Product Description
Matt Cunningham is internationally recognized as one of Ireland's finest exponents of Irish traditional music today. His recordings, The Dance Music of Ireland series, are an extensive and invaluable resource for dancers. This book offers the reader the chance to become more intimate with the dance tunes. No less than 298 Irish dance tunes have been transcribed exactly from the recordings and have had chords added so that an accompanist can easily join in with the melody player. Reels, jigs, polkas, hornpipes, marches and waltzes all abound here. ... Read more

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Dance with My FatherRecorded by Luther Vandross ... Read more

Book 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

Book Description
This comprehensive study treats the wind works of Anton Bruckner as a complete genre and uses them to illustrate how the composer evolved in style throughout his career. A major nineteenth-century composer, organist, and church musician, Bruckner's compositional style changed dramatically in the early 1860s, dividing his career into two distinct parts. During his early career he immersed himself in the study of traditional musical principles including form, harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration. The second phase of his career, in which he composed the symphonies upon which much of his current reputation rests, was marked by his experimental approaches to harmony and tonality. Many of his early compositions exhibit landmarks of his later style. The wind instrument pieces incorporate the best aspects of both of Bruckner's styles and reflect the progress of his professional life. Organized chronologically, the music is studied and classified within set time periods. Each wind work of a particular period is reviewed according to the historical circumstances contributing to its creation, its specific musical content, and its success as a musical work in relation to wind music and specifically to Bruckner's development. The analyses of Bruckner's compositions are enhanced by musical examples throughout the text. ... Read more

Book Description
Renaissance and Cavalier Dance, English Country Dances.This Cd/Book set contains music and instruction for 10English Country Dances from the late Renaissance and early Baroque period.Taken from the Playford manuscript, the dances in this set are quite popular with the dancers at many Renaissance fairs and with the members of the Societyfor Creative Anachronisms. The dances are easy to learn, the CD contains both a slow or learning version besides an "at tempo" version of the tunes.So the student or teacher can learn and teach from the slower version. The CD, of course, may be programmed to play just the faster versions for balls, parties and revels. ... Read more

Book Description
Sixty original compositions by the Scottish-born Canadian composer, writer and talented musician, Murray Shoolbraid. These are the best of over 400 works written and revised by Murray over 30 years and spanning two continents. Contains more than two dozen Scottish-style jigs and reels, as well as eight strathspeys, several airs and laments, schottische, two-steps and waltzes; plus seventeen other tunes arranged in five Scottish Country Dance Sets. For dancers and those who play the violin, mandolin or accordion, it is also adaptable to all styles of fiddle playing.

An annotated and illustrated edition, this publication was re-released by New World in April, 2004 on the 10th anniverary of its initial publication. ... Read more

Book Description
Koreans have long been known for their love of song and dance. Indeed throughout their history, dating back more than 5000 years, they have developed and nurtured a unique style of performing arts. This book was published by the Korean Center of the International Theater Institute in commemoration of the 27th ITI Congress. It covers three of the major theater art genres - dances, drama and music theater. A brief historical sketch following the development of each genre is provided with emphasis given to the difficult periods in Korea during the 20th century including the Japanese occupation, Liberation, the Korean War, the Park Chong-hui Regime and the democratization movement. ... Read more

Book Description
This is the first book - anywhere - of the complete history of Billboard's national "Dance/Disco Club Play" chart. From Gloria Gaynor's "Never Can Say Goodbye" to Chic, Village People, Donna Summer, Prince, Bowie, Madonna ... the list goes on. Hot Dance/Disco 1974-2003 lists every one of the over 3,800 artists and over 8,000 hits that have appeared on Billboard's "Dance" charts. Packed with basic chart facts, intriguing info, and fantastic features. 7-1/4 x 9-1/2, 368 pages ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Amazing and full of information
I was wating for years for this book to be released, and finally I got it.The information is complete and detailed about the songs/tracks that were listed on the dance charts.You can find the date that the song was first entered on the lists and the peak positions.You'd be amazed that many of the dance hits that peaked # 1 on the 100 pop chart did not make the # 1 on the dance/club play chart, and even more did not enter the chart at all.Great presentation and very well organized, it worths every penny $$$ I spent on it.I have only 2 complains about this book, first: the Dance Maxi Single Sale chart information is not listed here at all.It's a most, to have the sales information to be included in this book.How do I know that the song I danced for years was also a success on sales, for the next release of this book please have this information included.Second: it's a total pitty that the information from the electronic music charts were not included here either.The massive and most popular clubs that makes most pop/dance artist have a hit on the billboard dance charts, have been playing only danceable electronica music for years, to be more accurate, since the mid 80's.I hope this will be also included in the next release of the Hot Dance/Disco.Also I have the hope that the world hits (mostly Europeans hits) also listed on weekly billboard magazine gets to be relased on a book soon.Until then, enjoy this wonderful book. ... Read more

