Magisterial, revelatory, and-most suitably-entertaining, What the Eye Hears offers an authoritative account of the great American art of tap dancing. Brian Seibert, a dance critic for The New York Times, begins by exploring tap's origins as a hybrid of the jig and clog dancing from the British Isles and dances brought from Africa by slaves. He tracks tap's transfer to the stage through blackface minstrelsy and charts its growth as a cousin to jazz in the vaudeville circuits and nightclubs of the early twentieth century. Seibert chronicles tap's spread to ubiquity on Broadway and in Hollywood, analyzes its decline after World War II, and celebrates its rediscovery and reinvention by new generations of American and international performers. In the process, we discover how the history of tap dancing is central to any meaningful account of American popular culture. This is a story with a huge cast of characters, from Master Juba (it was probably a performance of his in a Five Points cellar that Charles Dickens described in American Notes for General Circulation) through Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Gene Kelly and Paul Draper to Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. Seibert traces the stylistic development of tap through individual practitioners, vividly depicting dancers both well remembered and now obscure. And he illuminates the cultural exchange between blacks and whites over centuries, the interplay of imitation and theft, as well as the moving story of African-Americans in show business, wielding enormous influence as they grapple with the pain and pride of a complicated legacy.What the Eye Hears teaches us to see and hear the entire history of tap in its every step. Read more

The ChoreographyTown series offers inspiration to dance teachers. It is quite simply Choreography-to-go! Tap Inspiration 1 offers several routines for use in the studio as a medal test routine, fun dances or as class show work. The book also offers a full glossary of tap steps including studio and stage charts. Read more

If you're looking for an old-fashioned honest chapbook about the experience of being an amateur tap dancer, look no further. Welcome to the world's first and only tap book written by a student of the art-not a teacher, a studio owner, or an expert. Delve into these real-life tap adventures and let them inspire you to bring the magic of the dance into your own life. This humble chapbook will open your mind to the world of this unique form of dance in ways that only a student of the art could.Tap Talk, Tidbits, and Tips for Dilettante Tappers will help your brain direct your heart, nerves, muscles, sinew, and soul to serve your tap-dancing goals and increase your tapping fun. Here you will find ideas, suggestions, and discussions about tap, including the fundamental idea that dance is mainly a task of the mind and not just the body. Dr. Patten shows us how the brain and memory benefit hugely from learning dance, backed up by real psychological studies and personal experience with the Silver Star Tappers of Pasadena, Texas.So, quit delaying, and read what amounts to a satisfying mix of deep scientific fact, real research results, tap tips, tap talk, chit-chat, chatter, and amusing anecdotes. Whet your appetite, and get a head's up on what to expect from tap dancing should you decide to give it a try.  Read more

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"Tap Dance Mastery: Unlocking the Secrets of Rhythmic Precision"From Basic Moves to Advanced Routines—Master the Magic of Tap DanceWhether you're a beginner just discovering the world of tap dance or an experienced dancer looking to refine your skills, Tap Dance Mastery is your ultimate guide to mastering the art of rhythmic precision and dance performance. In this comprehensive book, Michael Fink—a lifelong dance lover and tap dance enthusiast—takes you on an exciting journey through the foundational steps, advanced techniques, and artistry of tap dance. This book will help you build a solid technical base while allowing you to explore your unique style, express yourself through rhythm, and unlock your fullest potential on stage.Inside Tap Dance Mastery, you'll find everything you need to elevate your tap dance skills:Learn the Fundamentals: From basic shuffles to advanced rhythm patterns, each section of this book builds on the last, ensuring you understand every essential movement before progressing.Master the Music: Tap dance is not just about movement—it's about syncing your body to the music. You'll discover techniques to improve your musicality, time your movements with precision, and add an emotional dimension to your performances.Develop Strength and Flexibility: Tap dancing requires strength, flexibility, and stamina. The book provides exercises, drills, and tips to keep your body in top shape, helping you stay injury-free and capable of performing at your best.Tap Dance as Art: This book goes beyond just technique, showing you how to use tap dance as a form of artistic expression, building your stage presence, and connecting with your audience.Overcome Challenges: Every dancer encounters obstacles along the way. In this book, you'll find helpful advice for overcoming common frustrations, dealing with performance anxiety, and pushing through plateaus.Create Stunning Routines: With Michael’s expert insights, you’ll learn how to structure routines, add your flair, and perform with confidence, whether you're dancing solo, with a partner, or in a group.What’s Inside?Over 24 chapters covering every aspect of tap dance, from beginner steps to professional performances.Professional tips, techniques, and advanced drills that will elevate your performance.In-depth coverage of rhythm, musicality, and improvisation to help you create dynamic routines.Step-by-step guidance on how to choose the right shoes, maintain your health, and develop your tap style.If you're ready to unlock the secrets of rhythmic precision and master the magic of tap dance, Tap Dance Mastery is the only guide you'll need. Start your journey today and take your tap dance skills to new heights! Read more

