panix!not-for-mail about ballet and modern (contemporary) dance. Recommended reading for anyone wanting to post to alt.arts.ballet. Archive-name: dance/ballet-modern-faq/part1 ================================ Part 1 of four parts ================================ In a group as young as this one, we don't have enough data to identify "frequently-asked" questions, with a few exceptions; hence many of the entries that follow are answers to questions that we might reasonably *expect* to be frequently asked, or at least wondered about. I have chosen to discuss things that I myself wondered about; things that, I surmise, beginners and non-dancers must wonder about (since this group is specific- ally intended to include them); a few technical points (well known to dancers but not to spectators); and a fairly extensive history of ballet from 1489 to the close of the Diaghilev era. The FAQ ends with some questions that don't fit well into the other categories and with a list of references and periodicals. Coverage will be expanded as the FAQ is updated in response to requests and suggestions from the group. This FAQ will be posted bimonthly (on even-numbered months) in alt.arts.ballet, the Dancers' Archive, and also to rtfm.mit.edu, where most FAQs are available through anonymous FTP. It can also be found on the Web at http://www.math.ucla.edu/~eijkhout/ballet_faq.html and is also reachable from http://www.ens-lyon.fr/~esouche/danse/dance.html although these are not always the latest versions. There is also a FAQ listing suppliers of dancewear, updated bimonthy (on odd-numbered months--alternating with updates to this FAQ). That can also be found in the Dancers' Archive and in rtfm.mit.edu. ================ *** New this release: *** Sources for dance books (Question 1.12) now subdivided into stores & libraries. Information on New York Public Library & George Washington University collections added. ================ Acknowledgements I wish to thank Eliot Aronstern, Lise Brenner, Victor Eijkhout, and Lance Westergard for reading the first draft and providing valuable comments and suggestions. Thanks also to Randy Barron, Eileen Bauer, Melinda Buckwalter, Bonnie Brooks, Callum Downie, CarlosC14, William Fitzgerald, Robinne Gray, Lisa M. Hahn, Steve Keeley, Sandi Kurtz, Bob D. Peterson, Amy Reusch, Tim Scholl, Estelle Souche, Jim Williams, Leigh Witchel, Mark Zetler, and many other contributors to this group, many of whose postings (and corrections) are gradually finding their way into this FAQ. This FAQ is provided as is without any express or implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this article, the author assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. Copyright (c) 1995 by Thomas Parsons; all rights reserved. This FAQ may be posted to any USENET newsgroup, on-line service, or BBS, provided it is posted in its entirety and includes this copyright statement. This FAQ may not be distributed for financial gain. No portion of this FAQ may be included in commercial collections or compilations without express permission from the author. Tom Parsons Digital Technology Laboratories Brooklyn, New York twp@panix.com ================ Contents: PART 1 0. General information 0.1. What is this group? 0.2. What is the difference between alt.arts.ballet and rec.arts.dance? 0.3. How can I access this group? 0.4. How can I post to this group? 0.5. Are there any dance pages on the World Wide Web? 0.6. I'm only a beginner; should I just shut up and listen? 1. General questions about ballet 1.1. What is ballet? 1.2. What is modern dance? 1.3. What is a ballet class like? 1.4. What is a barre? 1.5. Why do dancers take so many classes? 1.6. Why do dancers wear such funny shoes? 1.7. Why don't men dance on pointe? 1.8. Why do dancers stand with their feet turned out? 1.9. What is "placement?" 1.10. Why all that French? 1.11. What are the most popular ballets? 1.12. Where can I find books about dance? 1.13. Where can I find dance videos? PART 2 2. Ballet, Modern Dance, and You 2.1. When should I start taking ballet? 2.2. When should I start taking modern dance? 2.3. I'm thinking of returning to ballet after -- years; how should I start? Are there videos I can buy? 2.4. I'm 45 (or 50 or 55 or...) years old. Is it ridiculous for me to consider ballet classes? 2.5. How do I find/choose a school or teacher? 2.6. How can I tell if a teacher is good? 2.7. If the teacher makes me feel good, won't I become overconfident? 2.8. I live in ----; where can I take classes? 2.9. Where can I find out about Summer dance programs? 2.10. Where can I buy dancewear? 2.11. I took a class and I couldn't understand what was going on! 2.12. I keep getting mixed up! 2.13. What on earth is a "soo-soo"? 2.14. What is "B-plus"? 2.15. How can I learn to raise my leg over my shoulder, the way I see other dancers doing? 