Book Description
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the Nor-tec phenomenon emerged from the border city of Tijuana, and through modern Internet technology quickly conquered a global audience. Marketed as a kind of "ethnic" electronic dance music, Nor-tec samples sounds of traditional music from the north of Mexico, transforming these sounds through computer technology used in European and American techno music and electronica.Mostly middle-class artists in their thirties, and with few exceptions all from Tijuana, Nor-tec musicians tend to avoid the mainstream music industry's channels, distributing works instead through the underground, global means of the Internet, enabling a loyal international following to grow rapidly. Perched on the border between Mexico and the United States, Tijuana has media links to both countries, with peoples, currencies, and cultural goods -perhaps especially music- from both sides circulating intensely within the city. Tijuana's older residents and their more mobile, cosmopolitan-minded children thus engage in a constant struggle with identity and nationality, appropriation and authenticity. Nor-tec music in its very composition encapsulates this city's struggle. It resonates with issues felt on the global level, while holding vastly different meanings to the variety of communities that embrace it. In Nor-tec Rifa!, Alejandro L. Madrid crafts a fascinating account of this music and the city that fostered its birth. With an impressive hybrid of musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural and performance studies, urbanism, and border studies, Nor-tec Rifa! offers compelling insights into the cultural production of Nor-tec as it stems from ortena, banda, and grupera traditions. The book is also amongst the first to offer detailed accounts of Nor-tec music's composition process. ... 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

Customer Reviews (2)

Sara Michelle
I am a teenaged ballet student.I LOVED THIS BOOK.It helped me in my study of ballet in so many ways:understanding, balancing, executing movements, creating the illusions, improving my technique, and on and on.I love how the book is written, because it is easy to understand even if you are not a Physicist (but it also has Scientific material and some pages with the math and physics illustrated in equations, etc., as well).The chapters engage you with a question or puzzle that you have to solve.This makes you want to hurry up to get to the end of each chapter to see if your guesses were correct.You will learn how to create the illusion of floating in your grand jetes.You will learn how dancers suspend their movement that receives a 'gasp' from the audience that happens whenever something is held beyond what seems possible or expected. It is a book I needed in order to get beyond my limits as a dancer.

As Much Science As The Dancer Ever Should Need.
The question of how a knowledge of the science behind the movement of the human body helps students of dance learn to dance better is always discussed.Like the author, I too am both a physicist and a ballet dancer.I have found that the most important thing to learn in ballet is the imagery that works for you, and sometimes science can actually get in the way.Take walking for example:if we had to analyze ever movement in walking we would never be able to move.I should also point out that science still does not thoroughly understand walking, let alone dancing!Still, it is helpful in some places to understand, at least a little, what is happening in a movement or static pose.This book does a surprisingly fine job of covering most of the pertinent topics and some topics you would not have thought of asking about.I liked the fact that the author does not over simplify some topics, which is often done in elementary explanations.Science usually tries to abstract and simplify in order to explain phenomena, but this can lead to problems.Take, for example, the case of static balance on a point.If you approximate the human body as a rigid body, it is impossible to explain stable equilibrium on a point.Rigid bodies can only achieve unstable equilibrium over a point.But human beings are not rigid!In ballet, we can achieve stable balance over a point for an indefinite period of time(it is very difficult and rarely seen in performance but often in ballet class).This book actually mentions this and explains how it is done.It even includes a discussion of how much a cushioned floor will reduce shock to the dancer's joints.Many illustrations and photos are also included.This is the best book available on this subject, and for those who want to explore this topic further, this is the best place to start. ... Read more

Book Description
From singer Aaliyah (August 25, 2001) to wrestling villain Kurt von Brauner (March 13, 2001), the obituaries of 712 performers and filmmakers, musicians and producers, dancers and composers, writers and others associated with the performing arts who died in 2001 can be found. For each, the date, place and cause of death are provided, along with a brief recap of their career and citations from major newspaper and periodical stories reporting the death. Filmographies are given for film and television performers, and photographs of many of the individuals are included. Individual books in this annual series are available dating back to 1994. A subscription plan is available for future issues. ... Read more

Book Description
Beyond Dance: Laban's Legacy of Movement Analysis offers students of dance and movement a brief introduction to the life and work of Rudolf Laban, and how this work has been extended into the fields of movement therapy, communications, early childhood development, and other fields. Rudolf Laban's landmark system of movement analysis has been applied to dance movement through both Labanotation (his system of writing down movement) and also through "effort-shape analysis," a system that was developed out of Laban's work by his followers to better understand how movement occurs. Laban's followers--notably Warren Lamb--used this as a basis to study movement in a broader context, from how to make work more efficient in agriculture and industry to how to better communicate through body movement and gesture.
While many dance students know of Laban and his work as it applies to their field, few know the full story of how this technique has developed and grown. For many who enter into the fields of dance movement therapy, performance, and communications, there are valuable lessons to be learned from Laban and his follower's works. Beyond Dance: Laban'sLegacy of Movement Analysis offers a concise introduction to this world.
Refreshingly free of jargon and easy to understand, the work offers dance students--and others interested in human movement--a full picture of the many possibilities inherent in Laban's theories. For many who will pursue careers "beyond dance," this work will be a useful guidebook into related areas.
This will beideally suited to students of Laban movement theory in dance and movement therapy, and will be used in advanced courses in these areas as useful, brief introduction to the field. ... Read more

