Books: A Textbook Case
Three new publications for college-level study
Appreciating Dance: A Guide to the World’s Liveliest Art, Fourth Edition
by Harriet Lihs
A Dance Horizons Book, Princeton Book Company, Publishers
In a nutshell: A dance history teaching aid.
In this 188-page book, Harriet Lihs presents a thorough overview of dance history. She addresses the development of each branch with concise, detailed information, and she uses historical photographs to trace the artform’s evolution from religious to social dance to ballet, modern, jazz, tap and theater to the trends that are changing dance in the new millennium (like experimenting with minimalism and extreme athleticism). The book includes handy resource lists: ballet terms and definitions, Hollywood musicals, dance organizations, suggested readings, videographies and internet sources, along with chapter-review questions to drive class discussions. Lihs offers teachers a complete package with only one drawback: The book is packed with more than can be taught in one semester. As a solution, the author urges teachers to cover a select few biographies of notable dance figures.
Writing About Dance
by Wendy R. Oliver
Human Kinetics
In a nutshell: A guide to writing about dance.
After struggling to provide her college dance students with detailed instructions for writing assignments, educator Wendy R. Oliver penned a practical guide on using writing to help students become better creative thinkers and to deepen their understanding of course material. In six comprehensive chapters, she covers the basics of crafting various styles of dance writing, including observation exercises, self-reflective letters, performance critiques, persuasive essays and well-sourced research papers. Oliver provides a useful collection of 14 exercises that can be incorporated into all college-level dance courses, along with rubrics for grading these assignments.
Choreographing From Within: Developing the Habit of Inquiry as an Artist
by Diana F. Green
Human Kinetics
In a nutshell: An inquiry-based approach to creating movement.
Guest choreographer and master teacher Diana F. Green believes that choreography can be taught, and she’s written a 305-page textbook to prove it. Instead of providing students with formulas to arrange dances, Green suggests mentoring students to find their own creative voices through an inquiry-based approach. With this book as a guide, students can grasp the basic elements of choreography and use these fundamentals to create their own dances. The idea is to first learn and practice the rules, and then to experiment with breaking them. Included are photographs, exercises and questions to spark reflection and discussion, as well as tools to evaluate and document progress.
Photo by Emily Giacalone