2.16. What is a career in dancing like? 2.17. My daughter's gym classes are interfering with her ballet training. What can I do to make the school listen? PART 3 3. Ballet history 3.1. Who invented ballet? 3.2. I thought ballet was a Russian art. 3.3. When was the first ballet? 3.4. When was the first ballet school started? 3.5. How did ballet develop after the founding of that school? 3.6. Who was Noverre? 3.7. How did ballet develop in the nineteenth century? 3.7.1. Who was Carlo Blasis? 3.7.2. Who was August Bournonville? 3.7.3. The primacy of the ballerina 3.7.4. Ballet in Russia 3.7.5. Who was Didelot? 3.7.6. Who was Petipa? 3.8. Dance in the 20th century 3.8.1. Who was Diaghilev and what did he do? 3.8.2. Who was Fokine? 3.8.3. Who was Balanchine? 3.8.4. The beginnings of modern dance PART 4 4. Miscellaneous questions 4.1. Is there software for doing choreography? 4.2. Is there software for my dance studio? 4.3. What is Contact Improvisation? 5. Reading List 5.1. Books 5.2. Periodicals ================ 0. General information 0.1. What is this group? The purpose of alt.arts.ballet is to provide a forum for people with an interest in ballet and/or the more modern outgrowths of classical ballet. All questions, comments, information and discussion pertaining to ballet and/or modern dance are welcome, and ALL members of the ballet/ modern dance community (e.g. dancers, choreographers, fans, students, etc.) are encouraged to participate. 0.2. What is the difference between alt.arts.ballet and rec.arts.dance? Our group branched off from rec.arts.dance. Eliot Aronstern founded alt.arts.ballet, in May 1994, to provide an on-line "locale" for discussion of any and all topics related to ballet and modern dance as a performing art. The primary focus in rec.arts.dance is on discussion of social and competitive partner dancing, although there remains some degree of overlap between these two groups. 0.3. How can I access this group? Direct access to the group is available via news readers at most sites. If you are unable to access alt.arts.ballet, please make a request (to your local net news administrator) to have this group picked up on your local site, and/or contact Eliot (eliot@netcom.com) directly by e-mail for assistance. For a mailing-list subscription, e-mail to majordomo@world.std.com from your account; make the body of the message subscribe ballet-modern If you ever want to terminate your subscription, e-mail to the same address with the body unsubscribe ballet-modern Postings to this group are archived in Dancers' Archive (maintained by Eileen Bauer, ecb@world.std.com). To access Dancers' Archive, do an anonymous FTP to ftp.std.com or use the gopher to access Dancers' Archive. Eileen now also offers a daily digest of alt.arts.ballet. To subscribe to it, email dancers-archive@world.std.com with with either the subject or the body containing the line: subscribe ballet-modern-digest Subscribers will receive one post per day, probably averaging ~50k. (The digest is automatically purged of spams, by the way.) If you are already a subscriber to the ballet-modern mailing list, this is a separate service and you will NOT be automatically unsubscribed from the regular list. The Dancers' Archive now offers a search facility. To search for any word or phrase, send an e-mail to: dancers-archive@world.std.com find ballet-modern where is the word or phrase you wish to find. Examples: To: dancers-archive@world.std.com (capitalization is ignored; Nureyev, nureyev, and NUREYEV all work). To: dancers-archive@world.std.com The search facility sends you an e-mail reply listing all instances of the expression, with the path name, the file name, the line number, and the text that included that expression. Very handy. You can search other archives at world.std.com; there's a file there that gives full details. Two gopher routes to the Archive: (1) gopher gopher.std.com and wander down the nonprofit menus until you get to Dancers' Archive. (2) gopher gopher.panix.com, select New York Art Line, then Music, Performance and Dance, and then the Archive. 0.4. How can I post to this group? You can post articles to this group with your newsreader. If your provider won't support access to the alt. hierarchy, you can also post here by e-mail via one of the following addresses: alt-arts-ballet@cs.utexas.edu alt-arts-ballet@news.demon.co.uk alt.arts.ballet.usenet@decwrl.dec.com alt.arts.ballet@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca alt.arts.ballet@nic.funet.fi 0.5. Are there any dance pages on the World Wide Web? Yes. Web pages are generally a mixed bag; some pages are just lists of links to other pages; some are still under construction; and some are full of information and pictures. Amy Reusch has compiled an extensive list, which is (or shortly will be) available from the Dancers' Archive. The following entries are pointers to lists of pages. Dance Index Resources: ---------------------- Jim White's Dance Links webpage--with all the