Book Description
In this exuberant sequel to his prize-winning The Jazz Age, Arnold Shaw captures virtually every aspect of popular music during the Depression. Here is a colorful year-by-year chronicle of music in the '30s, blended with chapters on broader topics--the jazz clubs on Swing Street, the Big Band boom--and spiced with interviews with major figures (such as Burton Lane and Lionel Hampton), who bring a vibrant first-hand feel to the narrative. Readers visit every corner of the music scene. We watch as the Hollywood musical takes off, highlighted by the brilliant Busby Berkeley and the luminous partnership of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. We read about the incredible popularity of radio shows such as as Your Hit Parade and Martin Block's "make-believe ballroom," which brought music to households from coast to coast. And we experience once again the great Broadway musicals of the period--from Girl Crazy to The Cradle Will Rock--written by a who's who of American song: Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, and Cole Porter. But above all, the '30s were the Swing Era--when swing bands dominated dance halls, ballrooms, radio broadcasts, and record sales--and Shaw provides superb portraits of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, and countless others. From Gershwin's Porgy and Bess to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, from Woody Guthrie to Ethel Merman, and from the Carioca to the Lindy Hop, here is an affectionate and informative account of this golden era of popular song. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

An excellent source, but not for beginners
Julia Sutton is one of the leading Renaissance dance historians, and this work reflects her careful scholarship. However, while "Courtly Dance of the Renaissance" does contain Fabritio Caroso's explanations of steps and choreographies, it is quite difficult to reconstruct dances from these descriptions. There are many ambiguities in the instructions, and since Sutton's goal is to provide an accurate translation rather than an interpretation, she leaves these conundrums intact. Sutton also translates the names of the steps into English, which makes this volume harder to use in conjunction with other Renaissance dance resources, which leave them in Italian. Nevertheless, for those with some grounding in dances of this period, "Courtly Dance of the Renaissance" is a critical source, and the wonderful discussions of etiquette and costume require no prior knowledge to enjoy.

Antique Reproduced
This is an actual book from 1600.The ad doesn't quite make that clear.This is not "we look at past history."This IS it as our ancestors would have viewed it.

A person can make sense of this.The steps are taught and there are masses of music sheets.

I am holding the actual material all those elite ladies and gentlemen were taught by.

Wow!

No one especially in America is going to be outdone by the grand people of the past.We're there.I reason it doesn't matter if one is lousy and does it wrong.It's the point of this whole thing.I have read enough to know that "dancing" was about a two year serious undertaking to learn in the past.It'll take about two years one step at a time.This isn't a thin little paper back.

I recommend it but not for the peasants.They can do Darrin's Dance Groves.

A Must Have for the Historical Dance Enthusiast
This book is a wonderful reference tool for anyone interested in historical dancing! Translated and Edited by none other than Julia Sutton, this book explains many of the social dances and practices of thearistocrats. It includes the dance steps, an explanation of how they occur,music, and labnotation. This book is truly a must have for anyone with aserious desire to understand dance practices of the times! ... Read more

Book Description
Music is the most constant partner for the dancer in America today, yet it is often the one least written about, least understood, and most challenging to work with effectively. This book is an exploration of contemporary musical collaboration for the dance in 20th century America. It offers an overview of music for theatrical dance in both the creative collaboration and performance of ballet, modern dance, and show styles. Written to be understandable to most theater-goers, this engaging study is based on exclusive personal interviews with outstanding artists in the field of dance, including choreographers, composers, instrumental performers, and dancers themselves, and it presents information that will be helpful to students and professionals as well. Focusing on some of the more practical aspects of music and dance production, the book addresses a number of important questions, such as how choreographers choose music for their dances, how composers know what to write for a ballet, how conductors accommodate the needs of dancers, what dancers need to know about music, what "musicality" is in a dancer, and how electronic sound technology has been used artistically for dance. Music for the Dance deals with the creative collaborations of choreographers and composers, elements of musical performance, the aesthetics and experiences of dancers in regard to music, the musical training of dancers, and current trends in theatrical dance music. It examines, through the experiences of practicing professionals, the various relationships of sound and movement, and presents a broad view of the art of dance as it is today. This definitive work will be read with interest by dance students and teachers, musicians, theater goers, and patrons and managers of dance companies and arts organizations. ... Read more