Book Description

Written for the adult beginner, Ballet Basics is a well-illustrated introduction to the fundamentals of ballet technique. The text also provides an overview of the history of ballet. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

The Best Book for Adult Beginners...
Finally a good ballet instruction book that's encouraging and doesn't talk down to adult beginners. The more ballet classes I take, the more I realize how well this book distills the important aspects of ballet. Sketches and photos showing correct (and incorrect) body positioning are appropriately used. When I started ballet, I picked up a handful of books, and I always reached for this one when I had 10 minutes to learn a new tidbit. The brief history of ballet in the final chapter is added bonus. If you're an adult beginner, start with this book and the David Howard videos, plus a good teacher once or twice a week. You won't be auditioning for the American Ballet Theatre, but you'll become a proficient dancer pretty quickly.

Great learning aid for adult beginners
I have the 3rd edition of this book, which was required for a college Ballet I class. As a beginning, adult, male student, I found the book to be very detailed - which I like. She gives you illustrations of steps, with the French name & pronunciation, why your doing it (e.g. to stretch certain muscles), a description, etc..

Initially, working at the barre (e.g. how to stand, plie', positions of the feet) Sandra gives correct & incorrect drawings. Of course, no book or video can replace being in class nor should it. With ballet you need a teacher to correct what your doing wrong so you can learn from it. Then having good books, videos, etc. as reference material helps you learn.

The book is written for us beginner adults, not children and not the pro's, which is really nice. Since we don't have nearly the flexibility of them. It also includes some history in the back of the book. Illustrations show men as well as women. Also included is what to wear to class, what to expect in class, how you should act, etc..

Get her other book once you get beyond the basics.

Excellent basic technique manual
This book provides a good solid basic technique overview. It has been used as a textbook at some colleges, and was highly reccomended by my former headmistress. I found the text interesting and helpful, and the illustrations sufficient. Of course, no book can replace a talented instructor, but as a supplement to a dance program, this book is superior. ... Read more

Book Description

A comprehensive and multifaceted anthology of dance history -- ideal for the classroom. ... Read more

Book Description

A comprehensive guide to the art of belly dancing.

• Covers the origins, mythology, and history of the Middle Eastern dance, including its physical and mental health benefits.

• Contains practical instructions with easy-to-follow photographs.

• Includes recipes for perfumes, cosmetic creams, and food from the Middle East.

Belly dance is pure sensuousness and has enchanted humans since ancient times. Yet beyond its erotic aspects, belly dancing offers many physical and emotional benefits. On the physical level it helps with muscle stiffness, autonomic nervous system disturbances, mobility of the abdominal region, and strengthening the back, which in turn enhances the body's overall posture. Belly dancing also relieves menstrual problems and has been shown to be extremely useful during pregnancy and childbirth. On the emotional side belly dancing increases the libido and has enabled women to overcome self-esteem issues and regain healthy feelings of sensuality and sexuality.

Belly Dancing covers all aspects of this ancient art, beginning with its origins and mythical connections to the moon goddess. The authors provide practical instructions and easy-to-follow photographs for the most important dance movements as well as guidance in costuming and related accoutrements. Additional information on foot reflexology and Indian chakras aid the further understanding of the art. The book also contains recipes for Middle Eastern perfumes, cosmetic creams, and food as well as suggestions for musical accompaniment. ... Read more

Book Description

Written by a physicist with professional dance training, Physics and the Art of Dance explains how dancers can achieve better, safer performances through an understanding of physics in motion. Using simple, non-technical terms, Kenneth Laws combines his knowledge of both physics and dance to describe how the laws of gravity, momentum, and energy affect dancing bodies. The book explores the natural laws that govern the subtleties of balance, the techniques of leaps and pirouettes, and the impressive lifts and turns executed by ballet partners. Finally, Laws offers insight into two current discussions in the dance world--the effect of body size on ballet technique, and the relationship between science and the art of dance. Beautiful, original stop-action photographs by Martha Swope, along with clear diagrams, illustrate the concepts described in the text. Plus, an intriguing "puzzler" at the beginning of each chapter provides an engaging entree into the topics presented. For those who want a more advanced understanding of the physics, extensive appendices are provided. This new book combines the best features of Laws's widely acclaimed The Physics of Dance and Physics, Dance, and the Pas de Deux by Laws and Cynthia Harvey. Its expert application of the basic principles of physics to the art of dance will be an invaluable resource for dancers and dance instructors and will open a new level of appreciation for lovers of the form. It will also appeal to physicists who seek to include the arts in their scientific pursuits. ... Read more