dance links Amy Reusch has collected for alt.arts.ballet http://bohr.physics.purdue.edu/~jswhite/dance_links.html NY Int'l Ballet's Listing of Dance Events (Online form to post your dance event too!) http://www.weblink.com/nyibc/Events/events.html Index of Dance Urls http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Dance/ Dance Section of the WWW Virtual Library http://bighorn.terra.net/menlo/dance/ or http://www.menlo.com/menlo/dance/ Dance Directory at www.cyberspace.com http://www.cyberspace.com/vandehey/dance.html Dancers Archive Gopher (where alt.arts.ballet is archived) gopher://ftp.std.com/11/nonprofits/dance/ A Dancer's Page http://www.phantom.com/~netrunnr/dance.html 0.6. I'm only a beginner; should I just shut up and listen? Victor Eijkhout, in the FAQ for rec.arts.dance, asks this question and answers it as follows: "No. Tell stories about your experiences, or post questions and listen to the--no doubt conflicting--answers you'll get." (But read this FAQ first.) ================================ 1. General questions about ballet The entries in this section and the next are largely for beginners and non-dancers. They may not all be "frequently asked" on the Net, but they are certainly frequently asked, or wondered about, by beginners in class or by people who go to ballet or modern dance performances. Note: Ballet terminology is largely French (see question 1.10), and since the 7-bit ASCII code does not include accented characters, we are resorting to printing the accent just before its vowel; thus assembl'e, encha^inement, terre-`a-terre. It looks strange, but omission of the accents looks stranger and may sometimes lead to confusion. (If you put the accent after the vowel, then assemble's looks like a possessive.) 1.1. What is ballet? There are many definitions; here's one of the earliest: Ballet is "the geometrical groupings of people dancing together, accompanied by the varied harmony of several instruments" (Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, writing in 1582). This definition omits one feature commonly associated with ballets: they tend to tell stories. (Beaujoyeulx's own ballet told a story.) On the other hand, many modern ballets--for example, many of Balanchine's--have no explicit plot. So we might also say, ballet is dancing done as a theatrical performance--as an art, in fact--frequently telling a story, and drawing on a tradition of expressive movements dating back to Beaujoyeulx and probably earlier. Ballet normally consists only of dancing and music. But a few ballets have been choreographed for performance without music, and some ballets have included the sung or spoken word. Beaujoyeulx's ballet called for speeches from some of the characters, and the ballets of Jean- Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), called "ballets" on the title-pages of their scores, are actually opera-ballets. But normally it is expected that any story incorporated in a ballet will be conveyed by dance and mime alone. An answer along different lines might be that ballet is the foun- dation of all of Western theatrical dance. People aspiring to be modern dancers or to be dancers in show business are frequently advised to start with ballet before specializing in these other forms. Many people in the rec.arts.dance group also report that a grounding in ballet makes you a better ballroom dancer. 1.2. What is modern dance? Modern dance (sometimes just "modern" for short and also called "contemporary" in Britain and on the Continent) is the name given to a dance tradition that arose as a reaction to ballet. It may have started as a rebellion against the formalism and conventions of ballet, but it was probably also a reaction to the sorry state of Western European ballet in the late 19th century (see question 3.8.2). It also arose out of a desire to express things and feelings that were thought appropriate to the new century, things that, it was felt, the traditional ballet vocabulary couldn't express. It rejected many of the conventions of ballet-- turnout, pointed feet, the stated positions, the attempt to defy gravity with leaps and other steps of elevation, dancing on pointe, the use of ballet shoes, and so on. The two styles have borrowed from each other to the point that the lines between them are becoming blurred. For a discussion of whether there is or still ought to be a distinction between ballet and modern dance at this late date, see the file modern-vs-ballet.txt or scan the archived material in the ballet-modern directory, both in the Dancers' Archive. Tom Parke , posting in rec.arts.dance, offered the following definitions: If the dancers are attempting to prove that gravity does not exist, then it's ballet. If the dancers are attempting to demonstrate that gravity does exist and it's a bitch, then it's modern. If the dancers are attempting to demonstrate that gravity does exist but they'd rather die