held its first democratic elections.Trade ReviewSmoothly written with strong, coherent narrative, Dancers as Diplomats confirms the importance of dance in US cultural exchange. Researching across Cold War and Post-9/11 ideologies of nation and cultural diplomacy, Croft demonstrates how the international exposure of American dance remains inextricably bound up with Washington-based political economies. An essential offering for anyone interested in cultural studies, dance history, or international affairs, Dancers as Diplomats proves that performance might always exceed governmental guidelines and intentions. * Thomas F. DeFrantz, Duke University *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Chapter One: Ballet Nations: The New York City Ballet on Tour in the Soviet Union in 1962 ; Chapter Two: Refusing Modernist Formulas of Second-Class Citizenship: Arthur Mitchell and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater ; Chapter Three: Too Sexy for Export or Just Sexy Enough: Martha Graham Dance Company ; Chapter Four: Negotiating Community and Diaspora: Twenty-First Century Dance Diplomacy ; Chapter Five: Never A Solo ; Appendix A: List of Interviews ; Appendix B: List of US State Department Tours ; References ; Index

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Book SynopsisThis book traces the history of the Cuban mulata and her association with hips, sensuality and popular dance. It examines how the mulata choreographs her identity through her hips. Combining literary and personal narratives with historical and theoretical accounts of Cuban popular dance history, religiosity and culture, this work investigates the power of embodied exchanges.Trade Review"This triumphant offering invigorates dance scholarship with an outstanding coordination of historical method, performative writing, and coherent, compelling analysis of dance practice in Cuba. Written with authority, literary drive, and compassion, She Is Cuba answers a call for carefully considered research to explore the racialized feminine, the powers of the State, and to demonstrate the centrality of the living body in the construction of social identity." --Thomas F. DeFrantz, Duke University, Professor of African & African American Studies and Dance, Duke University "The mulata body dances off the page. Blanco Borelli writes her way through the Cuban siren-call of the hips. Her bi-lingual and seductive language privileges rumor and corporeality while engaging with rich histories sprung from archival research."--Anita Gonzalez, Professor of Theatre and Drama, University of MichiganTable of ContentsPrologue, Entre Familia/Between Family ; Introduction ; Chapter 1: Historicizing Hip(g)nosis ; Interlude 1: Echando Cuentos/Telling Stories ; Chapter 2: Hip(g)nosis at Work: Rumors, Social Dance and Cuba's Academias de Baile ; Interlude 2: A Marriage Proposal ; Chapter 3: Hip(g)nosis as Pleasure: The Mulata in Film ; Interlude 3: Lost Baggage ; Chapter 4: Hip(g)nosis as Brand: Despelote, Tourism and Mulata Citizenship ; Conclusion or Rear Endings ; Index

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Book SynopsisLandscape of the Now takes readers on a deep journey into the underlying processes and structures of movement improvisation. Based on interviews with Steve Paxton, Simone Forti, Nancy Stark Smith, and others, this book offers the rare opportunity to find some clarity in what is often a complex and confusing creative experience.Trade ReviewDe Spain is a master storyteller. More than that, he is a philosopher who uses his exceptional analytical skills to get to the heart of what defines postmodern improvisation as improvisation. This quest - a personal passion for De Spain - energizes the book. * David Gere, co-editor, Taken By Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader *Improvisation is the alchemy of giving form to the present moment. Contained within are essentially master classes in addressing some of the varied mysteries and issues that can emerge from the practice of improvisation. De Spain's book shines a bright light on how these eight groundbreaking artists wrap words around their processes of inquiry and their experiences of the embodied mind in motion. * Eric Handman, Assistant Professor of Dance, University of Utah *I began to read and realized I had started my next dance. De Spain's invitation to your own practice is waiting. De Spain, with his curiosity and engagement, has brought eight master artists to our studio doors. * Bebe Miller, Artistic Director, Bebe Miller Company *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; What and Who ; Section One: Issues ; Agendas ; Tracking ; Verbal/Nonverbal Awareness ; The Audience/Improviser Relationship ; Intentionality ; What is Good? ; The Transpersonal ; Section Two: Resources ; Body ; Movement ; The Senses ; Space ; Time ; Artistic Form ; Images and the Imagination ; Cognitive Skills ; Emotion ; Memory ; Structures ; Attention ; Conclusion ; Appendix ; Suggested Reading ; Index