Book Description

Not everyone can have the body of a dancer, but the program in Ballet-Fit Workout shows how to achieve many of dancers' desirable physical attributes: a strong, flexible spine; a toned, stable midsection; shapely, defined muscles; and sleek, graceful posture.Written for people with no formal ballet training, this book uses clear, jargon-free explanations and detailed photos to teach the fitness techniques utilized by world-class dancers. Optimal health is the focus throughout Ballet-Fit Workout, and the author shows how classic dance training not only reshapes the body but also teaches mental focus and leads to a calm, refreshed mind. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

One of the Best Books I've Ever Read
I am a great fan of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. When I learned that she had written an autobiography, I wanted to read it right away. This book was so good and informative, that I read all 450 pages within a few days. In her book, she talks about her childhood, her devotion to her mother, Lela, her stage career, her romances, and her movie career. I reccomend this book to any Ginger Rogers or Astaire and Rogers fan.

Blah blah blah. What an irritating woman.
I'm sorry that she's dead, but I have to say after reading this book that I found Ginger Rogers to be a self-righteous prig.
To hear her tell it, every cute scene in every one of her movies was her idea. Every glamourous dress she wore was her idea. And, of course, everyone loved her.
Particularly Mommy.
Ginger is obsessed with her mother. It's like she never moved past that "I'm gonna tell my Mommy!" phase of childhood developement. She never fought a battle of her own; she just called Mommy to do it for her, so that she could stay in her dressing room drinking milkshakes and praying.
I have respect for anyone in Hollywood, past present or future, who is willing to stand up and declare that they have a religious faith. But constant harping on how God healed the boils on her husband's butt gets a little wearying. Her constant determination to tell everyone how to live, coupled with her ridiculously childish practical jokes, leave me in no doubt as to why all of her non-drinking husbands became drinkers in a hurry.
She was a great entertainer, and some bits of the book were fairly interesting, but I think I finished it because I was fascinated by her ego and disastrous marriages than because I had fun with it.

Ginger's memoir is truly a delight!
According to one writer and critic 'Ginger my story' was greeted with 'critical yawns' upon it's publication in 1991. Personally I couldn't disagree more. Reading this book was a truly heartwarming experience from beggining to end. Ginger writes candidly about her upbringing, her early experiences on the vaudeville circuit, her hollywood film career (including the pitfalls of being a woman in Hollywood) and the sad story of her five marriages which all ended in divorce. Ginger tells delightful anecdotes about her encounters with other famous folk - George Gershwin, FDR, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Noel Coward, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra etc. It is wonderful to know how devoted she was to her mother Lela (to whom the book is dedicated) and the chapter where she describes how she coped with Lela's death is truly poignant. The most interesting parts for me was where she describes how christian science had helped her through life and how she had had used it to help others (she cured her third husband of warts and her fourth husband of boils!). I did feel quite sad though reading this knowing that Ginger was no longer with us (it's a shame she couldn't have used christian science to save herself from diabetes;she died from the disease in April 1995) for I would surely have written to her congratulating her for having written such a wonderful memoir.

My favorite book!
This is my favorite book! Sweet, funny, sober, honest Ginger Rogers gives us a peek into yet another one of her many talents--writing. Her autobiography reads well, in fact, it is the only biography I could ever finish, let alone read multiple times. It gives a detailed (but not at all dull) look into her life in show business, FIVE husbands, her religion, and of course, her mother. Illustrated with lots of lovely pictures of Ginger and many of leading men, Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, et cetera. Beautiful book, a must read.