fighting it than give in to it, then it's jazz. 1.3. What is a ballet class like? A ballet class is a carefully graded sequence of exercises lasting, typically, an hour and a half. The work falls into three parts. The first part consists of stretching and warming-up exercises done with the support of the barre (see question 1.4). You may spend anywhere from half an hour úÿ to an hour at the barre. Then you move to the center of the studio to work without support. The second part of class, called _adage_, consists of slow work in which the emphasis is on sustaining positions and on balance. The final part of class, allegro, consists of fast work, mostly combinations (sequences of steps) with the big jumps and turns that make ballet such an impressive and dazzling sight. 1.4. What is a barre? The barre is a handrail, approximately waist-high, that dancers use to steady themselves during the first part of a ballet class. The barre provides a reference point; it can be used to provide resistance, as when you press down on it to lengthen the spine; and it is your first partner. "Barre" is also a shorthand term for exercises done at the barre; dancers frequently refer to "doing a barre," for example to warm up just before performing. 1.5. Why do dancers take so many classes? Because dancers must practise under supervision. In ballet so much depends on the movements and positions of the dancer. A pianist, who may also practise for several hours each day, can monitor his or her playing by listening; but when dancing you cannot always watch yourself, mirror or no mirror, and in any case you need constant guidance and correction from an informed and impartial observer. So where the pianist can practise alone each day, the professional dancer must take daily classes. For the serious dancer, the first ten years are a time when intense class is vital. This is the time when repeated practice gets the steps "into your muscles"--gets them into your unconscious, so you can do them without thinking and can link them into combinations at a moment's notice. 1.6. Why do dancers wear such funny shoes? Do you mean ordinary ballet shoes or women's pointe shoes? Ordinary ballet shoes are peculiar in two respects: they have no heels and paper-thin soles, and the shoes are identical for right and left feet. They have had no heels since the time of Camargo (about 1720), who had her shoes made without heels so she could pass her legs from front to back more easily and so her heels would be right on the floor and provide a more solid impetus for jumps. The custom of making separate shoes for left and right feet in general is only a little more than a century old; this innovation was somehow never picked up by the makers of ballet shoes. The shoes acquire left- or right-footedness through use. Pointe shoes have reenforced toes to provide extra support for dancers going on pointe. Toe-dancing is literally that: the dancer's full weight is supported on the tips of her unbent toes. As you can imagine, the force on the toes is considerable; the reenforcement distributes this force over the entire tip of the foot. Dancers usually add padding of some sort inside the shoe to cushion their feet further. 1.7. Why don't men dance on pointe? Dancing on pointe lends an etherial, weightless appearance to the performer. This was part of the romantic image of Woman, and it has per- sisted, in one form or another, to this day. Call it sexist, if you will; it probably is. But men *do* dance on pointe, on rare occasions. They may be deliberately dancing women's roles, as in the Ballet Trockadero. Some choreographers have had men wear pointe shoes for special effects; posters in this group have instanced Sir Frederick Ashton's _The Dream_ (based on _A Midsummer Night's Dream_), in which a man wears pointe shoes to represent Bottom's hooves (when he has been turned into a donkey), Mark Morris's _Hard Nut_, (based on the _Nutcracker_), and some versions of _Cinderella_ and of _La Fille Mal Gard'ee_. In addition, some men also find pointe work good for strengthening the arch of the foot. 1.8. Why do dancers stand with their feet turned out? Many of the steps in ballet are done with the leg extended; the kicks we associate with a chorus line are like this. For various reasons having to do with the structure of the hip joint, a dancer can obtain the greatest extension if the leg is rotated outward, away from its usual position. This rotation means that you can move to the side as readily as to the front or back, so that you have much more *freedom of movement.