Floating Bones charts the author’s journey into tensegrity, which begins in ballet and culminates in a model for addressing one’s body as a teacher. Tensegrity flips traditional biomechanical models such that instead of support coming from the bones, the bones float, and it is the muscles and other soft connective tissue that provide support for the moving body. Using the model of tensegretic experience, Roses-Thema connects somatics, cognition, rhetoric, and reflective practices detailing the means that constructed approaching the body as a teacher. This study presents the argument for extending the models of thinking to include bodily thinking, by citing how the experiential perspective of tensegrity constructs physical evidence of the rhetorical concept, metis, where the body thinks as it moves. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of dance, theater, and sociology. Read more

Le Bal décrit les tourments d'une adolescente de quatorze ans, Antoinette, qui entretient des rapports difficiles avec ses parents, parvenus de fraîche date, et spécialement avec sa mère. Celle-ci ayant refusé de la laisser assister au premier bal mondain qu'elle et son mari veulent donner, la jeune fille trouve à se venger cruellement. Aussi terrible qu'inattendue, la vengence d'Antoinette tombera comme un couperet, révélant le vrai visage de chacun. Roman fulgurant et initiatique sur l'enfance et ses tourments, Le Bal est l'un des premiers livres d'Irène Némirosky, disparue prématurément en déportation, en 1942. Irène Némirovsky a obtenu le Prix Renaudot 2004 pour son oeuvre posthume Suite française.Édition intégrale avec table des matières interactive. Read more

Here is the vibrant, colorful, high-stepping story of tap -- the first comprehensive, fully documented history of a uniquely American art form, exploring all aspects of the intricate musical and social exchange that evolved from Afro-Irish percussive step dances like the jig, gioube, buck-and-wing, and juba to the work of such contemporary tap luminaries as Gregory Hines, Brenda Bufalino, Dianne Walker, and Savion Glover.In Tap Dancing America, Constance Valis Hill, herself an accomplished jazz tap dancer, choreographer, and performance scholar, begins with a dramatic account of a buck dance challenge between Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Harry Swinton at Brooklyn's Bijou Theatre, on March 30, 1900, and proceeds decade by decade through the 20th century to the present day. She vividly describes tap's musical styles and steps -- from buck-and-wing and ragtime stepping at the turn of the century; jazz tapping to the rhythms of hot jazz, swing, and bebop in the '20s, '30s and '40s; to hip-hop-inflected hitting and hoofing in heels (high and low) from the 1990s right up to today. Tap was long considered "a man's game," and Hill's is the first history to highlight such outstanding female dancers as Ada Overton Walker, Kitty O'Neill, and Alice Whitman, at the turn of the 20th century, as well as the pioneering women composers of the tap renaissance, in the 70s and 80s, and the hard-hitting rhythm-tapping women of the millennium such as Chloe Arnold, Ayodele Casel, Michelle Dorrance, and Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards. Written with uncanny foresight, the book features dancers who have become international touring artists and have performed on Broadway, won Emmy and Tony Awards, and received the prestigious Dance Magazine, Adele and Fred Astaire, and Jacob's Pillow Dance awards. Presented with all the verve and grace of tap itself and drawing on eyewitness accounts of early performances as well as interviews with today's greatest tappers, Tap Dancing America fills a major gap in American dance history and places tap firmly center stage. Read more

