Product Description
Those tales of old—King Arthur, Robin Hood, The Crusades, Marco Polo, Joan of Arc—have been told and retold, and the tradition of their telling has been gloriously upheld by filmmaking from its very inception. From the earliest of Georges Méliès’s films in 1897, to a 1996 animated Hunchback of Notre Dame, film has offered not just fantasy but exploration of these roles so vital to the modern psyche. St. Joan has undergone the transition from peasant girl to self-assured saint, and Camelot has transcended the soundstage to evoke the Kennedys in the White House.

Here is the first comprehensive survey of over 900 cinematic depictions of the European Middle Ages—date of production, country of origin, director, production company, cast, and a synopsis and commentary. A bibliography, index, and over 100 stills complete this remarkable work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

More Medieval and Early Modern Film and Media
See also Richard Burt's Medieval and Early Modern Film and Media (Palgrave 2008; paperback 2010).Medieval and Early Modern Film and Media

Excellent book
This is by far the best book available on films about the middle ages, nothing else like it exists. It's an encyclopedia of 564 films in all languages. The author doesn't rate or rank the films, but provides enough clues to give the careful reader guidance on which are the better and more important films (length of entry, accompanying picture, etc.). Some of these films are extremely obscure and I have no idea how one would go about viewing them. Each film entry has a bibliography for further information and reviews. There is also an Introduction and bibliography. It's good to see a paperback version is now available although it is still costly. For lovers of the middle ages and film this will open new worlds. ... Read more

Product Description
This work focuses on eight of the dances, the "istampittas", linked etymologically to the "estampie", a French dance, whose origins are here examined with an eye towards Italian and French music and civilization, as well as the music and society of the Arabs. ... Read more

Product Description
In this companion volume to the successful Images of Enchantment: Visual and Performing Arts of the Middle East (AUC Press, 1998), historian and ethnomusicologist Sherifa Zuhur has once again commissioned and edited authoritative essays from noteworthy scholars from around the globe that explore the visual and performing arts in the Middle East.

What differentiates this volume from its predecessor is its investigation of theater, from the early modern period to the contemporary. Topics include race and national identity in Egyptian theater, early writing in the Arab theater in North America, Persian-language theater from its origins through the twentieth century, Palestinian nationalist theater, and a survey of the work of noted Egyptian playwright Yusuf Idris. Other aspects of the arts are not neglected, of course, as further avenues of dance, music, and the visual arts are explored.

Marked by interesting and fresh perspectives, Colors of Enchantment is another vital contribution to scholarship on the arts of the Middle East.

Contributors: Najwa Adra, Wijdan Ali, Sami Asmar, Clarissa Burt, Michael Frishkopf, M. R. Ghanoonparvar, Tori Haring-Smith, Kathleen Hood, Deborah Kapchan, Neil van der Linden, Samia Mehrez, Mona Mikhail, Sami A. Ofeish, 'Ali Jihad Racy, Rashad Rida, Tonia Rifaey, Edward Said, Lori Anne Salem, Philip D. Schuyler, Selim Sednaoui, Reuven Snir, James Stone, Eve Troutt Powell, and Sherifa Zuhur. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A true gem, a must read, an illuminating memoir
Nesta Ramazani has written a true gem of memoir and history. With her extremely capable pen, she takes us on both a personal journey into her own diverse, eclectic, and inspiring life and also into revealing vignettes of Iranian life of the 1940's and 1950's -- a period lamentably ignored by too many historians.

The book does what the best memoirs should do: it tells a great tale, weaves the background history nicely, and illuminatesslices of life and Iranian society in all its color and diversity.

It is touching, funny, enlightening, and exquisitely told. The book should be on the reading list of anyone interested in good memoirs, in Iran, in women's studies, in the Middle East, or simply in good writing. I rank the book at the top of any list of Iranian memoirs in the English language.

Charming book, a delightful read!
I picked up this book because I was interested in reading about Iran in the 1940s and 50s. I was pleasantly surprised what an outstanding writer Ramazani is, she has an adept pen and is a wonderful storyteller. I was amazed how candid she was, how much personal and family history she divulges.

I recommend this book highly to the Iranian diaspora throughout the world, Nesta Ramazani gives a truly intimate account of her own journey and the mid-20th century history of Iran.

