Books On Dance

[Chicklet]

Firstly, I am deliberately putting this in the dance thread so that some of our (more serious ??) friends who avoid the chit-chat might see it.

Does anybody know of any good books on the history of 20th century partner dancing?

I know there are plenty out there on the history of ballet etc but am thinking more of our kind of thing ?

Not fussed if it's coffee table tome or itty bitty print with hadly any pics, would just love to get my hands on something.

Look forward to hearing!

C

[DavidY]

Originally posted by Chicklet
Does anybody know of any good books on the history of 20th century partner dancing?

I know there are plenty out there on the history of ballet etc but am thinking more of our kind of thing ?

A quick trawl through the web suggests that there is a website called http://www.dancebooks.co.uk/. They're in the UK too, & I guess you might be able to ring them up & ask for advice. (I know nothing about them other than what their web page says so I'm guessing here ...)

I notice that within their Catalog there's a "Dance History" section - one of these may be of interest.

There's also other sections like "Social - General" which contains "A century of dance: a hundred years of musical movement, from waltz to hip hop." (A heavily illustrated history of popular dance, from ballroom dancing to break dancing, during the twentieth century.)

This also includes "Oh, how we danced!" (The history of ballroom dancing in Scotland) which although not Modern Jive, may be of interest to some folk on the forum, I guess...

Is this any help??
David

[Chicklet]

Thanks David!!!

been awayish for a few days but this looks like a good place for a Friday afternoon browse!!!!!

I'll let you know how I get on!!

Cx

[Chicklet]

Thanks David!!!

been awayish for a few days but this looks like a good place for a Friday afternoon browse!!!!!

I'll let you know how I get on!!

Cx

[SwingSwingSwing]

Chicklet

This might be a bit too specialist for you but there's a cracking book the history of Lindy Hop.

It's called "This Thing Called Swing" by Christian Batchelor and it charts to the origins and development of swing music and the dances that developed with it, including Lindy Hop.

It's available from amazon.co.uk here

SwingSwingSwing

[Chicklet]

Haven't bought this one SSS (yet!!??)

but thoroughly enjoyed "the Swing Book" by Peter Dagen - read it cover to cover in two sittings at Schipol recently.

Very American but an interesting meander thru the history - especially enjoyed the chapters on the revival - Big Bad Voodo Daddy etc

So for under a tenner at Amazon, I can certainly recommend it as a light hearted pressie for anyone who likes that kind of thing!

[ChrisA]

Not a history book, not even a book, but some time ago I found this 138 page PDF all about lead and follow:

http://www.cs.utk.edu/~eijkhout/lead_follow.pdf

It's a compilation, much of it quite technical, of articles about leading and following from rec.arts.dance over what must have been quite a long time.

A lot of it isn't that readable, but if you're up for persevering there are some real gems in there. I saved a copy myself so I can get it to you if you find the link is bust, as it sometimes seems to be - let me know if so.

Chris

[Chris]

Originally posted by Chicklet
Does anybody know of any good books on the history of 20th century partner dancing?

The website already mentioned http://www.dancebooks.co.uk/ is excellent and maybe the main source internationally. Their books on kinetic imagery are fabulous if you like that sort of stuff (I swear by them now - was unsure whether to buy and Amir recommended them to me). They also have a selection of other reasonable stuff (as does EBay and Amazon).

One very innovative one I found was a birthday present I got for a friend on Swing. It's by Simon Selmon and uses what he calls 'flow-motion'. Flowmotion turns out to be a sort of stop-frame overlapping photography so you see overlapping pictures of the dancer going through the move against a plain background.

If you find the footwork diagrams or written explanations of moves hard work to follow (as I sometimes do!) then flow-motion is quiote a revelation. He has copyrighted it I think though and I haven't seen it in any other books.

Most of the books on dance I've acquired have either been bought abroad or from second hand bookshops however. If you have a word with your local s/h bookshop you might find they will look out for and put them aside for you (if they don't, you may find it's cos the local dance school has already thought of that idea!)