Composing While Dancing by Buckwalter,M.Composing while Dancing: An Improviser's Companion examines the world of improvisational dance and the varied approaches to this art form. By introducing the improvisational strategies of twenty-six top contemporary artists of movement improvisation, Melinda Buckwalter offers a practical primer to the dance form. Each chapter focuses on an important aspect of improvisation including spatial relations, the eyes, and the dancing image. Included are sample practices from the artists profiled, exercises for further research, and a glossary of terms. Buckwalter gathers history, methods, interviews, and biographies in one book to showcase the many facets of improvisational dance and create an invaluable reference for dancers and dance educators.
Yes? No! Maybe... by Claid,E.Covering fifty years of British dance, from Margot Fonteyn to innovative contemporary practitioners such as Wendy Houstoun and Nigel Charnock, Yes? No! Maybeis an innovative approach to performing and watching dance. Emilyn Claid brings her life experience and interweaves it with academic theory and historical narrative to create a dynamic approach to dance writing. Using the 1970s revolution of new dance as a hinge, Claid looks back to ballet and forward to British independent dance which is new dance's legacy. She explores the shifts in performer-spectator relationships, and investigates questions of subjectivity, absence and presence, identity, gender, race and desire using psychoanalytical, feminist, postmodern, post-structuralist and queer theoretical perspectives. Artists and practitioners, professional performers, teachers, choreographers and theatre-goers will all find this book an informative and insightful read.
Call Number: 792.8 CLA
ISBN: 041537247X
Publication Date: 2006
The Pina Bausch Sourcebook by Climenhaga,R. (Editor)Pina Bausch¿s work has had tremendous impact across the spectrum of late twentieth-century performance practice, helping to redefine the possibilities of what both dance and theater can be. This edited collection presents a compendium of source material and contextual essays that examine Pina Bausch's history, practice and legacy, and the development of Tanztheater as a new form, with sections including: Dance and theatre roots and connections; Bausch¿s developmental process; The creation of Tanztheater; Bausch¿s reception; Critical perspectives. Interviews, reviews and major essays chart the evolution of Bausch¿s pioneering approach and explore this evocative new mode of performance. Edited by noted Bausch scholar, Royd Climenhaga, The Pina Bausch Sourcebook aims to open up Bausch¿s performative world for students, scholars, dance and theatre artists and audiences everywhere.
Dances That Describe Themselves by Foster,S.L.During an improvised performance, both dancers and audience members reflect on how the dance is being made. They ask themselves: What will happen next? What choices will each dancer make? And how will these decisions contribute to the overall effect and significance of the performance? Trained as a jazz pianist, Richard Bull did not uphold the opposition often found in dance between improvisation and composition. Instead, he believed that dancers, like jazz musicians, could craft a piece spontaneously in performance. Analyzing performances by Bull and many of his contemporaries, Susan Foster argues that their diverse practices embody distinctive values representative of different artistic communities, yet they all share a capacity to reflect on their own making, in a sense, describing themselves.
Lamb at the Altar by Hay,D.; Liedeker,P. (Photographer)"The intention of my work is to dislodge assumptions about the fixity of the three-dimensional body."--Deborah Hay Her movements are uncharacteristic, her words subversive, her dances unlike anything done before--and this is the story of how it all works. A founding member of the famed Judson Dance Theater and a past performer in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Deborah Hay is well known for choreographing works using large groups of trained and untrained dancers whose surprising combinations test the limits of the art. Lamb at the Altar is Hay's account of a four-month seminar on movement and performance held in Austin, Texas, in 1991. There, forty-four trained and untrained dancers became the human laboratory for Hay's creation of the dance Lamb, lamb, lamb . . . , a work that she later distilled into an evening-length solo piece, Lamb at the Altar. In her book, in part a reflection on her life as a dancer and choreographer, Hay tells how this dance came to be. She includes a movement libretto (a prose dance score) and numerous photographs by Phyllis Liedeker documenting the dance's four-month emergence. In an original style that has marked her teaching and writing, Hay describes her thoughts as the dance progresses, commenting on the process and on the work itself, and ultimately creating a remarkable document on the movements--precise and mysterious, mental and physical--that go into the making of a dance. Having replaced traditional movement technique with a form she calls a performance meditation practice, Hay describes how dance is enlivened, as is each living moment, by the perception of dying and then involves a freeing of this perception from emotional, psychological, clinical, and cultural attitudes into movement. Lamb at the Altar tells the story of this process as specifically practiced in the creation of a single piece.