A personal viewpoint of the meeting of different faiths
Nesta Ramazani's The Dance Of The Rose And The Nightingale is the personal testimony of a young woman who grew up in Iran during the 1940s, the daughter of an English Christian mother and an Iranian Zoroastrian father. Reflecting a personal viewpoint of the meeting of different faiths, as well as the daily difficulties Iran experienced as its government tried to compel its traditional society and culture to modernize, The Dance Of The Rose And The Nightingale is a captivating, autobiographical life story and especially recommended reading for students of 20th Century Iranian history. ... Read more

Product Description
Based on an award-winning thesis, this volume is a pioneering study of musical theatre and popular culture and its relation to the production of identity in Lebanon in the second half of the twentieth century.In the aftermath of the departure of the French from Lebanon and the civil violence of 1958, the Rahbani brothers (Asi and Mansour) staged a series of folkloric musical theatrical extravaganzas at the annual Ba'labakk festival which highlighted the talents of Asi's wife, the Lebanese diva Fairouz, arguably the most famous living Arab singer. The inclusion of these folkloric vignettes into the festival's otherwise European dominated cultural agenda created a powerful nation-building combination of what Partha Chatterjee calls the 'appropriation of the popular' and the 'classicization of tradition.'The Rahbani project coincides with the confluence of increasing internal and external migration in Lebanon, as well as with the rapid development of mass media technology, of which the Ba'labakk festival can be seen as an extension. Employing theories of nationalism, modernity, globalism and locality, this book shows that these factors combined to give the project a potent identity-forming power. Popular Culture and Nationalism in Lebanon is the first study of Fairouz and the Rahbani family in English and will appeal to students and researchers in the field of Middle East studies, Popular culture and musical theatre. ... Read more

Product Description
The music of Western Asia and North Africa spans across avast region, from Morocco to Afghanistan, and itsinfluences can be felt even further afield. Middle Easternmusic influenced (and has been influenced by) the music ofGreece and India, as well as Central Asia, Spain, theCaucasus and the Balkans, as in chalga. The various nationsof the region include the Arabic-speaking countries of theMiddle East and North Africa, the Persian tradition ofIran, the Greek traditions of Cypriot music, the music ofTurkey, traditional Assyrian music, various Jewishtraditions from Israel, the Kurdish music, Berbers of NorthAfrica, and the Coptic Christians in Egypt all maintaintheir own traditions. Throughout the region, religion hasbeen a common factor in uniting peoples of differentlanguages, cultures and nations. The predominance of Islamallowed a great deal of Arabic influence to spread throughthe region rapidly from the 7th century onward. The Arabicscale is strongly melodic, based around various maqam ormodes (also known as makam in Turkish music). ... Read more

Product Description
Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations havedistinct musical traditions. Most importantly, the music ofnorth Africa (red region on map) has a different historyfrom that of Sub-Saharan African music. North Africa is theseat of the Mediterranean culture that built Egypt andCarthage before being ruled successively by Greeks, Romansand Goths and then becoming the Maghreb of the Arab world.Like the musical genres of the Nile Valley and the Horn ofAfrica (sky-blue and dark green region on map), its musichas close ties with Middle Eastern music. East Africa andthe offshore islands in the Indian Ocean (light greenregions on map) have been slightly influenced by Arabicmusic and also by the music of India, Indonesia andPolynesia. However, the region's indigenous musicaltraditions are primarily in the mainstream of the sub- Saharan Niger Congo-speaking peoples. Southern, Central andWest Africa (brown, dark blue and yellow regions on map) aresimilarly in the broad sub-Saharan musical tradition, butdraw their ancillary influences from Western Europe andNorth America. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

GOOGLE THE PRODUCT REVIEW...
Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. Most importantly, the music of north Africa (red region on map) has a different history from that of Sub-Saharan African music. North Africa is the seat of the Mediterranean culture that built Egypt and Carthage before being ruled successively by Greeks, Romans and Goths and then becoming the Maghreb of the Arab world. Like the musical genres of the Nile Valley and the Horn of Africa (sky-blue and dark green region on map), its music has close ties with Middle Eastern music. East Africa and the offshore islands in the Indian Ocean (light green reg

... GO TO THE SOURCE OF THE WHOLE BOOK: WIKIPEDIA ... Read more

Product Description
Full history of Cambodian Dance ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Master Class
I had the pleasure of hearing Denise speak about Cambodia on a ship headed up the Viet Nam coast.She is funny, smart, and captivating in person, and now that I have this book - my first impressions were confirmed. I went to Cambodia after I met her, and my trip was enriched tenfold from having heard and met her. I watched the dances with the benefit of a little inside knowledge. If you are a fan of travel writer Paul Theroux, you will love Denise even more.

