KEY BENEFITt: Dance A While is a classic in the field of recreational dance. The Tenth Edition of this best-selling introduction to dance book... uniquely combines dance instruction, descriptions of major forms of dance, and directions for more than 260 individual dances, providing ample information for readers and giving future dance instructors the background they need to be successful teachers. The cultural background of international dances is presented, along with specific suggestions for developing style.   History, Effective Group Instruction, Dance Fundamentals, American Dance Sampler, Square Dance, Contra Dance, International Folk Dance, Social Dance. Intended for those interested in learning the basics of recreational dance

Dance Composition: An Interrelated Arts Approach helps students investigate dance movement from a multidisciplinary perspective—something that no... other dance text or package does. This interactive package contains a book, music CD, and companion Web site with these features:- 28 improvisational exercises that provide perspective on the shared characteristics among the arts for inspiration and motivation for dance making- 6 in-depth interviews and 24 arts connections that highlight artists from disciplines and cultures around the world- 3 independent dance projects that encompass numerous elements: music, composition, story adaptation, costumes and props, artist's statements, and reflections on the creative processThe exercises examine traditional and contemporary art forms from around the world and explore ways to physically interpret what is heard, seen, spoken, and emoted through movement experimentation. Through these exercises, students observe a concept, explore it by working independently and watching others, and reflect on it with others. They then create and present a choreographic work based on their explorations and reflections. The choreography is discussed in a final group reflection and personal journal entries in which students can document their findings for future use. The interviews and arts connections will expand students' vision and appreciation of artistic commonalities that exist among dance, music, theater, visual arts, and literary arts.The music CD, which is bound into the book, contains original compositions that enrich dance exercises and movement exploration assignments. Created by percussionist and electroacoustic composer Barry Prophet, the selections cover a range of styles and dynamics, including rhythmic percussion, jazz, world music, minimalist soundscapes, and textural atmospheres.The illustrations and photographs in the book provide a starting point for artistic awareness of elements common among the arts. Many of these visual images are available on the companion Web site. To help students and teachers incorporate technology in their creative process, this Web site also provides access to music software, instructions on creating computer-assisted music, a journal entry handout for each activity, self-assessment handouts, and rubrics.No other art form interacts so pervasively with the other arts than dance. Dance Composition: An Interrelated Arts Approach will help students from secondary school through university levels create artistic work that inspires and empowers both performers and viewers.

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.

Text instruction can go only so far in teaching how to create dances. Dance Composition Basics picks up where other textbooks leave off, with a... bound-in DVD that features professional choreographers and dancers in action. Designed for beginning college-level dance composition courses and dance educators at the middle and high school levels, this textbook and DVD package highlights selected portions of original dance compositions by two noted choreographers. The works of Alonzo King (Chants and Dreamer) and Dwight Rhoden (Verge) are recorded and analyzed to sequence the choreographic process. Students are able to witness a progression that takes them from conceiving and refining an idea to improvising and solving movement problems to shaping and performing dances.The methods featured in Dance Composition Basics can be applied to a variety of dance styles including ballet, modern, and jazz. Each of the 27 lessons serves as a starting point that encourages novice dancers to embark on their own attempts at choreography with more confidence. Structured to present concepts from simple to complex, the chapters cover the body, space, time, energy, and choreographic devices. Each chapter is divided into lessons based on the dance element or concept highlighted. The lessons challenge students to create solo, duet, trio, and group works. Each lesson includes the following components: -One choreographic concept-Video documentation of the choreographic concept-Vocabulary words-Introductory statement-Warm-up-Structured improvisations-Creative choreographic problems-Questions for discussion-Assessment rubricsThe DVD supplements the written instruction in a progression that no textbook alone could achieve. It shows dancers as they solve movement problems, and it shows choreographers as they mold their works from conception to stage performance. DVD footage also captures the decision-making and problem-solving tactics used by each choreographer. With these concrete examples, students can form a basis of comparison when completing their own assignments. Dance Composition Basics is a practical introduction to the methods and tools used in composing dances that engages students in the process—the preferred method of learning and teaching dance composition today. Through real-world examples, this text and DVD package demonstrates the direct relationship of the activities learned in the dance composition class to the current practices used by professional choreographers.

Adrienne Rich chose Cathy Park Hong's "audacious" (Los Angeles Times) second book as the winner of the 2006 Barnard Women Poets Prize.Named one of... the Los Angeles Times's Best Science Fiction Books in 2007, Dance Dance Revolution is a genre-bending tour de force told from the perspective of the Guide, a former dissident and tour guide of an imagined desert city.