Desde el primer destello de luz en la pantalla hasta el brillo de los flashes en la alfombra roja, la vida de una actriz de cine es una fascinante mezcla de arte, glamour y lucha. En "La Vida: Alma, Amor y Pasión por el Cine", Valentina Vargas, una reconocida actriz de cine, nos lleva en un viaje íntimo y revelador a través de su extraordinaria carrera y su vida personal.Valentina Vargas ha dejado una marca indeleble en la industria del cine con su talento innegable y su dedicación inquebrantable. Como actriz de cine, ha vivido la gloria y el desafío que conlleva interpretar papeles que han conmovido a millones. Su trayectoria es un testimonio del poder transformador de la actuación y de cómo el cine puede capturar la esencia de la humanidad.Este libro no es solo una crónica de su carrera como actriz de cine; es también una exploración profunda de los valores que han guiado su vida: el alma, el amor y la pasión. Valentina Vargas comparte con nosotros momentos de su vida que han sido fundamentales para su crecimiento personal y profesional. Desde sus humildes comienzos hasta convertirse en una estrella reconocida mundialmente, su relato es un reflejo de la resiliencia y la determinación que se requieren para triunfar en el competitivo mundo del cine.A lo largo de estas páginas, Valentina Vargas nos muestra que ser actriz de cine es mucho más que memorizar guiones y posar para la cámara. Es un viaje profundo hacia el autodescubrimiento, una constante negociación entre la persona que eres y la persona que interpretas. Nos revela cómo cada personaje que ha interpretado ha dejado una huella en su vida y cómo, a través de sus roles, ha podido explorar diferentes aspectos de la condición humana."La Vida: Alma, Amor y Pasión por el Cine" es una ventana al corazón y al alma de una mujer que ha vivido intensamente su pasión por la actuación. Es un homenaje a la magia del cine y a todas las personas que lo hacen posible. Valentina Vargas nos invita a conocer los altos y bajos de ser una actriz de cine, a comprender las alegrías y los sacrificios que conlleva esta profesión y a valorar la dedicación que se necesita para llevar a la pantalla historias que inspiran y emocionan.Con una narrativa cautivadora y una franqueza abismante, este libro es una lectura obligada para cualquier amante del cine y para aquellos que sueñan con el escenario. Es una celebración de la vida como actriz de cine, donde cada capítulo es un tributo a la devoción y al amor por este arte incomparable.Sumérgete en el relato de Valentina Vargas y descubre cómo el cine no solo ha sido su profesión, sino su salvavidas y su mayor amor. "La Vida: Alma, Amor y Pasión por el Cine" es más que una autobiografía; es una carta de amor a una carrera que ha definido su existencia y la ha convertido en la actriz de cine que es hoy. Read more

This introduction to world dance charts the diverse histories and stories of dancers and artists through ten key moments that have shaped the vast spectrum of different forms and genres that we see today.Designed for weekly use in dance history courses, ten chosen milestones move chronologically from the earliest indigenous rituals and the dance crazes of Eastern trade routes, to the social justice performance and evolving online platforms of modern times. This clear, dynamic framework uses the idea of migrations to chart the shifting currents of influence and innovation in dance from an inclusive set of perspectives that acknowledge the enduring cultural legacies on display in every dance form.Milestones are a range of accessible textbooks, breaking down the need-to-know moments in the social, cultural, political, and artistic development of foundational subject areas. Read more

This is the story of the original Riverdance - the six-minute version and Riverdance: The Show - as you probably never read it before and probably will never read elsewhere. Simply because back in 1996 and 1997, long before confidentiality clauses were written into the contracts of those who are employed by the Riverdance production company, its two lead dancers told their stories in an angry and unvarnished fashion to Joe Jackson, who was the music critic for The Irish Times and a contributor to Hot Press magazine and The Arts Show on RTE Radio 1, Ireland's national radio station. After his interview, Micheal Flatley scolded Jackson and never spoke to him again. Jean Butler, on the other hand, who was "incensed" by some of the things Flatley had said about her in that interview and delivered a no-holds-barred response to Jackson, via an interview that was described at the time as a 'blistering broadside.' Six years later Jean Butler gave a similarly in-depth interview to Jackson in which she revisited the 1997 text and updated her opinions where appropriate. This is not an official Riverdance book. The author, Joe Jackson, also has written a prologue called, 'The backstory of Riverdance: Clash of the Dancers' and he provides author's notes between various chapters. "This is the story, for-the-record, as I witnessed it, lived it and wrote about it," he says. Read more