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Book SynopsisSituates dance within a larger Chicago landscape of segregated social practices. Delving into two Chicago dance worlds, lindy hop and steppin', the author uses a combination of participant observation and interviews to bring to the surface the racial tension that surrounds white use of black cultural forms.Trade Review"In American Allegory, Black Hawk Hancock has written a rich and intricately detailed ethnography of the distinct worlds of lindy hop and steppin'. Here, readers are offered a guide to the ways in which cultural expressions have come to occupy separate racial and spatial realms and how this apparent segregation of race, culture, and identity is practiced in the United States today." (Andrew Deener, author of Venice: A Contested Bohemia in Los Angeles)"

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Book SynopsisSituates dance within a larger Chicago landscape of segregated social practices. Focusing on new forms of appropriation in an era of multiculturalism, the author underscores the institutionalization of racial disparities and offers insights into the intersection of race and culture in America.Trade Review"In American Allegory, Black Hawk Hancock has written a rich and intricately detailed ethnography of the distinct worlds of lindy hop and steppin'. Here, readers are offered a guide to the ways in which cultural expressions have come to occupy separate racial and spatial realms and how this apparent segregation of race, culture, and identity is practiced in the United States today." (Andrew Deener, author of Venice: A Contested Bohemia in Los Angeles)"

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Book SynopsisIn this book, Dunham reveals how her anthropological research, her work in dance, and her fascination for the people and cults of Haiti worked their spell, catapulting her into experiences that she was often lucky to survive.

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Book SynopsisTreating issues of language, aesthetics, semiotics, and cognition, this book offers an evaluation and an original theory of the ways our cultural values have informed the metaphors we use to address music.Trade Review"Spitzer has written an informative and thought-provoking work, leaving us to question not only our methods of music analysis but our very choice of words in speaking and writing about music." (Notes)

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Book SynopsisResponding to growing international interest in Yoruba culture, practitioners of bata performance - a drumming, dancing, and singing tradition - have presented themselves to the world as an emblem of traditional Nigeria. This work describes the dramatic changes and reinventions of traditional bata performance.

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Book SynopsisResponding to international interest in Yoruba culture, practitioners of bata performance have presented themselves as an emblem of traditional Nigeria. Locally, however, the market for bata has been declining. This work explores this disjunction, revealing the world of bata artists and the global culture market that helps to sustain their art.

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Book SynopsisDuring the patron saint fiesta in the Andean town of San Jeronimo, Peru, crowds gather at sunset in the town square, eagerly awaiting the entrance of the colorful dance troupes, or comparsas. Offering a look at a tradition, this title is a compelling example of the anthropology of performance.

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Book SynopsisFor premodern audiences, poetic form did not exist solely as meter, stanzas, or rhyme scheme. Rather, the form of a poem emerged as an experience, one generated when an audience immersed in a culture of dance encountered a poetic text. Exploring the complex relationship between medieval dance and medieval poetry, Strange Footing argues that the intersection of texts and dance produced an experience of poetic form based in disorientation, asymmetry, and even misstep. Medieval dance guided audiences to approach poetry not in terms of the body's regular marking of time and space, but rather in the irregular and surprising forces of virtual motion around, ahead of, and behind the dancing body. Reading medieval poems through artworks, paintings, and sculptures depicting dance, Seeta Chaganti illuminates texts that have long eluded our full understanding, inviting us to inhabit their strange footings askew of conventional space and time. Strange Footing deploys the motion of dance to ch

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Book SynopsisThis work examines the musical influences of a Malaysia's Portuguese community, whose roots lie in the conquest of Malacca in 1511 by the Portuguese seafarer Afonse D'Albuquerque.