Realistic view of a fantasy world
Pleasantly surprised to read Ginger Rogers autobiography about the golden age of Hollywood. She writes about her troubles with the hollywood biggies ( director Mark Sandrich...) and the price she paid for having not conformed to the hollywood social scene of drinking, philandering and ego stroking. Loved to read about her early broadway career and her romantic tangles ranging from Jack Culpepper to Cary Grant. There are times when she is not specific about certain events ( her later marriages) but does not make any apologies. Obviously this talented lady was a force to be dealth with seriously, or she would not have survived the harsh realities of show business. Much has been written about her mother Lela, and not in very sympathetic tones, but none of that in this autobiography- love, support and tenacity are what got these women through- a very entertaining book. ... Read more

Book Description

The first major study of the Spanish choreographer who invented the modernist Flamenco ballet form. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A pretty and necessary work, but flawed
This is a pretty book, filled with lots of wonderful historic photos and other memorabilia. It is heartening to see a full work about a creator within that larger genre of "Spanish Dance," and it is a work filled with lots of information. It brings to life, at times in great detail, the character of Antonia Mercé and the era in which she lived. This is a work that should appeal to dance enthusiasts, dance historians, and lovers of Spanish dance, and for the majority of such individuals it should fill what has mostly been a large blank.

I should leave my review there, and if this were a work of love by a lay-person enthusiast, I would. What nags, however, is that (a) the author is a university professor and (b) it is published by a major university press. One therefore has a right to expect that the manuscript was properly reviewed and edited. Perhaps it is a result of the relative obscurity of the subject, perhaps also the author's lack of command of the subject's principal language, Spanish, but the book nevertheless contains a great many annoying errors that can be misleading to other serious researchers who might rely upon this work. Not only that, the author often interjects equally annoying opinions and characterizations, some anachronistic, some irritatingly "PC".

Room allows but one example of historical error. At p. 17, the author places total blame upon Franco and his style of fascism for the destruction of "the essence of Spanish life and culture," and that during his reign "Spain would return to the repressive fascist state it had been during the Inquisition (1478 - 1834)." Granted, Franco's regime was no picnic, but this is "over the top" PC speak: By the time Franco entered Spain from North Africa as a rebel, the country's only alternative to the Nationalists of which Franco by default became the leader (after the deaths of three other generals) was a Stalinist puppet government that was busy exterminating any opposition to its own brutal policies. England, the U.S., and the rest of Europe other than Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy turned a blind eye and offered no support of any kind. And it was Mussolini who first came up with "Fascism" after the end of World War I, so how was Spain a "fascist state" four centuries before? And Franco's repressive government provided asylum from the Nazis to any Jews who could show they were Sephardic - something the U.S. never did; and it was Franco's government which in 1968 officially repealed the order of expulsion signed by Fernando and Isabela in 1492- something which the so-called Republican Government never did.

On the same page the author has Ernest Hemmingway fighting in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade alongside George Orwell! Did anyone check this manuscript? The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was composed of North American volunteers. Orwell was British, a devoted Socialist, and after a brief stint as a journalist covering the Spanish Civil War he joined the Lenin Brigade in Barcelona, not the Lincoln. His experiences there lead him to write several exposé's of Soviet style brutality, betrayal, lying and corruption, and later his classic work, Animal Farm. Hemingway only appeared as a journalist and never joined any brigade. (That was why he was able to visit Spain multiple times during the Franco years, something he never would have been allowed to do if he had fought for the Republic.)

Then there is the pseudo-academic clap trap: p. 31 "Further, one must ask whether Flamenco performers' prejudice against the Spanish castanet was a Franco-era hold-over or a postmodern reaction to a light-sounding, aristocratic instrument that viewed the castanet as a conflation of eighteenth- and twentieth-century socioeconomic and political values." Oh, please. (And the Flamencos do use castanets, but they also know when their use is appropriate and when it is not.)

