At the height of the Cold War in 1954, President Eisenhower inaugurated a program of cultural exchange that sent American dancers and other artists to political "hot spots" overseas. This peacetime gambit by a warrior hero was a resounding success.Among the artists chosen for international duty were José Limón, who led his company on the first government-sponsored tour of South America; Martha Graham, whose famed ensemble crisscrossed southeast Asia; Alvin Ailey, whose company brou...

This is the story of the National Ballet of Canada – the people, the determination, and how at sixty it is still creating new work while still representing the classics.Passion to Dance is the story of the National Ballet of Canada – the people who dreamt the company into existence, the determination needed to keep it afloat, the bumps on the road to its success, and above all, its passion for dance as a living, evolving art form.From catch-as-catch-can beginnings ...

The “fantastically interesting” (NPR’s All Things Considered) biography of the legendary, intensely ambitious choreographer and director who changed Broadway with his productions of Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story, and Gypsy—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Pride and Pleasure“Superlative . . . a vivid account of a theatrical wizard.”—VogueTo some, Jerome Robbins was a demanding perf...

Natalia Osipova: Becoming a Swan is an intimate portrait of the work of a ballet superstar, and the story told in pictures of how she prepares for the most iconic role in all of ballet. Features over 150 black and white images of Osipova behind the scenes and on stage, including unique glimpses taken from the wings at Covent Garden. Andrej Uspenski has used his exclusive vantage point as a First Artist with The Royal Ballet, to produce a moving photographic tribute to the most exciting pri...

A concise introduction to the study of dance ranging from the practical aspects such as technique and choreography to more theoretical considerations such as aesthetic appreciation and the place of dance in different cultures. This book answers questions such as:Exactly how do we define dance?What kinds of people dance and what kind of training is necessary?How are dances made?What do we know about dance history?Featuring a glossar...

Lone Scherfig was the first of a number of women directors to take up the challenge of Dogme, the back-to-basics, manifesto-based, rule-governed, and now globalized film initiative introduced by Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg in 1995. Entitled Italiensk for begyndere (Italian for Beginners), Scherfig's Dogme film transformed this already accomplished filmmaker into one of Europe's most noteworthy women directors. Danish and international critics lavished praise on S...

This analytical history traces representations of flamenco dance in Spain and abroad from the twentieth century to the present, using histories, film, accounts of live performances, and practitioner interviews.Beginning with an analysis of flamenco historiography, the text examines images of the female dancer in films by Luis Bunuel, Carlos Saura, and Antonio Gades; stereotypes of flamenco bodies and Andalusian culture in Prosper Merimee's Carmen; and the ways in which con...

Argentinean tango is a global phenomenon. Since its origin among immigrants from the slums of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, it has crossed and re-crossed many borders.Yet, never before has tango been danced by so many people and in so many different places as today. Argentinean tango is more than a specific music and style of dancing. It is also a cultural imaginary which embodies intense passion, hyper-heterosexuality, and dangerous exoticism.In the wake of its latest revival, tang...

In this rich interdisciplinary study Tim Scholl provides a provocative and timely re-evaluation of the development of ballet from the 1880s to the middle of the twentieth century. In the light of a thoughtful re-appraisal of dance classicism he locates the roots of modern ballet in the works of Marius Petipa, rather than in the much-celebrated choreographic experiements of Diaghilev's Ballet Russe.Not only is this the first book to present nineteenth- and twentieth-century ...

Arguably the world's most popular partnered social dance form, salsa's significance extends well beyond the Latino communities which gave birth to it. The growing international and cross-cultural appeal of this Latin dance form, which celebrates its mixed origins in the Caribbean and in Spanish Harlem, offers a rich site for examining issues of cultural hybridity and commodification in the context of global migration. Salsa consists of countless dance dialects enjoyed by varied communities...

In this book, educator-actor-playwright-director Elizabeth Hess offers systematic and original explorations in performance technique. This hybrid approach is a fusion of physical theater modalities culled from Western practices (Psycho-physical actions, Viewpoints) Eastern practices (Butoh, Kundalini yoga) and related performance disciplines (Mask, Puppetry). Behavioral, physiological and psychological ‘states of being’ are engaged to unlock impulses, access experience and enlarge the imag...

Merce Cunningham and the Modernizing of Modern Dance is a complete study of the life and work of this seminal choreographer/dancer. More than just a biography, Copeland explores Cunningham's life story against a backdrop of an entire century of developments in American art. Copeland traces his own experience of Cunningham's dances-from the turbulent late '60s through the experimental works of the '80s and '90s-showing how Cunningham moved dance away from the highly emotional, subjective wo...