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Book SynopsisIn Guinea's capital city of Conakry, dance is everywhere. Most neighborhoods boast at least one dance troupe, and members of those troupes animate the city's major rites of passage and social events. In Infinite Repertoire, Adrienne Cohen shows how dance became such a prominenteven infrastructuralfeature of city life in Guinea, and tells a surprising story of the rise of creative practice under a political regime known for its authoritarianism and violent excesses. Guinea's socialist state, which was in power from 1958 to 1984, used staged African dance or ballet strategically as a political tool, in part by tapping into indigenous conceptualizations of artisans as powerful figures capable of transforming the social fabric through their manipulation of vital energy. Far from dying with the socialist revolution, Guinean ballet continued to thrive in Conakry after economic liberalization in the 1980s, with its connection to transformative power retrofitted for a market economy and a rapiTrade Review"[Infinite Repertoire] is a nuanced and meticulously researched account of the historical and the contemporary significance of the Guinean 'ballet'... Cohen advances a solid argument about the significance of the performative arts and the need to study political history in the ways in which it inscribes itself, and is transformed through bodily practices beyond the spoken and written word." * Anthropos *“Infinite Repertoire is a brilliant historical and ethnographic exploration of how aesthetics shape power and how politics are embodied. Ultimately a meditation on time, it argues that the contingencies of performances allow artists to recall the past while creating new narratives for potential futures. This book lyrically examines the interplay among creative improvisation, affective remembering, and material-semiotic order. Cohen shows how performers take account of their changing contexts to constantly remake meaningful and powerful signs.” -- Jesse Weaver Shipley, Dartmouth College “Cohen examines the many informal dance troupes scattered across the urban landscape in Guinea today. In lively prose, Cohen shows how dance in Guinea is a mode of economic advancement as well as cultural performance, a political commentary on the state of things, and, finally, a way of making the world.” -- Brian Larkin, Barnard College, Columbia University“Guinea’s renown for spearheading ‘African ballet’ produced legions of dancers who today artfully combine semiotic resources from both the socialist past and neoliberal present. Infinite Repertoire offers a viscerally kinetic ethnography of the transformative power of dance to mobilize affect and imbue citizen-state relations with a vitality it would otherwise lack. Drawing on her extensive engagement with and participation in Conakry’s dance scene, Cohen crafts a brilliant analysis of postsocialist performativity that sets a new bar for parsing the relationship between aesthetics and politics.” -- Kelly M. Askew, University of MichiganTable of ContentsNotes on Orthography and Transcription Preface: Name-Finding Invitation: City of DancePart I: Aesthetic Politics, Magical Resources 1. Why Authority Needs Magic 2. Privatizing Ballet 3. The Discipline of Becoming: Ballet’s PedagogyPart II: Delicious Inventions 4. Female Strong Men and the Future of Resemblance 5. Core Steps and Passport Moves: How to Inherit a Repertoire 6. When Big Is Not Big Enough: On Excess in Guinean Sabar Epilogue: Embodied Infrastructure and Generative Imperfection Acknowledgments Addendum: Artists in the Diaspora Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Infinite Repertoire] is a nuanced and meticulously researched account of the historical and the contemporary significance of the Guinean 'ballet'... Cohen advances a solid argument about the significance of the performative arts and the need to study political history in the ways in which it inscribes itself, and is transformed through bodily practices beyond the spoken and written word." * Anthropos *“Infinite Repertoire is a brilliant historical and ethnographic exploration of how aesthetics shape power and how politics are embodied. Ultimately a meditation on time, it argues that the contingencies of performances allow artists to recall the past while creating new narratives for potential futures. This book lyrically examines the interplay among creative improvisation, affective remembering, and material-semiotic order. Cohen shows how performers take account of their changing contexts to constantly remake meaningful and powerful signs.” -- Jesse Weaver Shipley, Dartmouth College “Cohen examines the many informal dance troupes scattered across the urban landscape in Guinea today. In lively prose, Cohen shows how dance in Guinea is a mode of economic advancement as well as cultural performance, a political commentary on the state of things, and, finally, a way of making the world.” -- Brian Larkin, Barnard College, Columbia University“Guinea’s renown for spearheading ‘African ballet’ produced legions of dancers who today artfully combine semiotic resources from both the socialist past and neoliberal present. Infinite Repertoire offers a viscerally kinetic ethnography of the transformative power of dance to mobilize affect and imbue citizen-state relations with a vitality it would otherwise lack. Drawing on her extensive engagement with and participation in Conakry’s dance scene, Cohen crafts a brilliant analysis of postsocialist performativity that sets a new bar for parsing the relationship between aesthetics and politics.” -- Kelly M. Askew, University of MichiganTable of ContentsNotes on Orthography and Transcription Preface: Name-Finding Invitation: City of DancePart I: Aesthetic Politics, Magical Resources 1. Why Authority Needs Magic 2. Privatizing Ballet 3. The Discipline of Becoming: Ballet’s PedagogyPart II: Delicious Inventions 4. Female Strong Men and the Future of Resemblance 5. Core Steps and Passport Moves: How to Inherit a Repertoire 6. When Big Is Not Big Enough: On Excess in Guinean Sabar Epilogue: Embodied Infrastructure and Generative Imperfection Acknowledgments Addendum: Artists in the Diaspora Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisThis work investigates the power behind classical music and dance in Bangkok, the capital and sacred center of Buddhist Thailand. Focusing on the ritual of honouring teachers of music and dance, Deborah Wong reveals a complex network of connections among kings, teachers, knowledge and performance.