Call Number: 792.842 HAY
ISBN: 9780822314394
Publication Date: 1994
Martha Graham; the evolution of her dance theory & training by Horosko,M."Focuses on the celebrated technique, though the stuff of memoir naturally seeps in as well . . . . The illuminating, aphoristic comments appended to specific exercises recall the rich verbal imagery Graham employed, famously, in her teaching."--Los Angeles Times "The only book in print with a syllabus of her movements (including advanced work)."--Dancer"Recommended for all dance and theater collections . . . . Invaluable."--Backstage Marian Horosko brings together new and previously published interviews of Martha Graham's "family" of dancers, teachers, choreographers, and actors and interweaves them with provocative biographical material about the life and influence of the creator of classic modern dance. The interviews testify to the remarkable legacy that inspired the careers of many in the dance world, among them dancers from the contemporary generation who inherited her technique but never saw her perform. The interviews of teachers, all former Graham students, reflect their passion for maintaining Graham's few fixed principles and her emotional integrity. Some of the foremost actors of Graham's time describe their stormy encounters with her as she attempted to teach them that "movement doesn't lie." This book offers the only syllabus in print of Graham's work. Drawn from a private film of a class for her advanced and professional company members in the 1960s, it includes comments from Graham and speaks to her use of imagery in teaching. Detailed photographs document the development of Graham's choreographic legacy, which expanded and changed as she created each new work, more than 200 in all. These images, along with the interviews and commentary, plot the evolution of Graham's methodology and vocabulary of movement, on which classical modern dance continues to rely.
Call Number: 792.8092 GRA
ISBN: 9780813024738
Publication Date: 2002
Moving Sites by Hunter,V. (Editor)Moving Sites explores site-specific dance practice through a combination of analytical essays and practitioner accounts of their working processes. In offering this joint effort of theory and practice, it aims to provide dance academics, students and practitioners with a series of discussions that shed light both on approaches to making this type of dance practice, and evaluating and reflecting on it. ¿ The edited volume combines critical thinking from a range of perspectives including commentary and observation from the fields of dance studies, human geography and spatial theory in order to present interdisciplinary discourse and a range of critical and practice-led lenses through which this type of work can be considered and explored. In so doing, this book addresses¿the following questions: ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ How do choreographers make site-specific dance performance? ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ What occurs when a moving¿body engages with site, place and environment? ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ How might we interpret, analyse and evaluate this type of dance practice through a range of theoretical lenses? ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ How can this type of practice inform wider discussions of embodiment, site, space, place and environment? ¿ This innovative and exciting book seeks to move beyond description and discussion of site-specific dance as a spectacle or novelty and considers site-dance as a valid and vital form of contemporary dance practice that explores, reflects, disrupts, contests and develops understandings and practices of inhabiting and engaging with a range of sites and environments. Dr Victoria Hunter is Senior Lecturer in Dance at the University of Chichester.
Understanding Dance by McFee,G.Understanding Danceis a comprehensive introduction to the aestethetics of dance, and will be an essential text for all those interested in dance as an object of study. Focusing on the work of a number of major choreographers, companies and critics Graham McFee explores the nature of our understanding of Dance by considering the practiceof understanding dance-works themselves. He concludes with a validation of the place of dance in society and in education. Troughout he provides detailed insights into the nature and appreciation of art as well as a general grouding in philosophy.
Call Number: 793.301 MCF + eBook
ISBN: 9780415078108
Publication Date: 1992
Choreography; A basic approach using improvisation by Minton,S.C.Choreography: A Basic Approach Using Improvisationis the complete guide to understanding the entire process of choreography, from concept to stage production. Thousands of dancers and dance instructors have used the first two editions of this book to solve common challenges in choreography, improvise movement phrases, expand movements into dances, and organize dances into complete productions and concerts. This updated edition includes examples of how today's multimedia technology can be used to enhance choreography with special lighting effects, slide and PowerPoint projections, virtual dance performances, video conferencing, and motion capture. Each chapter contains movement exploration exercises, review and reflection questions, and application challenges that will help readers develop a better understanding of the choreographic concepts provided. And more than 70 high-quality photos provide a visual frame of reference and clarify key concepts. Choreography: A Basic Approach Using Improvisationbridges the theoretical and practical aspects of the choreographic process. It is an excellent reference for serious dancers, choreographers, dance instructors, and teachers who want to understand the creative process of transforming movement into dance.
The Dancing Word by Mroz,D.The product of over eighteen years of embodied research by the author, "The Dancing Word "presents a systemic and phenomenological description of a contemporary intercultural theatre practice. This volume offers a blueprint for both training and collaborative performance creation that integrates the best of western laboratory theatre with the practice and ontological underpinnings of Chinese martial ("Wushu") and healing/self care ("Qigong") arts. This is a book for theatre practitioners, students, scholars, and those interested in exploring transcultural methodologies.
Call Number: 792.028 MRO
ISBN: 9789042033306,
Publication Date: 2011
Dance and the Specific Image by Nagrin, D.After an extraordinary career in dance - as a performer, choreographer, and teacher - Daniel Nagrin has now written an extraordinary book. In it he explores the roots of his aesthetic philosophy, influenced by Stanislavski, Helen Tamiris, Joseph Chaikin and the Open Theatre, and his work on and off Broadway as an actor and dancer. Dance and the Specific Image includes over one hundred improvisational structures that Nagrin created with his new company, the Workgroup, and has taught in dance classes and workshops all over the United States. Designed primarily for dancers, many can be adapted for actors and even musicians. In the 1960s, at a time when many modern dancers were working with movement as abstraction, Nagrin turned instead toward movement as metaphor. His passionate belief that dance must speak of people led him to found the Workgroup, a small company of dancers who, in the early 1970s, devoted themselves to the practice and performance of improvisation. Nagrin invites the reader into the mind of a dancer totally absorbed in his art, one who writes with wisdom and authority about what it means to be an artist.
