Book Description
Unlike biblical times, many Christians do not dance before the Lord.Some believe dance is unscripted and others believe it's scriptural, but only the liturgical or praise dancers (ones who are called to the ministry of dance) should dance.The word liturgical means public worship unto God.It can consist of body movements such as - the waving of hands, clapping, twirling, jumping, or stomping of the feet.This is the dance God speaks of in Psalms 150:4.It is a commandment to all of His people.It doesn't matter whether you're male or female, young or old; we all have something to praise God for.So come on, it's time to Praise the Lord in the Dance All Ye People! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

inspirational not informative
this little book is a nice compantion to dance worship. i thought it might be more practical, giving advice on dance liturgy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PSYCHO
Soon after I started reading this novel and read the descriptions of the clothing being worn by the characters I started to wonder whether all of them were Liberace impersonators. I mean what with all the frilly shirts and outrageous jewelry, and then I had to remind myself that this was published in 1966, the prelude to the Summer of Love. It was Angela Carter's first novel, originally published with the title Honeybuzzard. She was only 26 years old at the time and that can explain many of the failings of the book.

As Shadow Dance opens, we are introduced to Morris, a part owner of a antique/junk store who spends most of his days looking through deserted houses. He encounters Ghislaine, a young and beautiful girl. Well, she's not beautiful anymore. She has a long scar on her face that looks like it has never healed where someone mutilated her with a knife. The official story was that a gang raped her and then marked her like that. In reality, the whole town believes that Morris' business partner and friend, who goes by the name of Honeybuzzard, actually did it and has gotten off scotfree because Ghilsaine still loves him.Coencidentally, Honeybuzzard arrives back in town with a new girlfriend in tow. Morris will have to face up to what his friend has done (if he really is his friend), deal with his worn down marriage, and decide if he can be his own man in the process.

I liked Carter's style in the book. She is a master of description and metaphor and is very sensual. You can visualize her writing very easily. The problem in this novel comes down to characterization, namely, that of Honeybuzzard. All of her characters are strongly written except him. Honeybuzzard comes off at one point as slightly gayish man lacking all morality to a preening and giggly girl to a brutal psycho. We're never able to quite believe the over the top nature of the character. At times I expect him to do a fat Elvis routine. Carter made the character androgynous to a fault. Whether this was intentional or not, I don't know. I could go on and on about the failure of this very important character which renders the book silly, goofy, and self-destructive but I won't. Carter was just starting here and very few first novels hit on all cylinders. It's worth reading for a fan of her work but a general audience would probably be wasting their time.

Beauty is in the Eye
This novel is a peripheral view of monsters. One monster being Honeybuzzard, the nasty showy boy who routs through abandoned buildings and takes girls for granted. And the other is the once beautiful girl who has been horribly disfigured and looms in the background of much of this novel as a threatening figure. We see this through Morris, the good-natured but morally corrupt man who tends to mix himself up in trouble. This book introduces a lot of the central themes Angela Carter works with in her later novels. What is truly poignant about it is its setting in the counties of England in a place Carter will depart from and never return in her worldly travels of fiction. Although all of her fiction is concerned with the ways in which women are perceived and treated by society, this novel is the most concerned with an awareness of the violence which accompanies the feminine. The monsters are, as always, really storybook characters, the big bad wolf chasing little red riding hood. But, again like always, under Carter's hand they are not so plastic as that. Each character is innocent and guilty, virtuous and corrupt, powerful and weak. It is because we hold within us these binaries that we are human and so sympathetically related to all the characters of the fairy tales because we have the capacity within us for extreme emotions.Honeybuzzard says: "I like - you know - to slip in and out of me. I would like to be somebody different every morning. Me and not me. I would like to have a cupboard bulging with all different bodies and faces and choose a fresh one every morning." The identities that people wear shift constantly and if we aren't attentive to the way in which they change we will be damaged. The mystery of this novel is not the morality of the terrible deformation of the woman, but whether she is truly beautiful or ugly.And, of course, she and we are both.

