Browse

Widely regarded as the foremost choreographer of contemporary ballet, George Balanchine was, and continues to be, an institution and major inspiration in the world of dance. This book provides a technical explanation of the stylistic approaches that he taught in New York City between 1940 and 1960, as recorded by two prominent dancers who studied with him at that time. It replicates moments in the studio with the influential teacher, describing his instructions and corrections for twenty-four classes. These lessons not only introduce Balanchine's methods for executing steps, but also discuss the organization and development of his classes, shedding light on the aesthetics of his unique and celebrated style of movement.

There are many different methods for teaching classical ballet—Bournonville, Vaganova, Cecchetti—the Royal Academy of Dancing being the most widely known. All of these methods are effective tools for presenting the technique and art of ballet. Knowing how to use these tools successfully requires more than being a devotee of the technique; it also requires the mastering of various skills. In this book, the author aims to share his extensive knowledge of how to teach rather than focus exclusively on what to teach, arguing that it is not enough for a ballet teacher to be well trained in technique, but that he or she must also know how to utilize pedagogical skills. The book is appropriate for either followers of a single methodology or for those who have adopted a more eclectic approach to technique. The author believes that effective teaching skills—proper demonstration, counting, correcting, musicality, anatomical approach, etc.—do not come automatically just because one has trained as a dancer. He covers all areas involving dance, from history to injury prevention, from anatomy and kinesiology to vocabulary and music, and even offers pragmatic advice on the business of starting a dance school.

The Cuban names we know best are Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and the exquisite ballet star, Alicia Alonso. Yet there is another Cuban whose fascinating story has until now been circulated exclusively by Cubans and ballet insiders: that of Fernando Alonso, Alicia’s first husband, and the architect of a teaching method that has produced a bevy of classical ballet box office favorites the world over. Alicia and Fernando danced in Broadway musicals and were founding members of New York’s groundbreaking Ballet Theatre. Returning to Cuba, they joined Fernando’s brother Alberto to build a national ballet company on the eve of Batista’s fall. The triumph of the 1959 revolution brought with it long-awaited support for ballet and the encouragement Alonso welcomed to share the method he created on Cubans with the world. Readers will welcome Fernando Alonso’s rich reminiscences and those of such ballet luminaries as Alicia Alonso, Carlos Acosta, Menia Martínez, Jorge Esquivel, Lorena and Lorna Feijoo, and Yoel and Lázaro Carreño. Singer’s interviews transport us to the Cuban ballet studio and stage, just as the Buena Vista Social Club brought us the bountiful legacy of Cuban music.

Our complex post-millennial world forces us to grapple with issues related to the survival of the earth and its peoples. Acknowledging the critical role of dance in society, this book looks at how Native American powwow dancing––primarily in the northeast region of the United States––contributes to our understanding of these concerns. The following questions guide this study: Why do intertribal powwows attract so many people within the population at large? What are some of the dynamics between Indians and non-Indians that influence powwow? Within the context of a profoundly transcultural performance genre, how do bodies in motion––in everyday movement and dance––reveal and generate beauty and power in the centuries-long history of powwow dance, the use of space and time, and in how race is performed every year by both Indians and wannabes at hundreds, if not thousands, of powwows across North America? The overall purpose of the book is to describe and analyze the complexities of powwow dance performance by examining such events as the Grand Entry and intertribal competitions and such expressions as the grass, traditional, and fancy dance styles. To a great extent, the book confirms what Native Americans can teach us about living harmony with our environment, honoring diversity among one another, and including dance, music, and the visual arts in our daily lives.

This multi-author textbook provides an in-depth look at the rich and varied history of jazz dance, from its African roots in early American society until today. The book is divided into six main parts, each addressing a different aspect of jazz dance. The opening section explores the nature of jazz dance from the perspective of four different authors, and is capped by descriptions of the many different styles of jazz dance. The second section focuses on jazz dance history, giving an expansive overview beginning with African dance, through the jazz era of the 1920s-40s, the immense diversification of the late 20th century, and up to the present. The third part looks at master teachers and choreographers who shaped the way jazz dance was codified and performed from 1930-1980. The fourth section discusses dance genres which are closely related to jazz dance, including tap dance, musical theater dance, African-American concert dance, hip-hop dance, and dance in pop culture. Education and training is the focus of the fifth part, including an examination of jazz dance in colleges and universities, as well as private dance studios. Lastly, the sixth section looks at current topics in the jazz dance world including race, jazz dance in France, England, and Japan, and jazz dance aesthetics. The sum of these many parts is both a broader and deeper understanding of a uniquely American dance form, with its African roots and multiple permutations that have evolved as it has mixed with other dance forms and styles.