Imagine having in your pocket the five keys to unlock a life of fulfillment, purpose, and happiness. In his new book, THEY HAVEN'T MADE AN AX THAT CAN CHOP DOWN A DREAM: FIVE KEYS TO REINVENTION, author Lancelot E. Theobald, Jr. gives you those keys.Rather than preaching at you with a lot of instructions, lessons, slogans, and catchy phrases, Lancelot shares with the readers his real-life, real-world story, filled with fascinating experiences and adventures, and how he applied the KEYS OF REINVENTION to his own life, leading to ultimate happiness and success.Reading #ADREAM will offer you the critical tools to enhance your life, change your life, or show you how to create the circumstances to find fulfillment.#ADREAM will show you how to tap into self-awareness, emotions, and the higher thought patterns that allow you to overcome the challenges and struggles everyone faces.Although Lancelot continues to lead a unique life filled with discovery and perseverance, #ADREAM is an exciting, moving, and inspiring tale of his growing from a youth to becoming an adult. Some of the highlights in the book include Lancelot's survival of near-death experiences and his travels around the world. As the survivor of a major plane crash and a harrowing near-drowning incident, Lancelot continued to live life with courage, curiosity, and compassion.As a Black man who enthusiastically embraces the mystery and miracle of being alive, Lancelot eventually applied the FIVE KEYS OF REINVENTION to his dreams, and with blind faith, dedication, discipline, and desire, he transformed himself from an athlete to a producer of theatre, ultimately becoming a talented, working, professional artist.What will your life become when you apply the FIVE KEYS OF REINVENTION to your dreams? Lancelot's story does not only inspire but is a guide to what to do after you realize the truth: it's never too late to make your dreams come true.At a time when Lancelot's life was not going in the direction he wanted, a feeling anyone could relate to and appreciate, Lancelot made the decision to do something about it. By leaping forward with terrifying but bold bravery, he used the FIVE KEYS OF REINVENTION to carve and plow an entirely new life path, and the reward? He discovered an understanding of himself and constructed this dynamic and powerful strategy for achieving his goals, no matter the axes that chopped at his dreams.#ADREAM illustrates how to use the FIVE KEYS OF REINVENTION to become anything you want in your life. If you stay humble while aspiring to make a difference, you can develop these attributes into the tools that allow the greatness within you to emerge and flow freely.The FIVE KEYS OF REINVENTION will help you unlock your vision and pursue your dreams, even if no one else believes in you, so you can turn the knobs and open the doors. As your journey becomes clear, the keys will help you open the door, muster the courage to go through, push you to keep showing up and doing the work and show you how to embrace your newly found inner strength to give you the life you imagined. Read more

The book honors and celebrates Patsy Swayze. There are twenty-nine fascinating interviews which include her students, colleagues, and friends. Their stories showcase what a trailblazer she was and the extent of her influence on them and on the world. Many of her students continue to carry forward her legacy by following in her giant dance footsteps. There are sixty-four photos, most in color and rarely seen, which help tell this story.Patsy Swayze was an icon in the dance and performing arts world for decades as a dancer, teacher, mentor, and choreographer. Her work includes founding the Houston Jazz Ballet, teaching at the University of Houston, running her own dance studios, and choreographing for Theatre, Incorporated, Playhouse Theatre, and Hollywood movies. She inspired thousands of dance students, many of whom went on to become professionals in the performing arts, and instilled in all students a strong work ethic and set of values. With that said, she was most proud of her family and thought her greatest achievement was being the mother of five children.Of course, Patsy had one very famous student, her beloved son Patrick, known as "Buddy" to family and friends. The book touches on the relationship between Patsy and Buddy, and Buddy's life. Another renowned student is Jaclyn Smith, who kindly granted a full-length interview about her experiences with Patsy.Patsy was a pioneer in opening her dance classes and her heart to all students, regardless of race, economic, or cultural background, and this was no small feat in the fifties and sixties in Houston. In addition, Patsy was known to be extremely philanthropic.Patsy Swayze continues to touch the lives of multitudes of people, including the author's life. In today's world it is especially wonderful to have such a hero, someone who gave so much to others and has left such a profound legacy.- Read more