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Book SynopsisThis work investigates the power behind classical music and dance in Bangkok, the capital and sacred center of Buddhist Thailand. Focusing on the ritual of honouring teachers of music and dance, Deborah Wong reveals a complex network of connections among kings, teachers, knowledge and performance.

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Book SynopsisRebecca Schneider is Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies at Brown University, USA. She is the author of The Explicit Body in Performance and Performing Remains: Art and War in Times of Theatrical Reenactment, as well as numerous essays. She is the Consortium Editor for The Drama Review: A Journal of Performance Studies, edited by Richard Schechner, and is co-editor with David Krasner of the book series Theater: Theory/Text/Performance.Trade Review"Coherent and clear, each of the sections illuminates the relationship between theatre and history in a different but always convincing and engaging manner. An attractive text for anyone interested in putting this relationship into perspective, ideal for beginning or more advanced students." - Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Distinguished Professor of Theatre, Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern Studies, City University of New York, USA 'The clear, playful authority of the volume leaves readers simultaneously eager for Schneider's next book and inspired to expand the interdisciplinary dimensions of their own work.' - Glenn Odom, Roehampton University, UKTable of ContentsSeries Editors' Preface 1. Theatre And History 2. 'And' 3. 'History' 4. 'Theatre' 5. History and the Theatre Artist 6. The Anti-theatrical Prejudice 7. The Anti-intellectual Prejudice 8. Theatre and the Historian 9. The Problem with Passions 10. The Problem with Archives 11. Whose History is Theatre's History? 12. Of Knives and Blood Bibliography Index.

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Book SynopsisBased on new archival research, this book uniquely presents a fresh interrogation of how, among London's fashionable society, dancing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was variously a means of social modelling, change, conformity and creative individual expression.Trade Review'The strength of this book lies in the variety of facets of social dance in the late Victorian/early twentieth century which it addresses. This range of content culminates in a rich picture of time, place, people, their dances and their dancing.' - Alexandra Carter, Emeritus Professor in Dance Studies, University of Middlesex, UKTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface List of Illustrations Contents PART I: SOCIETY DANCES Fashionable Bodies and Society Dancing Fashioning Dance Histories The Seasonal Round Public Spaces Late Victorian Repertoire Anarchy in the Ball Room PART II: FASHIONING GENTILITY A Noble Profession Temples of Terpsichore The Fashioning of Ladies Modelling the Lady Where are our Men? Dancing Dogs and Manly Men PART III: MODERN MOVES Moving into the Twentieth Century Modernizing Terpsichore Civilization Under Threat Knuts and Aliens Civilizing from the Centre Looking Back, Moving On Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA renewed interest in nature, the ancient Greeks, and the freedom of the body was to transform dance and physical culture in the early twentieth century. The book discusses the creative individuals and developments in science and other art forms that shaped the evolution of modern dance in its international context.Trade Review'Foregrounding the work of the British 'natural movement' pioneers, whilst enlivening concepts of 'the natural' and 'natural movement' as they exist within a range of contexts, this exciting collection makes an important contribution to the field of dance studies. Intersecting detailed studies of a range of movement practices with historical and contemporary discourse the book is interdisciplinary in approach and will be of interest to a broad range of readers. Thoroughly enjoyable.'- Vida L Midgelow, University of Northampton, UKTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Nature, Force and Variation; R.Fensham Constructing and Contesting the Natural in British Theatre Dance; A.Carter Ideas of Nature, the Natural and the Modern in Early Twentieth-CenturyDance Discourse; M.Huxley & R.Burt The Ancient Greeks and the 'Natural'; F.Macintosh From the Artificial to the Natural Body: Social Dancing in Britain 1900-1914; T.Buckland Dancing Based on Natural Movement; M.A.Johnstone & M.Atkinson Undressing and Dressing Up: Natural Movement's Life in Costume; R.Fensham Nature Moving Naturally in Succession: An Exploration of Doris Humphrey's Water Study ; L.Main Tensing and Relaxing Naturally: Systematic Approaches to Training the Body; S.Foster 'Female Nature', Body Culture and Plastique ; K.Vedel Tethering the Flow: Dialogues between Dance, Physical Culture and Antiquity in Interwar Australia; A.Card Mining Anatomy: Moving Naturally; L.Worth Index