A different but impressive first novel
"Shadow Dance" is purportedly an atypical Angela Carter novel. It isn't about a make-believe world of magic and fantasy that's ruled by freaks and half humans but starkly rooted in the crumbling order of lowerclass society in an unnamed English town where bloody minded beatniks,thieves and loafers are the dominant human specimen. Carter's first novelis boldly contemporary, dealing with issues confronting a society that'sundergoing a radical change of values and throwing its inhabitants into aperpetual state of anomie, where the old sits uncomfortably alongside thenew. Hence, you have poor old Edna driving Morris bonkers with her residentmartyr act which only serves to unleash the lurking cruelty beneath thesubterranean of his mind. Contrast this withEmily's ruthless andsingleminded focus on the here and now. Honeybuzzard's criminal instinctsand his lack of moral centre is both frightening and damning in itsimplications for a society still finding its new equilibrium. Even Morris,Honeybuzzard's alter ego and quite the only character with any conscienceat all capitulates and abandons his quest for justice. "ShadowDance" is an impressive first novel by the celebrated Carter. Herheady and razor sharp facility with words lends that extra zing to thiscoming-of-age tale of cruelty. It won't be long before I tackle one of herlater works which promises to be different but equally entertaining.

Don't start here!
If you've never read anything by Angela Carter, don't start here. Shadow Dance is a decent read with some arresting and haunting images and situations, and it won a major book prize, but it's not "typicalCarter", and if it had been the first of her books I'd read, Iprobably wouldn't have been interested in reading any others. Like severalof her other early novels, it's basically a character study of the peoplesurrounding a disruptive personality. In this case, there are two terriblyvicious people (Honeybuzzard and Ghislaine, his victim), and a circle ofpub companions and their families in a depressed British city. It's toldthrough the eyes of Morris, Honeybuzzard's best friend and sometimesalter-ego, who is occasionally appalled by his companion's behaviour, can'tquite manage to be as terrible, and finds himself consumed with guilt whenhe tries. It's worth watching the sparks fly, but the novel is nothing moreor less than a beautifully-written soap opera.Carter did THAT better afew years later in "Love", which is mercilessly gorgeous andsharply nasty, and quite a bit shorter than "Shadow Dance". Herfans will absolutely and categorically want to read "ShadowDance", and it *is* worth the time, but if you're not a fan yet, pickup "Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories" instead. ... Read more

Book Description
Dance composition - the discipline that translates ideas into dances - is an important part of dance education.For over twenty years, Dance Composition has been the leading guide to creative success in dance making, useful to everyone interested in dance composition, at both high school and college levels.

This revised and updated edition includes a new chapter exploring creative processes in relation to composing dances. ... 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
Contrasting the Christian and secular worldviews, Howard refreshes our minds with the illuminated view of Christianity as it imbued the world in times past—showing that we cannot live meaningful lives without this Christian understanding of things. An inspiring apology for Christianity, and a stirring critique of secularism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Shall We Dance?
It is one thing to look upon the rotting corpse that is secularism today and critique its weaknesses. It is entirely another to take to pen when the victory of secularism over faith seemed almost complete and to announce to the world that the emperor had no clothes. Such was the case when Thomas Howard published his critique of secularism Chance or the Dance? in 1969. A lot has happened since then but the amazing thing in reading the book now is that it could have been written yesterday. In fact, if one does not notice the original publication date, you would probably think it was a recent writing. The reason is simple - Howard focuses on eternal truths and as such their veracity does not change with the winds of popular fashion.

Howard's views the weakness of the secular vision as hinging on the limitations it places upon what subject matter may be cosidered to contribute to our knwledge of the world. Secularism, with its restriction to the natural and its overconfidence in the impartiality of the scientific process, has not eliminated faith but exchanged God for an idol of our own choosing. The author, as an English professor, has a far different and more classical view of knowledge than that supplied by the "conventional wisdom" and explores this in a series of essays that return to a more varied fabric than that advocated by modernity.

For Howard, the dismissal of all strata of proposed knowledge beyond empirical data grossly misunderstands both natural and supernatural. By accepting only "facts" we have eliminated the search for purpose in the universe and reduced "the dance" (the interwoven fabric of existence) to "chance" (the purposeless interaction of matter). In relegating the mythical, poetic, and philosophical (in the classical sense) to the realm of the subjective, we have not only stripped the creation of its wonder but have muffled the call of God's image within each of us.

Even our most intimate moments have been impoverished by the fruit of modernity. Sexuality is meant to be a beautiful gift of the Creator and to be used in accordance with His purpose. But without purpose, it is something either to be relegated to a necessary bow to our barbaric past (as in Victorianism) or it is to be used for our own self-gratification (as promoted in the "sexual revolution"). Either view is a distortion of God's purpose for man and woman and each shows modernism's twin fascinations with the purely intellectual and the purely savage.