The mechanics of tap dance is a brief, and easy-to-understand beginner-level tap dance course that covers the foundational ideas needed to understand and execute tap on a basic/beginner level.This course is built on the idea of taking the very intricate art form of tap dance, breaking it down into its most simple form,i.e. the individual/singular steps/sounds that pertain to the different angles or points of the foot, then learning the techniques to combine those steps to compose larger phrases.THIS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT’S BEING PROMOTED AS A “NEW STYLE” OF TAP, OR EVEN A COMPLETELY NEW CONCEPT.There are many different ways to teach a beginner class, no method is wrong or right, each method has just as much validity as the next. However, to my knowledge, there has yet to be a good, official, regimented or consistent way to teach a beginner level tap class, so this is what I, over the course of about 15 years or so, have found to be the most effective and efficient method [for me] to organize and disseminate this information in a way that is easiest to mentally process and physically execute. I wanted to record this in physical form to share it with as many people as possible.I hope the ideas in this book contribute to the ease of learning tap dance for many people, and consequently, helps to create more people that can fully and comfortably express themselves through the art of tap dance. Read more

SUSURROS DEL ALAMA MIA"INSPIRACIÓN PARA AMARSE ASI MISMO Y DESPUÉS A LOS DEMÁS"Susurros del Alma Mía son 365 Píldoras de amor para alcanzar plenitud, facilita una mejorcomprensión, por medio de estas Píldoras de Amor que encontraras en Susurros del Alma Mia,y van con el único fin de que las células de cada cerebro, que aún permanecen inactivas odormidas, tomen por su cuenta una Píldora de Amor y así vayan despertándose y activarse,aquellas personas a quienes tengan Susurros del Alma Mía y que presentan dificultad para podervislumbrar, lleguen a una comprensión mas amplia de forma sencilla y práctica, de lo que significaleer Susurros del Alma Mía, ya que ofrece adecuada comprensión en cada pensamiento atrapadoen estas Píldoras de Amor. Susurros del Alma Mía con ideas siempre positivas, no es otra cosamas que prácticas personalizadas para alimentar la mente, lee una Píldora de Amor día con díaal inicio de cada mañana; en este libro desde su primer máxima. En Susurros del Alma Mía,asombrosamente encontrarás que justo la actitud que necesitas en ese momento leerás, por quedesde la primera Píldora de Amor comenzaras a expandir consciencia, este libro lo puedes obtenertambién impreso, esta creado para portarse en el bolsillo y permanecer dondequiera que teencuentres, así podrás disfrutar Susurros Del Alma Mia. Apoderarte de esas Píldoras de Amor día con día y alcanzar plenitud. Read more

This sincere, spiritual and at the same time extremely practical book, is the result of some form of inspiration and aims at inspiring its readers.The author goes straight to the emotional aspect of flamenco, something that had never been dealt with in the literature related to this dance.In the First Part, she intends to know, accept, and release the intimacy of flamenco, then going into deeper details with emotional maturity from both an artistic and a therapeutic point of view.In the Second Part, La India proposes to discover and exploit the emotions building up your own dance: Soleá, Seguiriya, Tarantos, Soleá por Bulerías, Alegrías, Peteneras, Tangos, Tientos y Bulerías. She also wants to take you back to sincerity when expressing danced emotions by means of technique.In the Third Part, she describes her teaching method involving your own Being and Technique.In the Fourth Part, the author inserts some exercises and practical tools for students so that they can test this method and use it themselves, respecting the sacred space of learning heart by heart, with dedication and self-discipline, without sacrificing their self-esteem and motivation. Read more