The Dancing Self by Press,C.The author employs psychoanalytic self psychology to analyze the creative process, emphasizing the self-world relationship and its transformative possibilities. This analysis is applied to the work of modern dance choreography, with special attention to the life and work of Paul Taylor. Drawing on this analysis, the implications of her theory of the creative process for the enrichment of the individual in his or her daily aesthetic, are examined.
Dance Improvisations by Reeve,J.Dance Improvisations: Warm-Ups, Games and Choreographic Tasks will provide assistance with any doubts that dancers and teachers might have with improvisation. This practical book promotes creativity that can lead to innovative breakthroughs among students from middle school age through college. With Dance Improvisations: Warm-Ups, Games and Choreographic Tasks, you receive * expert instruction in planning, teaching, and assessing students' improvisations; * 73 activities in creating movement and material for choreographing dances; * a glossary of dance and choreographic terms; and * extensions of each improv to aid further exploration and development of the improvisation skills. The activities support all portions of your class--including improvisation lessons that you can use as warm-ups, games that stimulate creativity, and choreographic tasks for creating movement material. Each activity has been tested and refined by the author, a veteran dance instructor and choreographer. You can use the improvs individually in a lesson or use them in developing entire lesson plans. The step-by-step instruction and teaching tips that you receive save you valuable preparation time--and the instructions are clear enough that more experienced students can use the book to practice on their own. With Dance Improvisations: Warm-Ups, Games and Choreographic Tasks, you will find new ways to help your dancers create original movements through both individual and group activities. Your students will hone their creative responses, and the innovation and energy in your dance classes will fill your studio or classroom. Students will blossom and gain inspiration using these improvisations as they learn how to develop movement and choreograph studies.
Dance Masters by Roseman,J.L.Dance Masters is a lively ensemble of conversations with seven celebrated dancers and choreographers. In these intimate interviews, dance critic Janet Lynn Roseman probes the heart of dance: * The creative process * The role of dream and rituals * The interplay between dancer and audience * The spiritual aspects of performance These dance masters offer rare insights into the internal world of the artist as they reveal their philosophies on dance training, discuss their mentors, and speak candidly about the artistic process of dance-making and how it actually feels to dance.
Dance Composition by Smith-Autard,J.M."A book which has remained seminal in its field as one of the key texts in dance education. Jacqueline Smith-Autard delves into the creative arena of dance with a logic unmatched by any other creative author in this field" Speech and Drama "Jacqueline Smith-Autard has made significant contributions to the development of dance in education in the UK and abroad" National Dance Teachers Association Dance composition - the discipline that translates ideas into dances - is an important part of dance education. This book, a bestseller for over twenty years, is a practical guide to creative success in dance making and is a popular textbook for all those who are interested in dance composition, from secondary school to university. This new edition includes a DVD with video taken from Choreographic Outcomes, a groundbreaking advanced technology resource pack aimed at comprehensively improving students' choreography. The book has been revised, redesigned and expanded. Reference to the DVD examples are made throughout the book and new assignments based on the video material are included.
Call Number: 792.82 SMI
ISBN: 9781408115640
Publication Date: 2010
The Knowing Body by Steinman,L.Steinman's book really stands alone among performance art books. While there are many that document what particular artists are doing, this one offers a way in for a person who wants to perform (or know more about how performance artists work). Must reading for anyone interested in performance art, it will also be fascinating to those in theatre, playwriting, visual arts and performance of any sort.
Call Number: 700.9730904 STE
ISBN: 9781556432026
Publication Date: 1995
Body Space Image; notes towards improvisation and performance by Tufnell,M.; Crickmay,C.The first of its kind, 'Body, Space, Image' is a remarkable book about improvisation - a narrative of discovery that sets the mind loose from the rut of everyday perception. From a starting point in movement, improvisation is extended to include groups working together and the physical setting of performance - space, light, sound, objects. Generously illustrated with examples drawn from twenty years of experimental performance, 'Body, Space, Image' explores ways of working and ways of thinking about performance that will inspire both the beginner and the experienced artist. It is a manual intended to stimulate rather than a comprehensive system of working, and includes a unique collection of images - from dance, theatre and painting - and statements by working artists. Words and images combine to celebrate and record one of the most exacting art forms developed in the twentieth century.
Action Theater by Zaporah,R.Each chapter of this book presents a single day of the twenty-day training which Ruth Zaporah developed into Action Theater, her investigation into the life-reflecting process of improvisation. This book shows through exercises, stories, anecdotes, and metaphors how to focus attention on the body's awareness of the present moment, moving away from preconceived ideas. Improvisations move through fear, boredom, laziness, and distraction to a sustained awareness of creative options.