The views expressed in Chance or the Dance? are remarkably Catholic (in the general sense) and demonstrate the direction Howard was moving even at this phase of his Christian life. In a sense, the book has proven to be prophetic in that the things that may have seemed an overreaction at the time have over the decaded been shown to be on the mark. This is a memorable work that should be read by all serious Christians.

Another Gem
Thomas Howard never fails to get me thinking.He also quite often sends me to my dictionary or m-w.com.One of his biggest strengths is his ability to bring meaning to just about any subject.

He spends a whole chapter on poetry, bringing all of his skills as an English professor to bear in his analysis of this monumental work:

One foot up, one foot down,
That's the way to London Town.

I'm not kidding. His insights are actually incredible and if I taught any kind of literature, I would make this chapter required reading for my students.

A modern masterpiece
Thomas Howard's CHANCE OR THE DANCE? is a little-known modern classic, the sort of book that has changed many lives and is changing them still.In prose that is as beautiful as any you will read, Howard lays out the fundamental question that faces us today, whether to accept a view of the world that says we are extraordinary creatures whose lives have eternal meaning and beauty, or to accept a view that says we are cosmic accidents whose lives have no meaning at all.Simply among the very best books of the latter half of the 20th century.


Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery

A gem from a gifted writer
This book was originally published in 1969, yet it remains fresh and relevant today.Truly a critique of secularism, Howard contrasts the "old myth" (where everything meant everything) to the "new myth" (where nothing means anything).In his chapters he takes on different aspects of these contrasting worldviews, from dishrags and borzoi dogs to sex and beyond.From serious subjects to laugh out loud moments.A fairly quick read, but one that could be repeated several times to catch all the insights of a gifted writer who certainly can turn a phrase with the best.Definitely recommended. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

American Classic
I second everything Frank Cullen says about this book. I first read it over thirty years ago, acquiring my own copy some years later. Not only is it a great book on American show business,it makes great reading for anyone interested in all facets of New World music and dance culture. I frequently reccomend this book to fans of American music in general, be it jazz, blues, rock 'n' roll, country, Latin etc. etc. After reading the Stearns' wonderful book, one sees that, no matter how well-versed in the musical lore of the Americas one is, it is all a bit two-dimensional without the perspective offered by 'Jazz Dance'.

Best book about American vernacular dance ever written
There is no other dance book on the market (and thank heavens that this one has remained available since it was first published in 1968) that is as useful, delightful to read or as authoratative as Marshall & Jean Stearn's "Jazz Dance". Indeed, it is, in my opinion, one of the best books ever written about any facet of show business.
Vernacular dance in 20th century America wasn't represented or devised solely by a handful of the best remembered: Vernon & Irene Castle, Bill Robinson, Fred & Ginger, Eleanor Powell, Hal Le Roy, the Nicholas Brothers, Gene Kelly, Ann Miller, Donald O'Connor and Bob Fosse.
From the age of variety saloons and minstrelsy through a century of vaudeville and nightclubs, there were hundreds of dancers, black and white, female and male, who contributed to the development of American vernacular (or jazz) dance. Hoofers invented, borrowed, stole and adapted rhythm steps, jumps, slides, contortions and even style from each other---and American dance became richer for their efforts.
Marshall Stearns understood that. Instead of choosing to write about the best known dancers of his day, the ones blessed by luck, Stearns took on the nearly impossible task of interviewing every dancer of ability he could locate. Some like King Rastus Brown, Ginger Wiggins and Groundhog were remarkable talents known only by a very few--most of whom were other dancers who held them in high esteem. Others like John Bubbles, Ida Forsythe, James Barton, Pete Nugent, Eddie Rector, Alice Whitman, Willie Covan and Harlan Dixon were peerless dancers of their day but forgotten despite years of stardom. Mr. Stearns brought more than a hundred fine hoofers to tell their stories to readers and dance enthusiasts.
Stearns wove those stories together without forcing themes and, within the warp and woof of his narrative, emerged bits of social history and showbiz lore, explanations of certain dance steps, claims and counter-claims as to origins and originality, faulty recollections and all but forgotten gems of clearly remembered facts.
Many reputations emerged brightly restored in luster while others, perhaps more famous, proved less admired by professionals who had more discerning views than fans with less knowledge of dance.
Whenever I need to check a fact about vernacular dance--jazz dance or tap--I turn first to Marshall Stearn's invaluable book.
Frank Cullen
founder, American Vaudeville Museum publisher of "Vaudeville Times"
author: "Vaudeville, Old & New: an Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America" (2006, Routledge Press)

trivia, not how-to
Want to know what the "buck and wing" looks like?The "black bottom," "shorty george," "eagle rock" or "Jersey bounce"?Well, if you can read Labanotation, you canfind out from the last pages of this book.Otherwise, you'll just have tosettle for a bunch of dance history and anecdotes strung together by theStearns, who interviewed as many American jazz dancers as they could stillfind alive.