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Book SynopsisJON DAVISON is Visiting Lecturer at Central School of Speech and Drama in London, UK where he was formerly Creative Fellow investigating Clown/Actor Training. He has been a clown, teacher, director, actor and writer for the last 30 years. He is a co-founder of the Escola de Clown de Barcelona in Spain, where he developed the first ever Clown History and Theory unit. He is also a member of the World Parliament of Clowns.

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Book SynopsisThis book investigates the expanding parameters for site-specific performance to account for the form's increasing popularity in the twenty-first century. Leading practitioners and theorists interrogate issues of performance and site to broaden our understanding of the role that place plays in performance and the ways that performance influences itTrade Review'This excellent anthology provides a wide-ranging collection of essays on critical issues of place-based theatre. It includes articles that treat historical and contemporary themes from the perspectives of both theorists and practitioners in a variety of institutional contexts. As the best anthologies do, it both bolsters and challenges the discipline.' - Professor Laurie Beth Clark, University of Wisconsin Madison, USA 'This is a welcome addition to the developing literature on site-specific theatre and performance, whose chief virtue lies in providing a range of original essays testifying to the diversity and disparateness of contemporary site-based work.' - Steve Bottoms, New Theatre Quarterly 'Performing Site-Specific Theatre is an insightful collection of essays that presents an interesting examination of site-specific theory and practice. It is a welcome addition to a field still largely located in performance studies and art, here exploring its intersection with theatre... [The book] will be a useful book for researchers and teachers of site-specific performance, including its theories and practices.' - Kris Darby, Contemporary Theatre ReviewTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors The 'Place' and Practice of Site-Specific Theatre and Performance; J.Tompkins PART I: SITE-SPECIFICITY AND ECONOMICS Rethinking Site-Specificity: Monopoly, Urban Space, and the Cultural Economics of Site-specific Performance; M.McKinnie PART II: SITE-SPECIFICITY AND THE NARRATIVES OF HISTORY Rehearsing Across Space and Place: Rethinking A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle; S.Bennett & J.Sanders Embodied Presence and Dislocated Spaces: Playing the Audience in Ten Thousand Several Doors in a Promenade, Site-specific Performance of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi ; J.Collins Haunted House: Staging The Persians with the British Army; M.Pearson Toiling, Tolling and Telling: Performing Dissensus; K.Irwin PART III: SITE SPECIFITIY AND THE SLIPPAGE OF PLACE Beyond Site-specificity: Environmental Heterocosms on the Street; S.Haedicke Repetition and Performativity: Site-specific Performance and Film as Living Monument; A.Birch Contemporary Ekkeklemas in Site-specific Performance; L.Ferris 'Places, like property prices, go up and down': Site-specificity, Regeneration and The Margate Exodus; L.Owen PART IV: SITE-SPECIFICITY AND THEATRICAL INTIMACY Ambulatory Audiences and Animate Sites: Staging the Spectator in Site-specific Performance; K.Zaiontz Immersive Negotiations: Binaural Perspectives on Site-specific Sound; B.Barton & R.Windeyer My Sites Set on You: Site-specificity and Subjectivity in 'Intimate Theatre'; H.Iball PART V: SITE SPECIFICITY AND POLITICS Siting the People: Power, Protest and Public Space; S.Nield Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisDiscusses the development of dance from 1949 to 1984 and examines the work of dancers and choreographers.