This book tells how Caribbean dance is shaped by cultures mixing Africa and Europe and sometimes Asia in a new world. Many authors are cultural leaders on the islands, while others live elsewhere, but have spent years steeped in island cultures.? It starts with connective chapters, on calypso and wining for the Anglophone Caribbean, and on how the French and enslaved Africans spread dances throughout the Caribbean. Cuban chapters focus on the Haitian-influenced culture of Eastern Cuba, Arará and its connection to Africa, a memoir from the father of Cuban modern dance, Africanness, and a search for the roots of international ballroom rumba. It has a comprehensive look at the context and content of Jamaican folkloric dance, one on the inventors of Jamaican dancehall dance and the dances, and a Ghanian take on the Jamaican ritual tradition of Kumina. There are chapters on the Dominican misterios, the subculture of Dominican son, on dancing stars on Dominican television, and on contemporary Haitian choreographers. It includes the history of Puerto Rican experimental dancemakers, the quadrille and bele of Dominica, the personalities of St. Lucia seen through its dances, and also on dance in Barbados and how it has helped create a national identity, on the Big Drum of Carriacou, on the intertwined history of Trinidad and Tobago and its dance, and on the dance traditions of the Indians of Trinidad, from ritual Ramdilla to secular chutney.

Soloists ignited the modern dance movement and have continued to renew it. These self-fashioned artists represent the individuality inherent in modernism—the arts movement that arose in the late 1800s—and its successor, postmodernism. Omitting well-documented pioneers, eight notable writers examine a roster of iconoclasts, male and female, whose careers shaped cultural attitudes worldwide. The perils and rewards of a soloist's life become clear. The role of government support is also addressed.

This book provides a look into the careers and teaching philosophies of eighteen of the world's most respected ballet masters, principals, and artistic directors. The author sat down with prominent ballet pedagogues and asked each a standard set of questions, including “What do we mean when we say someone has beautiful technique?” and “How did you become a dancer?” Featuring such artists as Peter Boal (Artistic Director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet) and Bene Arnold (first Ballet Mistress of the San Francisco Ballet), this volume offers insights into the nature of both performance and artistic instruction. The author's approach reveals convergences among these world-class talents, despite their varying pedagogical backgrounds and divisions.

This book examines a controversial topic that has yet to be addressed in the literature on Argentine tango, the most recent incarnation of tango nuevo (new tango) dance. Alternately attributed to acrobatic moves, disrespectful kids, electronic music, the influx of foreign bodies and cash into Buenos Aires, and increasing globalization of the contemporary tango community/industry, nuevo and the debates surrounding it illustrate the complexity of cultural politics today. Surveying Argentine and tango history, the book underscores the role of the imagination in the dance's evolution, as well as the presence of elements associated with nuevo-fusion, innovation, and foreign influence-from its origins over a century ago. Testaments of the dance's healing and addictive properties are juxtaposed with portraits of machismo and violence in tango venues old and new to illustrate tango's emotional depth and psychological challenges, while also pointing to questions surrounding the “newness” of nuevo. Highlighting the tensions between evolution and preservation in the survival of cultural phenomena, the book attends to the intersection of culture, economics, and globalization in contemporary tango, where modern yearnings for authentic experience, tourism and heritage programs that commodify and politicize culture, and contemporary efforts to push the boundaries of tango, meet. Throughout, individual voices speak to the romance of tradition and the enduring significance of place in a globalized era. The result is a moving exploration of the continued transformations of a beloved cultural tradition.

Agrippina Vaganova (1879–1951) is revered as the visionary who first codified the Russian system of classical ballet training. The Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, founded on impeccable technique and centuries of tradition, has a reputation for elite standards, and its graduates include Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolf Nureyev, Yuri Soloviev, Natalia Makarova, and Diana Vishneva. Yet the “Vaganova method” has come under criticism in recent years. In this absorbing volume, Catherine Pawlick traces Vaganova's story from her early years as a ballet student in tsarist Russia to her career as a dancer with the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet and on to her work as a pedagogue and choreographer. Pawlick then goes beyond biography to address Vaganova's legacy today, offering the first-ever English translations of primary source materials and intriguing interviews with pedagogues and dancers from the Academy and the Mariinsky Ballet, including some who studied with Vaganova herself.