It's fascinating stuff, though.The text does give somelimited descriptions, and opening the book to a random page reveals both" . . .Crawley danced while he played clarinet, juggling the pieces ashe dismantled it" and "As performed by Little Egypt at theChicago World's Fair in 1893, where it first received national attention asthe Hootchy-Kootchy, the Shake dance was not particularly rhythmic."

As an actual history of American dance, for me this book lackscoherence.But I did learn about ways in which African dance influencedAmerican, see the names of quite a lot of performers, steps, andperformance venues, and learn to play the "Buck Dancer's Lament"on the piano.If you want something you can read a page of and then putdown until later, this will fill the bill. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

get it. breathe it. work it.good stuff
Talk about ideas.This book has wonderful exercises to explore with friends, a class, and workshops of all kinds.Morgenroth starts with the planning of a session and brings you all the way through time, space, weight dependency, rhythm and breathing to the closure of a session.She details preparation, procedure, variations and observations in a straight forward, to the point maner. The exercises are interesting and stimulate movement in creative ways.I recommend this book to anyone exploring improvisational movement. ... Read more

Book Description
Merce Cunningham and the Modernizing of Modern Danceis 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 work of Martha Graham to a return to a new kind of classicism.This book places Cunningham in the forefront of an artistic revolution, a revolution that has its parallels in music (John Cage, and the minimalist composers who followed him), painting (Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg), theater (the "happenings" of the '60s), and dance itself (the Judson School of dancers).An iconclastic and highly readable analysis, this book will be enjoyed by all those interested in the development of the American arts in the 20th century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Engaging but repetitive
As a highly unschooled Cunningham fan -- this is the first dance book I've ever read -- I found Copeland's book engaging in its scope, contextualizing Cunningham's choreography in relation to the leading cultural and aesthetic movements of the last half century.Copeland has essentially one thesis, stated fairly cleanly in the introduction.I would highly recommend the introduction.Unfortunately the rest of the book can be tedious and dogmatic as Copeland attempts to bolster his arguments through a strategy of repetition and exhaustion.Every movement and idea of the late 20th century seems to be a nail for Copeland's rhetorical hammer, and while I found the tie-ins and tidbits of history interesting enough to finish the book, I found the tone and structure of the book to be artificially argumentative and quite lacking in the openness and nuance that Copland praises Cunningham for.

Superb tour through the 20th century -- and beyond
What an extraordinary book! Copeland does not just tell the story of one figure, even though Cunningham is a great figure central to just about every artistic movement of the last 70 years.Copeland also relates in lucid prose how each of those movements arose, what made it tick, and how its legacy affects us today.After the "culture wars" of the 1990s, there were very few individuals left standing who could both appreciate and criticize the twists and turns of modernism and post-modernism.Copeland is among this saving remnant.If you are looking for a strong-minded, witty, engaging, eloquent Virgil to guide you through the Inferno and Purgatory of art since the 1930s, look no further.Copeland's your man. ... Read more

Book Description
Drawing on the postmodern perspective and concerns that informed her groundbreaking Terpischore in Sneakers, Sally Bane's Writing Dancing documents the background and development of avant-garde and popular dance, analyzing individual artists, performances, and entire dance movements. With a sure grasp of shifting cultural dynamics, Banes shows how postmodern dance is integrally connected to other oppositional, often marginalized strands of dance culture, and considers how certain kinds of dance move from the margins to the mainstream.

Banes begins by considering the act of dance criticism itself, exploring its modes, methods, and underlying assumptions and examining the work of other critics. She traces the development of contemporary dance from the early work of such influential figures as Merce Cunninghamand George Balanchine to suchcontemporarychoreographers as Molissa Fenley, Karole Armitage, and Michael Clark. She analyzes the contributions of the Judson Dance Theatre and the Workers' Dance League, the emergence of Latin postmodern dance in New York, and the impact of black jazz in Russia. In addition, Banes explores such untraditional performance modes as breakdancing and the "drunk dancing" of Fred Astaire. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Tripping the Post-Modern Light Fantastic
The evolution of the roughly twenty-five years of American post-modern dance is expounded upon in Sally Banes' articulate and comprehensive treatment of the period from 1960 to 1985. Pivotal characters in thishistory, of which there are several, are examined in detail, with manydescriptive passages of definitive works and happenings from the era.Post-modern, originally referring only chronologically (and vaguely) to theperiod following what we now call historical modern dance, actually hasseveral specific and revolutionary veins of philosophy and aestheticsattached to it. Well researched, Terpsichore in Sneakers has severalphotographs, choreographers' scores, charts, and notes (including somepreviously unpublished), a selected bibliography, and an alphabetical listof works by and about seminal contributors to the movement. Fascinating andenlightening reading not only for dancers, but for those interested inAmerican cultural history and anthropology. ... Read more