- Survive the realities of teaching dance in public schools.- Explore new methods for teaching children the creative process.- Obtain tips on... teaching children the art of performance.Prepare to handle the common and uncommon obstacles that every creative dance teacher faces—obstacles that you never learned about in methods courses. Dance Education Tips From the Trenches is a light-hearted collection of 83 essays that present real-life stories, quips, and survival tips for teaching creative dance in public school settings. The book is an excellent source of practical solutions for teaching children the creative process and ensuring successful performances. Whether you're a new teacher or a veteran, this essential survival guide will help you handle class management, class organization, logistics, motivation, gender issues—every challenge you may encounter.Author Cheryl Willis, an experienced dance educator who isn't afraid to admit her mistakes, shares real-life stories she uses in her own classes. Her approach is honest and humorous. And her reality checks will alert you to the everyday minutiae that can bog you down, and help you overcome it. The easy-to-follow, consistent format makes it easy to find what you're looking for. When you're wondering about a situation, simply scan the obstacles and essay titles to find the one most relevant to you.Each essay follows the same template, with an icon highlighting the following elements:- Obstacle - Solutions- Tip- Trench truthAbout 50 cartoons are sprinkled throughout the book, keeping the tone light and humorous. You can easily read Dance Education Tips From the Trenches in one sitting, which makes the book ideal for busy teachers. With Dance Education Tips From the Trenches, you'll feel as though a friend is by your side sharing mistakes and solutions—and reminding you that you can still laugh at your job and enjoy the many wonderful moments of teaching creative dance.

Dancefilm: Choreography and the Moving Image examines the choreographic in cinema - the way choreographic elements inform cinematic operations in... dancefilm. It traces the history of the form from some of its earliest manifestations in the silent film era, through the historic avant-garde, musicals and music videos to contemporary experimental short dancefilms. In so doing it also examines some of the most significant collaborations between dancers, choreographers, and filmmakers. The book also sets out to examine and rethink the parameters of dancefilm and thereby re-conceive the relations between dance and cinema. Dancefilm is understood as a modality that challenges familiar models of cinematic motion through its relation to the body, movement and time, instigating new categories of filmic performance and creating spectatorial experiences that are grounded in the somatic. Drawing on debates in both film theory (in particular ideas of gesture, the close up, and affect) and dance theory (concepts such as radical phrasing, the gestural anacrusis and somatic intelligence) and bringing these two fields into dialogue, the book argues that the combination of dance and film produces cine-choreographic practices that are specific to the dancefilm form. The book thus presents new models of cinematic movement that are both historically informed and thoroughly interdisciplinary.

"COMPELLING . . . NOBODY WRITES A CHASE BETTER THAN PERRY."  *The Washington Post Book WorldWhen eight-year-old Timothy Decker finds his parents... brutally murdered, it's clear the Deckers weren't the intended victims: Timothy's own room--ransacked, all traces of his existence expertly obliterated *is the shocking evidence. Timothy's nanny, Mona, is certain about only one thing. Timmy needs to disappear, fast. Only Jane Whitefield, a Native American "guide" who specializes in making victims vanish, can lead him to safety. But diverting Jane's attention is Mary Perkins, a desperate woman with S&L fraud in her past. Stalking Mary is a ruthless predator determined to find her *and the fortune she claims she doesn't have. Jane quickly creates a new life for Mary and jumps back on Timmy's case . . . not knowing that the two are fatefully linked to one calculating killer. . . ."Spellbinding . . . Terrific . . . Jane Whitefield may be the most arresting protagonist in the 90s thriller arena. . . . Thrillers need good villains, and this one has a formidable SOB who is cold-blooded enough to satisfy anybody's taste."  *Entertainment Weekly"A terse thriller . . . Perry starts the story with a bang."  *San Francisco Chronicle

The author of Einstein's Dreams now presents a collection of essays, written over the past 20 years, that displays his genius for bringing literary and... scientific concerns into ringing harmony. Sometimes provocative, sometimes fanciful, always elegantly conceived and written, these meditations offer readers a fascinating look into the creative compulsions shared by the scientist and the artist. Reading tour.

Modern theories of meaning usually culminate in a critique of science. This book presents a study of human intelligence beginning with a semantic... theory and leading into a critique of music. By implication it sets up a theory of all the arts; the transference of its basic concepts to other arts than music is not developed, but it is sketched, mainly in the chapter on artistic import. Thoughtful readers of the original edition discovered these far-reaching ideas quickly enough as the career of the book shows: it is as applicable to literature, art and music as to the field of philosophy itself. The topics it deals with are many: language, sacrament, myth, music, abstraction, fact, knowledge--to name only the main ones. But through them all goes the principal theme, symbolic transformation as the essential activity of human minds. This central idea, emphasizing as it does the notion of symbolism, brings Mrs. Langer's book into line with the prevailing interest in semantics. All profound issues of our age seem to center around the basic concepts of symbolism and meaning. The formative, creative, articulating power of symbols is the tonic chord which thinkers of all schools and many diverse fields are unmistakably striking; the surprising, far-reaching implications of this new fundamental conception constitute what Mrs. Langer has called "philosophy in a new key." Mrs. Langer's book brings the discussion of symbolism into a wider general use than criticism of word meaning. Her volume is vigorous, effective, and well written and will appeal to everyone interested in the contemporary problems of philosophy.