Browse by Subject: Dance and Music

Please note that while you may order forthcoming books at any time, they will not be available for shipment until shortly before publication date

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A Revolution in Movement: Dancers, Painters, and the Image of Modern Mexico

This book illuminates how collaborations between dancers and painters shaped Mexico’s postrevolutionary cultural identity, tracing this relationship throughout nearly half a century of developments in Mexican dance from the 1920s to the 1960s.

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Howling Near Heaven: Twyla Tharp and the Reinvention of Modern Dance

Howling Near Heaven is the only in-depth study of Twyla Tharp’s unique, restless creativity. This second edition features a new forward that brings the account of Tharp’s work up to date and discusses how dance and dance-making in the United States have changed in recent years. This is the story of a choreographer who refused to be pigeonholed and the dancers who accompanied her as she sped across the frontiers of dance.

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The Legat Legacy

The Legat Legacy brings back into print two classic works that offer rare insights into the golden age of Russian ballet.

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La Meri and Her Life in Dance: Performing the World

This intriguing biography details the life and work of world dance pioneer La Meri (1899–1988). An American dancer, choreographer, teacher, and writer, La Meri was ahead of her time in championing cross-cultural dance performances and education, yet she is almost totally forgotten today. In La Meri and Her Life in Dance, Nancy Ruyter introduces readers to a visionary artist who played a pivotal role in dance history.  

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Dancing with Merce Cunningham

Marianne Preger-Simon’s story opens amid the explosion of artistic creativity that followed World War II. While immersed in the vibrant arts scene of postwar Paris during a college year abroad, Preger-Simon was so struck by Merce Cunningham’s unconventional dance style that she joined his classes in New York. She soon became an important member of his brand new dance troupe—and a constant friend. 

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Broadway, Balanchine, and Beyond: A Memoir

In this memoir of a roller-coaster career on the New York stage, former actor and dancer Bettijane Sills offers a highly personal look at the art and practice of George Balanchine, one of ballet’s greatest choreographers, and the inner workings of his world-renowned company during its golden years.  

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Perspectives on American Dance: The Twentieth Century

The two volumes of Perspectives on American Dance are the first anthologies in over twenty-five years to focus exclusively on American dance practices across a wide span of American culture. 

 

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Perspectives on American Dance: The New Millennium

The two volumes of Perspectives on American Dance are the first anthologies in over twenty-five years to focus exclusively on American dance practices across a wide span of American culture.

 

 

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Dancing in Blackness: A Memoir

Dancing in Blackness is a professional dancer’s personal journey over four decades, across three continents and twenty-three countries, and through defining moments in the story of black dance in America. In this memoir, Halifu Osumare reflects on what blackness and dance have meant to her life and international career.