* You also frequently need to change the position of the feet, from right foot in front to left foot in front or vice versa. One of the most elementary jumps, called a _changement de pieds_ ("change of the feet"; _changement_ for short), consists of nothing else: jump up and land with the other foot in front. These changes must be made very quickly, and again they can be done most easily if the feet are pointed in opposite directions. This position of the legs is known as turnout, and it is probably the most conspicuous aspect of balletic posture. As this description implies, it is mostly a practical measure, although it may be done for appearance as well. In the first ballets, the dancers performed in the middle of the hall, surrounded on all sides by the audience. When ballet moved to the proscenium stage, in the middle of the seventeenth century, men began to dance turned out. This has led historians to suggest that turnout originated because it looked better on stage. But it may have been because extension showed to better advantage on the stage and that dancers turned out for the sake of greater extension. Turnout does not begin from the ankles. You do not force your feet into that position and let everything from there on up follow. Turnout begins at the hip joint, and it is better to be turned out imperfectly from the hip than to strain the joints at the ankles and knees. Indeed, few people can turn out perfectly, with the feet pointing in exactly opposite directions, unless they have started as children (and sometimes not even then), and boys are not expected to be as turned out as girls are. For additional information, see the file, why-turnout-in-ballet.txt in the Dancers' Archive. 1.9. What is "placement?" Placement is, roughly, alignment. Becoming properly placed means learning to stand up straight, with hips level and even, shoulders open but relaxed and centered over the hips, pelvis straight (neither protruding nor tucked under), back straight, head up, weight centered evenly between the feet. This posture is frequently described as "pulled up," but it is also a relaxed posture; you aren't tensed up like a soldier standing at attention. (A teacher once said you should imagine that you are suspended by a thread attached to the top of your head. This suggests both the "pulled-up" and relaxed aspects of good ballet posture.) And as you dance, you seek to maintain this posture except when the step requires something different, like the slight forward arch of the spine that accompanies an arabesque. 1.10. Why all that French? The first ballet school was in France, and the terminology was crystallized there. Nearly everything in ballet is described by a French word or phrase. (You even wish dancers good luck in French. Actors wish one another good luck before a performance by saying, "Break a leg!" Dancers say, "_Merde!_") The drawback of this is that you must learn the French names for the steps and movements; but you would have to learn *some* names in any case, and the advantage is that you can take a ballet class anywhere in the world and, no matter how unintelligible the rest of the talk is, the terminology will still be in French and you will understand it. 1.11. What are the most popular ballets? Estelle Souche ran an informal poll of alt.arts.ballet in March, 1995, asking people to list their six favorite ballets. The results of this poll may or may not be representative of the population as a whole, but here are the ballets that got two or more votes. Note that some ballets, like _Romeo and Juliet,_ exist in more than one version; the different versions had to be consolidated in tabulating the result. _Swan Lake_ (Petipa): 22 votes _Romeo and Juliet_ (MacMillan, Cranko, Van Dantzig, Smuin or others): 17 votes _Giselle_ (Perrot-Coralli): 14 _Serenade_ (Balanchine): 12 _Don Quixote_ (Petipa): 10 _Sleeping beauty_ (Petipa): 9 _The Four Temperaments_ (Balanchine): 9 _La Sylphide_ (after Taglioni or Bournonville): 5 _Coppelia_ (after Saint-Leon): 5 _La Bayad`ere_ (Petipa): 5 _The Nutcracker_ (Petipa): 5 _Green Table_ (Jooss): 5 _Jewels_ (Balanchine): 5 _Symphony in C_ (Balanchine): 5 _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ (Ashton): 5 _Les Sylphides_ (Fokine): 4 _Concerto Barocco_ (Balanchine): 4 _Apollo_ (Balanchine): 4 _Push Comes to Shove_ (Tharp): 4 _Le Corsaire_ (after Mazilier): 3 _Agon_ (Balanchine): 3 _Rodeo_ (Agnes De Mille): 3 _Diversion of Angels_ (Graham): 3 _Monotones_ (Ashton): 3 _Le Jeune Homme et la Mort_ (Roland Petit): 3 _Revelations_ (Ailey): 3 _La Fille mal gard'ee_ (after Dauberval): 2 _L'apres-midi d'un faune_ (Nijinski): 2 _Rubies_ (Balanchine): 2 _Who Cares?_ (Balanchine): 2 _Stars and Stripes_ (Balanchine): 2 _Rubies_ (Balanchine): 2 _Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux_ (Balanchine): 2 _Lilac Garden_ (Antony Tudor): 2 _Acts of light_ (Graham): 2 _Clytemnestra_ (Graham): 2 Dance interlude in _Oklahoma_ (De Mille): 2 _The Concert_ (Jerome Robbins): 2 _Taming of the Shrew_ (Cranko): 2 _Aureole_ (Taylor): 2 _Hard Nut_ (Morris): 2 _Gloria_ (Morris): 2 _Da Mummy, Nyet Mummy_ (Christopher d'Amboise): 2 _Cinderella_ (various productions): 2 1.12. Where can I find books about dance? 