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisHearst Over Hollywood draws on hundreds of previously unpublished letters and memos, FBI Freedom of Information files, and personal interviews to document the scope of Hearst's power in Hollywood. Louis Pizzitola tells the hidden story of Hearst's shaping influence on both film publicity and film censorship as well as the growth of the "talkies," and the studio system.Trade ReviewA valuable contribution to American film history. Cineaste I don't know if there could be a more timely book right now than this particular book...I can't recommend it highly enough. -- Frank Rich Pizzitola doesn't slight much of anything...He works in fascinating digressions... This groundbreaking volume's focus on Hearst's imagemaking illuminates exactly how he went about warping the world to his will. San Francisco Chronicle This well-written, meticulously researched biography of a flawed figure reveals a more complex portrait of Hearst than previous biographies. Highly recommended. Library Journal Stands as a comprehensive examination of how movie truth is created and how Hearst helped set its boundaries. Publishers Weekly [F]or those interested in the growth of entertainment media, Louis Pizzitola's history of the news magnate is fascinating. -- Bob Hoover Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Includes numerous photographs and stills and more material on the movies than any other Hearst biography. ChoiceTable of ContentsPreface: Ourselves as Others See Us 1. Behind the Scenes, 1880s-1890s 2. The Artist-Journalist, 1895-1898 3. Film News, 1898-1906 4. Medium for a New Century, 1900-1907 5. It Pays to Advertise, 1907-1914 6. When Men Betray, 1914-1916 7. Perils of Passion, 1915-1917 8. Trader, 1915-1918 9. The Perils of Propaganda, 1917-1918 10. Fits and Starts, 1917-1919 11. Over Production, 1919-1922 12. Fire and Smoke, 1922-1925 13. Industry, 1925-1929 14. Above the Law, 1929-1934 15. Remote Control, 1934-1940 16. Hollywood Isolationist, 1940-1947 17. No Trespassing, 1947-1951

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Book SynopsisThis innovative book focuses on the contested origins of ethnographic film from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s, vividly depicting the dynamic visual culture of the period as it collided with the emerging discipline of anthropology and the new technology of motion pictures.Trade ReviewA significant contribution to knowledge about methods of recording and presenting visual culture of non-Western peoples in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Choice With fascinating examples and illustrations culled from a number of international archives,Wondrous Difference is an invaluable resource for cinema historians, anthropologists, archivists, and museum professionals... Griffiths is working within a new tradition of scholars approaching visuality with a historically integrated and culturally critical perspective... The masterful way in which Griffiths navigates and reveals the complexity of these relationships sets a standard for others to follow. -- Amy J. Staples Film Quarterly Wondrous Difference will make an excellent... textbook for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in both visual anthropology and the history of anthropology. -- Deborah Poole Current AnthropologyTable of ContentsPart I: Precinema and Ethnographic Representation 1. Life Groups and the Modern Museum Spectator 2. Science and Spectacle: Visualizing the Other at the World's Fair 3. Knowledge and Visuality in Nineteenth-Century Anthropology Part II: Early Ethnographic Film in Science and Popular Culture 4. The Ethnographic Cinema of Alfred Cort Haddon and Walter Baldwin Spencer 5. "The World Within Your Reach": Popular Cinema and Ethnographic Representation Part III: First Steps: The Museum and Early Filmmakers 6. Early Ethnographic Film at the American Museum of Natural History 7. Finding a Home for Cinema in Ethnography: The First Generation of Anthropologist-Filmmakers in America 8. Conclusion: The Legacy of Early Ethnographic Film

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