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Matthew Bourne and His Adventures in Dance is an intimate and in-depth conversation between the prize-winning pioneer of ballet and contemporary dance Matthew Bourne and the New York Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay. In 1987, a small, aspirant dance group with a striking name made its debut on the London fringe. In 1996, Adventures in Motion Pictures made history as the first modern dance company to open a production in London's West End. From this achievement, AMP sailed triumphantly to Broadway - winning three Tony Awards - guided by Artistic Director Matthew Bourne. Even before the inception of AMP, Bourne was fascinated by theatre, by characterization, and by the history of dance. In...
A unique and authoritative guide to the lives and work of prominent living contemporary choreographers. Representing a wide range of dance genres, each entry locates the individual in the context of modern dance theatre and explores their impact. Those studied include: Jerome Bel Richard Alston Doug Varone William Forsythe Phillippe Decoufle Jawole Willa Jo Zollar Ohad Naharin Itzik Gallili Twyla Tharp Wim Vandekeybus With a new, updated introduction by Deborah Jowitt and further reading and references throughout, this text is an invaluable resource for all students and critics of dance, and all those interested in the fascinating world of choreography.
“Who am I? I’m a man; an American, a father, a teacher, but most of all, I am a person who knows how the arts can change lives, because they transformed mine. I was a dancer.” In this rich, expansive, spirited memoir, Jacques d’Amboise, one of America’s most celebrated classical dancers, and former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for more than three decades, tells the extraordinary story of his life in dance, and of America’s most renowned and admired dance companies. He writes of his classical studies beginning at the age of eight at The School of American Ballet. At twelve he was asked to perform with Ballet Society; three years later he joined the New York City ...
This book is a perceptive and critical account of the first 75 years of The Royal Ballet, tracing the company's growth, and its great cultural importance - an indispensable book for all lovers of ballet. In 1931, Ninette de Valois started a ballet company with just six dancers. Within twenty years, The Royal Ballet - as it became - was established as one of the world's great companies. It has produced celebrated dancers, from Margot Fonteyn to Darcey Bussell, and one of the richest repertoires in ballet. The company danced through the Blitz, won an international reputation in a single New York performance and added to the glamour of London's Swinging Sixties. It has established a distinctive...
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and The New Yorker The Boy from Kyiv is the life story of Alexei Ratmansky, the most celebrated ballet choreographer of our time. “A revelatory book about how [Ratmansky] evolved into the internationally sought-after choreographer of the moment . . . A must-read.” — Martha Anne Toll, NPR Alexei Ratmansky is transforming ballet for the twenty-first century. An artist of daring imagination, the choreographer has created breathtakingly original works for the world’s most revered companies. He has fashioned a singular approach to balletic storytelling that bridges the space between narrative and abstraction and heightens ambiguity and surprise on the ...
By taking a fresh approach to the study of history in general, Alexandra Carter's Rethinking Dance History offers new perspectives on important periods in dance history and seeks to address some of the gaps and silences left within that history. Encompassing ballet, South Asian, modern dance forms and much more, this book provides exciting new research on topics as diverse as: *the Victorian music hall *film musicals and popular music videos *the impact of Neoclassical fashion on ballet *women's influence on early modern dance *methods of dance reconstruction. Featuring work by some of the major voices in dance writing and discourse, this unique anthology will prove invaluable for both scholars and practitioners, and a source of interest for anyone who is fascinated by dance's rich and multi-layered history.
Rumba music starts and a floor full of dancers alternate clinging to one another and turning away. Here, Julia Ericksen, a competitive ballroom dancer herself, takes the reader onto the competition floor exploring the allure of this hyper-competitive, difficult, and often expensive activity.
How does one become a theater critic in London? What do the theater critics think of their profession? How are they judged by those they critique? What do both critics and theatre-makers think of their mutual object of desire - the British Theatre? Who Keeps the Score on the London Stages? sets out to find the answers to these questions and many more in this long overdue publication on Britain's current theatre scene. Included are comprehensive interviews with more than fifty major London theatre critics and theater-makers, including Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Stephen Berkoff, Michael Billington, Martin Coveney, Nicholas de Jongh, Sir Richard Eyre, Sir Peter Hall, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Adrian Noble, Sir Trevor Nunn and Irving Wardle. The author has gathered together a lively discussion about the contrmporary state of the British theatre, drawing a picture of its strengths, weaknesses and the problems it faces today. This volume serves as a long overdue guide to the Theatre critics' profession in Britain.
"Nearly four hundred and fifty years in, ballet still resonates-though the stages have become international, and the dancers, athletes far removed from noble amateurs. While vibrations from the form's beginnings clearly resound, much has transformed. Nowadays ballet dancers aspire to work across disciplines with choreographers who value a myriad of abilities. Dance theorists and historians make known possibilities and polemics in lieu of notating dances verbatim, and critics do the daily work of recording performance histories and interviewing artists. Ideas circulate, questions arise, and discussions about how to resist ballet's outmoded traditions take precedence. In the dance community, c...
First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.