Book Description
Ann Daly ranks among the most insightful, articulate dance critics and scholars writing today. Spanning the divide between journalism and scholarship, this collection offers a double-sighted view of dance in America from 1986 to the present, documenting the shift in experimental dance from formal to social concerns, and recording the expansion of dance studies in the academy from historical documentation to cultural criticism.

Daly examines performance art and visual art as they relate to and influence dance, with a look at the intersection of dance and history. Gender is the subject of the final section of the book. More than 80 reviews, features, essays, interviews and scholarly articles -- including extended considerations of Pina Bausch, Deborah Hay, Bill T. Jones and Ralph Lemon -- were originally published in venues ranging from High Performance to The New York Times to TDR: A Journal of Performance Studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Very Useful
My dance teacher uses this syllabus in class and we all love it. The different levels of exercises are perfect, as we can build upon them each week. THis is a very useful book.

glad i bought it
the principles found in the beginning lend necessary insights into the exercises that follow; great for the creative mind.

Beautiful book -mostly for dancers
This book is a true expirience, but it is definately not for beginners in dance.I am a former dancer, now choreographer.
The book gives you a more than well insight in Jose Limons work and working-methods, and contains wonderful pictures. You get facinated and humble the more you know about Jose Limon.
The examples of exercises in the book is a valuable part of it. They are carefully written down, so you can follow them. If you can read notation there is a unique part with short pieces of choreographies.
I really enjoyed to read the book. Limons work comes even more alive and shows his uniqe technique. So if you are a dancer or have a good basic in dance, the book is highly recommed.
It is one of those books you just want to add to your collection.

Jose Limon's work comes alive
This book really shows the incredible skill of Jose Limon.I am a dancer and I really enjoyed this book because it clearly showed the technique of Jose Limon. I would suggest this book to any dancer because it really gives you new perspective on some types of movement.This book really made Limon's technique and movement come alive. ... Read more

Book Description
The Nikolais/Louis Dance Technique provides the definite resource for understanding and practicing the influential dance technique developed by two pioneers of modern dance, Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis. The Nikolais/Louis technique is presented in a week-to-week classroom manual, providing an indispensable tool for teachers and students of this widely studied movement practice.Theoretical background for further reading is set off from the manual for those interested in deeper study. Their philosophy and methodology span a broad readership and offer an important addition to dance literature and American cultural history. ... Read more

Book Description
This book presents a powerful view of the history of dance, contrasting its role in Western civilization with its significance in other cultures. Highwater--a renowned critic, author, and lecturer on art, theater, music, and dance--links the history of dance to cultural forces as diverse as Karl Marx and Elvis Presley. Beginning with the original, ritualistic, and primal forms of dance, he traces its decline into empty ceremonial forms while all along insisting that dance is a fundamental life impulse made visible in motion--a spontaneous transformation of experience into metaphoric meaning. Considering the historical and creative context from which dance emerged, Highwater goes on to point out the specific contributions and cultural influences of such 20th-century dance giants as Isadora Duncan, Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Alwin Nikolais, Erick Hawkins, Jose Limon, Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, and Garth Fagan. Also examined are many newer artists, such as Bebe Miller and the Urban Bush Women. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A passionate and knowledgeable treatment of dance
We know no other book on dance with the same passion and deepunderstanding that Highwater brings to this one. Even the fantasticillustrations give a sense of the movement and development of the power ofthis great art, and the text just as vividly explores dance's ritual,mythic, and subconscious elements, showing us at every juncture how,through the movement of the dance, our inner and outer lives meet.

Best Book on Dance
Most dance books are pretty lightweight.This one is a knockout.Highwater has this way of connecting things, and here he seems to be connecting the history of the human body with the social attitudes of different times and different places.The way we dance is the way we are.On the jacket choreographer Erick Hawkins tells us that this is "the most important book on dance ever published in America."He should know. ... Read more