The author also commits the sin of falling so in love with her subject that at times the book becomes more panegyric or hagiography than a biography. Reading this book alone, one would think that Antonia Mercé single handedly invented the theatrical version of Spanish dance and was the first to include flamenco. In fact, she was one of many - a significant one, no doubt, but not the only one. An example is the author's approving quote from her subject: (p. 71) "At the beginning... dance maestros rejected my 'revolution of classical dance.' Now all dancers are not only trying to imitate my way of dance, but my gestures, and the way I comb my hair. In all academies, my dancing alone is being taught." The author only stated that here Ms. Mercé was "neither modest nor unsure of herself" but was "absolutely aware of what she had accomplished." Sure, according to Ms. Mercé, but this is more an example of her at times insufferable arrogance, a trait she shared with her most famous male dance partner, Vicente Escudero (whom the author states point blank was "a Gypsy" from Valladolid - but that was information from the lips of Escudero himself, always a dubious source of information). And there is no balance. For example, the author neither noted nor quoted Mercé's admissions that there were dancers who could teach her a thing or two. For example, after seeing the then aging Gypsy, María Gracia Cortés Campos, "la Golondrina," dance at a private party, in awe she had to ask her host, "Do I dance well?... If only I could produce in public half the emotion I feel now! Look how I am!" whereupon she placed her cold and trembling hand in that of her host. (Quoted in "El baile flamenco," Ángel Álvarez Caballero, p. 165)

Antonia Mercé was indeed a dance great, but, contrary to what is implied in both the title and in the body of this book, she was never a flamenco great - was, in many ways, the opposite of a flamenco. Her contributions lay in choreography and theatrical presentation, which the author properly notes. ... Read more

Book Description

Destined to become a classic text and reference, Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery shows you how to use imaging techniques to improve posture and alignment and release excess tension. The book’s 195 illustrations will help you visualize the images and exercises and show you how to use them in a variety of contexts.

Part I of Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery discusses the origins and uses of imagery and includes 36 exercises that demonstrate dynamic alignment in practice. You’ll explore the importance of posture and dynamic alignment and discover how to use imagery to affect body movement.

Part II explains the biomechanical and anatomical principles behind complex imagery and illustrates 52 exercises to bring these principles to life. You’ll learn how to use basic physics to create a strong yet fluid balance in your muscles and joints.

Part III provides 250 anatomical imagery exercises to help you fine-tune alignments and increase body awareness. The exercises focus on different regions of the body--the pelvis, hips, knees, lower legs, spine, shoulders, arms, hands, head, and neck--as well as on breathing. You can select specific images to address individual needs or follow the sequence presented in the book.

And Part IV provides 23 holistic exercises to sculpt and improve alignment in various positions--standing, supine, and sitting. These exercises will help you establish a body image that facilitates dynamic alignment and releases excess tension.

By practicing the techniques described in Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, you’ll tap into the power of imagery and create better movement. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

How to Deal With Gravity
Gravity is the most influencial force in our lives. Eric Franklin's Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery deals how to move in the gravity field.

I am not a professial dancer. But I am approaching walking the 4.0 minute mile using body images in Franklin's book as a guide for good alignment. This imagery that moves your body parts better keeps your interest. It is fun. Right now I am working on hip motions images.

How much do I like it? I bought five copies to give to my children so they could share good alignment with my grandchildren. So, they all will know how to deal with and make peace with gravity. ... Read more

Book Description

American modern dance artist Erick Hawkins was a profound thinker, mover, and educator. In addition to creating powerful dance works, Hawkins developed a comprehensive and universal system of dance training that continues to influence dancers worldwide. The Erick Hawkins Modern Dance Technique offers a detailed explanation of typical Hawkins technique principles through an abundant variety of illustrations, photographs, and labanotations. Author Renata Celichowska provides a broad understanding of the technique including its history; philosophy; basic principles; a complete class; discussion of the integration of body, mind, and soul; works choreographed by Erick Hawkins, glossary of labanotation terms, books recommended by Hawkins, bibliography, videography, and index.

Accompanying and illustrating is a two-volume video set by the same title which includes film and video clips of Hawkins and his dancers in class, rehearsals, performance, and interviews. ... Read more

Book Description

In the early 1960s, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was a small, multi-racial company of dancers that performed the works of its founding choreographer and other emerging artists. By the late 1960s, the company had become a well-known African American artistic group closely tied to the Civil Rights struggle. In Dancing Revelations, Thomas DeFrantz chronicles the troupe's journey from a small modern dance company to one of the premier institutions of African American culture. He not only charts this rise to national and international renown, but also contextualizes this progress within the civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights struggles of the late 20th century.