Con más de 30 ingeniosos dibujos se conforma un mapa hacia el tesoro de la esencia de tu Ser para invitarte con belleza a abrazar la vida comprendiendo el bienestar integral para tu salud que provee el contacto y práctica de la música + danza. La medicina explica los beneficios a través de dibujos para facilitar el aprendizaje. Médicamente se ha probado que nuestro cerebro puede regenerarse gracias al beneficio de la actividad de la música y de la danza.De aquí nacen las preguntas de ¿Cuál es el encanto y beneficio de la música? ¿Cómo beneficia la combinación música + danza a la salud integral, al aprendizaje y al desarrollo de la creatividad para abrazar la vida? Los dibujos sobre música y medicina de “La danza de la música para abrazar la vida” te guían por la historia testimonial de cambio y transformación de la autora introduciéndonos al encantador benéfico de la música + danza para saber cómo discriminar auditivamente los patrones musicales (ritmo, pulso, armonía y melodía) y los dibujos de cada sección grafican cómo la música nos abraza desde el origen de la vida en el vientre materno y nos integran con nuestras emociones. Se aborda el problema que significa "olvidar nuestra música interior", es decir, las consecuencias de la ruptura y desintegración de instintos, emociones y pensamientos. Los dibujos de medicina facilitan el aprendizaje de las partes y funciones de lo que se conoce sobre el procesamiento cerebral del estímulo musical, este territorio en proceso de exploración, pero aún desconocido por la medicina. Se dibuja y describe en mayor detalle la región encargada de las emociones y también la encargada de la planificación y la creatividad. Se explica la naturaleza de las ondas sonoras, las frecuencias, su correspondencia con las notas musicales y un sistema integrativo del cerebro que beneficia la creatividad y el movimiento. La medicina expone el recorrido del sonido por las vías auditivas desde el oído hasta el cerebro. Al final se trata el aprendizaje mediante la emoción y el efecto de la música + danza para abrazar la creatividad de la vida.“La danza de la música para abrazar la vida” es un libro escrito y dibujado tanto para las personas que aún no han descubierto el beneficio de la música + danza para abrazar la parte innata, potenciadora y sanadora de la vida, como para educadores y estudiantes que utilizan las artes (visuales, escénicas y musicales) para efectos terapéuticos como es el caso del SRT Biodanza. Es también de interés para la comunidad médica, especialmente la más escéptica, pues correlaciona la música + danza con el bienestar integral. Sus dibujos sobre conceptos de música y medicina son un aporte didáctico cuyo propósito es agilitar el aprendizaje de términos y conceptos médicos y musicales abrazando la vida. Read more

Pauline Fraser was a courageous young review artist and tap dancer—never missing a beat as she braved the dangers of the London Blitz.Presenting Pauline is the story of one young woman’s courage as she witnessed her world slipping into a very dangerous era. She set out to be a tap dancer on the London stage, never dreaming that she would cross paths with some of the greatest military leaders of World War II, and many of Hollywood’s most brilliant stars. Most of all, Pauline never imagined that as a young review artist she would be tracking spies through the terrifying dark nights of the London Blitz. Being a real trooper, she kept her sense of humor. She never lost faith that she would survive, even as the city was crumbling around her! In 1945, she was swept off her feet by a handsome U.S. Army Air Force officer, and came to the United States on the first war brides’ ship following WWII. The couple lived in Chicago, where Pauline founded a neighborhood dance school. She later directed and produced very successful musical shows with a community theater group. Read more

This book is a practical guide for dance teachers, studio owners and parents who partake in the annual dance recital. It can be used as a reference to plan and execute the dance recital from start to finish. It starts at the beginning with the recital theme, and then explores many of the components that contribute towards a successful dance performance. It examines what to teach, how to teach, and how best to prepare children for dancing on stage. It looks at the practices of back stage management, and gives strategies to maintain order. This book gives ideas on how to generate income from the dance recital and looks at the legal requirements for children in performance. The Dance Recital is an invaluable guide book for dance teachers who are tackling their first dance performance. With the volume of things to remember this book helps to ensure that nothing is left to chance. It will ensure that your dance recital runs effortlessly and earns you the trust and respect of all of your dance pupils. Read more

You can learn tap dancing easily! This fantastic book's thirty-nine lessons will guide you to mastering the steps you've seen on stage. Each lesson is illustrated through the use of posed photographs and includes rhythm notation to aid your practice. Will the help of these lessons and some determined practice you'll be tap dancing within a month or two. Originally published in 1930, we are republishing this vintage guide now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with its original artwork and text. Read more