Book Description
Offers a fascinating glimpse into this world of outlandish costumes and outspoken emotions, wrenching sacrifices and shocking scandals, heartbreaking failures and glamorous achievements.This survey covers everything from the simple joy of Spanish folk dances to the controversy surrounding ballroom dancing's quest for recognition as an Olympic sport.More than 100 full-color photographs capture the style and panache of this unique phenomenon. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A Lot of Fun!
OK...if you are a professional ballroom dancer, maybe you will find flaws in this book.I've read your criticisms of this book in the Amazon reviews.But, to an amateur (like me) who has only had 25 lessons, I thought this book was thrilling! I loved the color photography of the dancers in their glitzy outfits.I loved learning about what goes on before and after a competition.I loved learning about the history of the dance steps and famous ballrooms.This book gives you a wonderful inside look at ballroom dancing and I recommend it. It also makes an excellent coffee table book. People who don't even do ballroom dancing are fascinated with it and enjoy talking about it. So there!

let down
The book had too many poor photos. They were often so blurry they could hardly be seen. The better pictures were all split in the crack of the book and the good quality photos were of nonsense.

Captures Romance, Rhythm, Style and Athleticism of Ballroom
The book captures the essence of competitive ballroom dancing or what's now known as the Olympic-recognized "DanceSport". John Reynolds has done a great job in maintaining the views of the athletes andparticipants in ballroom dancing and profiles stars like Marcus & KarenHilton, the "Torvill & Dean" of Ballroom/DanceSport.Thisbook will hopefully continue toincrease awareness to the general public that Ballroom Dancing is more thana social activity, but an Olympic-recognized sport.

Great photographs, Phantom captions, Questionable layout
The full-color photographs featured in this coffee-table book are very stunning; truly an adventurous backstage tour of the action/glamour world of championship ballroom DanceSports.The written content of the editionis very discriptive.Did not appreciate the clumsey double-truck layout ofat least two large photographs.Poor layout!!! Reduce those largelandscape-format photos to fit on one page, not on two pages.Eliminatingthose annoying two-page photos would have allowwed for extra action shots. Need specific captions of every photo.Didn't know if these were amateur,or professional dance couples.I didn't recognise most of the couplesfeatured in the edition.The general content captions didn't work for me. Nonetheless, this edition is a welcomed addition to anyone's coffee-tablelibrary.

Captures Essence of DanceSport Nicely!
As a competition dancer, I enjoyed this book thouroughly.The text is rich, and captures the essence of the Ballroom Dance very well.Accurate in content, this book describes aspects of DanceSport in a way that issatisfying to dancers, and yet would be very enjoyable and informative tonon-dancers.Covering everything from the evolution of social dances tothe rigors of Blackpool competition, and from what to look for inrespectable dance studio to the disussion of DanceSport as an Olympicevent, the book is very complete. It is a must have for DanceSportenthusiasts.The photos are vivid, though I'd have liked some detail inthe captions. If you don't dance now, you'll want to give it a try by thetime you reach the back cover.Nicely done Mr. Reynolds. ... Read more