DeFrantz examines the most celebrated Ailey dances, including Revelations, drawing on video recordings of Ailey's dances, published interviews, oral histories, and his own interviews with former Ailey company dancers.Through vivid descriptions and beautiful illustrations, DeFrantz reveals the relationship between Ailey's works and African American culture as a whole. He illuminates the dual achievement of Ailey as an artist and as an arts activist committed to developing an African American presence in dance. He also addresses concerns about how dance performance is documented, including issues around spectatorship and the display of sexuality, the relationship of Ailey's dances to civil rights activism, and the establishment and maintenance of a successful, large-scale

Black Arts institution.

Throughout Dancing Revelations, DeFrantz illustrates how Ailey combined elements of African dance with motifs adapted from blues, jazz, and Broadway to choreograph his dances. By re-interpreting these tropes of black culture in his original and well-received dances, DeFrantz argues that Ailey played a significant role in defining the African American cultural canon in the twentieth century. As the first book to examine the cultural sources and cultural impact of Ailey's work, Dancing Revelations is an important contribution to modern dance history and criticism as well as African-American studies. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

EXCELLENT! A thorough explanation of dance for the church.
This extensive explanation of dance's original creation and place in the church for worship is a must-have for anyone interested in worship. Not just a dance book. Biblical foundations of dance's history and use in the church put any questions to flight about its propriety. GET THIS FOR YOUR MINISTER FOR TEACHING OVER THE PULPIT! Excellent resource.

Definitive book on restoring the art of dance to the church.
Restoring the Dance is a definitive book on restoring the art of dance to the church. It briefly looks at the history of dance in the church. It gives practical examples of how and why dance should be restored to Christian Worship. ... Read more

Book Description

The Tao of Tango is emphatically not a dance book, but rather the ultimate self-help book on the way men and women view relationships.

Written specifically to be accessible to both genders, [Johanna]...uses the Tango as a metaphor to describe the fragile balance of energies found in all interpersonal relationships, as they are perceived from the point of view of both sexes. The book includes physical exercises to help readers through the process of developing awareness of the self and of one's partner.

A "must" read for anyone desiring a balanced life and a loving relationship. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Insightful and Compelling
"The Tao of Tango is one of the most compelling, thought-provoking, informative and sensitive books I have ever read. This book was written from the heart of the author, Johanna Siegmann, to the heart of anyone seeking to understand the interplay of female and male energy in relationships. The use of the Tango as a metaphor for the "dance of life" is beautiful and profound in its simplicity...your spirit will dance with this one. "

Dances of the Heart
Johanna Siegmann contrasts the exotic and flowing nature of the tango with the everyday dance in relationships that we all do in life. It's a self-help approach that appeals to the romantic in all of us. Once we realize that we're all in the dance together, Johanna pinpoints just what happens when the tango begins and how to truly enjoy your life. A great read!

Tao of Tango
I swear by this book. I think anyone can relate to it and find some good insights. I have passed this book along to many of my friends and students in our local tango community, but also to many other "non-dancers" too. It's an easy read but full of depth and understanding that anyone can find applicable to theirselves and their lives.

Tango
"The Tao of Tango poses some fascinating theories about masculine/feminine [energies] and the powers each possess. Johanna understands the power of the dance, [and] what it brings to our lives. "

A brand new twist on the Tango
The Tao Of Tango is emphatically not a dance book (although the author Johanna Siegmann has learned the Tango so that the reader never has to) but rather the ultimate self-help book on the way men and women view relationships. Written specifically to be accessible to both genders, The Tao Of Tango includes physical exercises to heighten the senses. Author Johanna Siegmann compares male and female energy, also known as Yang and Yin, to archetypal Tango dancers, and from this draws insight for the reader to ponder long after he or she finishes this slim book. Fresh, unique, and definitely a brand new twist on the Tango. ... Read more