Insightful and Entertaining
This book is, simply, a treasure.Denise Heywood knows dance and Cambodia and skillfully weaves together a fascinating picture of a country, and of its people.Classical dance is very much at the heart of the Cambodian identity - perhaps much more so than in modern Western culture.

Heywood looks both to the past and to the future of Dance, providing insights into the impact of politics, economics and a turbulent history on the dance form.Per Martha Graham "Dance ...has been the symbol of the performance of living." The author's account of the survivors and rebirth of Dance post "Killing Fields" is thorough and inspiring.

This in-depth knowledge of traditional dance forms and of Cambodian history and of their interplay makes for compelling reading.The author writes with passion using language that is rich with word pictures, clear, and entertaining.Illustrations are top knotch and plentiful, ranging from "traditional hand gestures" to stiles of Dancing apsara riddled with bullet holes at Angor Wat; shadowpuppets, to modern dance training.

Heywood's look at the Cambodian royal family's profound impact on dance is singular, thanks to her personal connection with figures like HRH Norodom Buppha Devi and her father, the former King Sihanouk.This is a great read and a fascinating book.

This book is much appreciated
Having discovered this dance form some years ago on Ovation TV, I have spent a lot of fruitless hours trying to learn about the origins and meaning of traditional Khmer dance. There have been few or no books available, no performance DVD's that I've been able to find, and precious little on the internet. I have seen a few live performances which were magnificent.

This book is one of two books to have recently come out on this subject. The other is more than $150, so I ordered this one.

This is the kind of resource I've been looking for. The scope of the book is wide, including some Khmer and Cambodian history, the origins and evolution of the dances, the costumes, poses, hand gestures, famous performers, and the involvement of the Cambodian Royal family. The author had access to many of the figures in Cambodian dance today. The breadth of the topics means that the book is really a starting point for understanding this art. If you take the book on that level, it is really well done.

There are a lot of images in the book, some are photos, others are prints and historical representation. There are some great photos of the dancers, their costumes and specific dance positions and poses. Most of the photos are high quality, but there are some that have that high-school-text-book-from-the-60's look, with very grainy texture and bad color reproduction.

I highly recommend this book. It won't give you everything on this rich and complex subject, but it will give you a good grounding. This dance form is very beautiful and worth learning about, but has been under the radar for many people.I hope that this book inspires people to find out about Cambodian dance and to support it. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Westchester County Business Journal, published by Westfair Communications, Inc. on March 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1140 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Concert celebrates Middle Eastern musical traditions: Arab-American community celebrated during March 6th concert and dance performance at the White Plains Performing Arts Center.(arts news)
Author: Tom van Buren
Publication: Westchester County Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2004
Publisher: Westfair Communications, Inc.
Volume: 43Issue: 9Page: a5(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more

Product Description
"Oriental Dance, in one form or another, has been around for millennia, tracing back to a time before recorded history."

Discover the world of Oriental Dance (more popularly known as Belly Dance), including its history and origins, traditions, many styles, music and costumes.

"Oriental Dance: Discovering the Art of Belly Dancing" explores all aspects of the dance, both traditional and modern, and uncovers why it is an important part of Middle Eastern life, and how it has become a hobby and passion of so many women (and men) around the world.
... Read more

Product Description

This work provides a complete introduction to the traditional Japanese Kabuki drama. Featuring sections on the appreciation of Kabuki, characteristics of the plays, machinery peculiar to Kabuki, the best Kabuki plays, Kabuki techniques, and symbolism used in the plays, the book will provide any traveller with the background knowledge necessary to appreciate and participate in Japanese culture.

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, published by American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) on September 1, 2009. The length of the article is 9190 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Quantity, type, and correlates of physical activity among American Middle Eastern University students.(Epidemiology)(Report)
Author: David Kahan
Publication: Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2009
Publisher: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD)
Volume: 80Issue: 3Page: 412(12)

Article Type: Report

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
Volume I, Book 17.Introduction to partner dancing with a cane.Learn to combine traditional Middle Eastern folk dance steps with cane motions. ... Read more

Product Description
Volume I, Book 18.Warm-up/cool-down exercises. How to perform belly dance floor movements while sitting, kneeling, reclining. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa 2, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 966 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.This second edition reflects the far-reaching changes the Middle East has undergone in recent years, making it more relevant and necessary than ever before. Covers the modern history of the Middle East and North Africa, with major sections on Colonialism and Imperialism, the World Wars, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the United Nations' involvement in the region. Each country in the region is reviewed, detailing its population, economy, and government. ... Read more