Book Description

Here is a collection of dance photographs unlike any other. In a series of breathtakingly beautiful pictures taken over a period of five years, Dieter Blum focuses his astute camera on 37 of the 53 dancers in the world-renowned Stuttgart Ballet to explore the sculptural aspects of this exquisitely schooled human form; its strength, suppleness, discipline, mystery and possibilities for movement. Because all of the dancers are photographed in the nude, Blum succeeds in capturing the dynamic movement, musicality, and magic of these classically trained dance artists. Each photograph becomes a distilled, evocative frozen fragment of an art form that by its nature is fleeting and ephemeral. ... Read more

Book Description

Conditioning for Dance improves your technique and performance in all dance forms by strengthening the body’s core while improving your coordination, balance, alignment, and flexibility. The result is more lift without tension, deeper pliés, higher jumps with less effort, tighter turns, and improved extension and turnout.

The innovative, proven techniques in this book will help you execute key movements better as you

·strengthen the muscles you use in dance by performing exercises with elastic resistance bands;
·start and move in proper alignment using imagery;
·improve your balance and release tension through playful exercises with small balls;
·develop leg and torso power that translates to higher jumps and tighter turns; and
·optimize your flexibility through touch, movement awareness, and imagery.

Conditioning for Dance features 102 imagery illustrations paired with dance-specific exercises to help you maximize body–mind conditioning. The book culminates with a 20-minute, full-body barre workout routine designed to help you warm up, condition, and refine your dance technique.

By working the muscles through movements and ranges of motion that approximate the demands of your chosen dance form, you directly enrich your performance capabilities. And as you strengthen the body’s core, stretch to gain just the right amount of flexibility, and incorporate the power of the mind, you unleash your full artistic and physical potential. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Superb insights into body function, relaxation, imagery
I'm a professional who utilizes applied biomechanics for a
living. I also study Tai Chi and other internal martial arts.
I am no dancer. I've been exposed through my profession to
Feldenkrais, Pilates, and yoga. Guess what? They're all
virtually the same!

I was turned on to this book by a martial arts colleague.
It has changed the way we look at our martial arts practice.
Franklin does a really nice job of describing the pertinent
functional anatomy in many key areas of your body (pelvis and
pelvic floor, including iliopsoas, back, legs, internal organs,
etc.)-- specifically the importance of key biomechanical
properties. He describes very enriching visualization and touch/
feel exercises to induce greater awareness and relaxation,
thereby promoting function. Higher kicks and jumps, deeper
squats (plie's), all with less effort. It's clear, and the
exercises work!

There are exercises for awareness, relaxation, alignment,
stretching, and strengthening. They are simple, easily done
with small Pilates-type balls and Thera-band, but some
are quite hard and take some work!

My only complaint is that some of his diagrams lack detail,
or there aren't enough diagrams or pictures to fully elucidate
the anatomy or the exercises. He does provide excellent
descriptive text, however.

I've recommended this text to other martial artists, to my
colleagues, to physical therapists, and to medical students.
Well done, and I will certainly add some of his other books to \
my wish list! ... Read more

Book Description

Mauricio Castro's book offers a new system to help the dancer creatively develop his/her tango using solidly established technical foundations. The instructions can be easily followed with the help of a series of two and three-dimensional diagrams especially designed by the author.

The method is explained in a clear, concise and efficient way and includes lessons for the beginner to the most advanced in tango dance theory.

This book revolutionizes all of the traditional concepts used until now in the teaching of this sensuous, passionate and complex dance form which aquires enthusiastic new followers daily, all around the world. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

The Key to it's Secrets Revealed
This is the most appropiate subtitle for this book. Because, after a read it, the dance seem so much simple.

Very intresting
I started to dance 3 years ago, and this book has been the most helpfull tool to my learning process. It is very well design, and the graphics are clear to understand.

Very useful
I am glad I've found this book. I've been learning tango for a long time, and finally I have found a system that makes sense to me.

Great book about Structure
In my opinion it is a very good book. It had clarify to me and my students a lot about this dance. I use it with all my students and we have great fun.

For special customers target.
It's a very good book. Through its pages you can learn the more modern concepts not only about argentine tango but also the most innovative dance techniques. The author break all the learning and teaching dance rules. ... Read more

Book Description