1.12.1. Bookstores Some of the larger bookstores may have special sections devoted to dance. For example, Barnes & Noble's main store in Manhattan (5th Ave. and 18th Street) has such a section. Bookstores located near performing- arts locales may offer dance books. Otherwise, you will have to resort to specialty stores. Here are a few; others will be added in time. The Ballet Shop (books, videos, CDs, memorabilia) 1887 Broadway New York, New York 10023 (212) 581-7990 Dance Books (London) e-mail: dl@dleonard.demon.co.uk Golden Legend, Inc. (Member Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America) 7615 Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles, Calif. 90046 (213) 850-5520 Fax (213) 850-1524 e-mail legenda@ix.netcom.com JB Muns Fine Arts Books 1162 Shattuck Ave Berkeley, Calif. 94707 Dance/Music Catalogue #156 Original Music (books and videos, mostly non-Western and "ethnic") 418 Lasher Road Tivoli, N. Y. 12583 Phone 914-756-2767 Fax: 914-756-2027 E-mail orimu@aol.com The Dance Mart (books and memorabilia) Box 994 Teaneck, N. J. 07666 1.12.2. Libraries Among libraries, the best known collection in the United States is the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library, located at Lincoln Center. They have an on-line catalog; to access it, telnet nyplgate.nypl.org and respond to the login prompt with nypl In Washington, D. C., the George Washington University has a Dance Archive. For an informational brochure, contact Cheryl A. Chouiniere Phone: (202) 994-7549 Manuscripts Librarian Fax: (202) 994-1340 The Gelman Library The George Washington University Bitnet: indmss@gwuvm 2130 H Street, NW Internet: Washington, D. C. 20052 indmss@gwuvm.gwu.edu 1.13. Where can I find dance videos? There are two lists put out by the Dance Films Association back in 1986: - Modern Dance & Ballet On Film & Video: A Catalog ISBN 0-317-41588-3 - Dance Film and Video Guide ISBN 0-87127-171-0 There are also the following sources. (This list contributed by Sandi Kurtz. Annotations are hers except as noted.) Corinth Video 34 Gansevoort Street New York N. Y. 10014-1597 (800) 221-4720 They send out a quarterly newsletter and four-page price list with approximately 150 ballet tapes and several hundred other tapes of Opera, Film Classics, and Theater. (Bob D. Peterson) Home Vision POB 800 Concord, MA 01742 (800) 262-8600 Some PBS. Kultur 121 Highway 36 West Long Branch, NJ 07764 (800) 4KULTURE Relationship with the Bolshoi, large lists of Bolshoi rep, mostly ballet. Princeton Books POB 57 Pennington, New Jersey 08534 (800) 326-7149 One of the best modern dance lists as well as ballet. Video Artists International POB 153, Ansonia Station New York, N. Y. 10023 (800) 338-2566 View Video 34 E 23rd Street New York, N. Y. 10010 (212) 674-5550 ================================ Continued in Part 2.... ================================ -- -- Tom Parsons | To do great work one must be very idle D.T.L. | as well as very industrious. | --Samuel Butler panix!not-for-mail about ballet and modern (contemporary) dance. Recommended reading for anyone wanting to post to alt.arts.ballet. Archive-name: dance/ballet-modern-faq/part2 ================================ Part 2 of four parts ================================ ================ Contents: 2. Ballet, Modern Dance, and You 2.1. When should I start taking ballet? 2.2. When should I start taking modern dance? 2.3. I'm thinking of returning to ballet after -- years; how should I start? Are there videos I can buy? 2.4. I'm 45 (or 50 or 55 or...) years old. Is it ridiculous for me to consider ballet classes? 2.5. How do I find/choose a school or teacher? 2.6. How can I tell if a teacher is good? 2.7. If the teacher makes me feel good, won't I become overconfident? 2.8. I live in ----; where can I take classes? 2.9. Where can I find out about Summer dance programs? 2.10. Where can I buy dancewear? 2.11. I took a class and I couldn't understand what was going on! 2.12. I keep getting mixed up! 2.13. What on earth is a "soo-soo"? 2.14. What is "B-plus"? 2.15. How can I learn to raise my leg over my shoulder, the way I see other dancers doing? 2.16. What is a career in dancing like? 2.17. My daughter's gym classes are interfering with her ballet training. What can I do to make the school listen? ================ 2. Ballet, Modern Dance, and You 2.1. When should I start taking ballet? The answer to that depends on how old you are. Children must wait until their bones are strong enough to stand the strain that dancing will put on them. Opinions differ as to exactly when that happens, and it depends a great deal on the individual, but it seems to be somewhere between ages six and nine. Girls must not go up on pointe until the bones of their feet are fully developed and their muscles in their legs and arches are strong enough to bear the stress. (Joan Lawson says ten; Gretchen Warren says eleven.) Younger children will often profit from special dance classes, in which the emphasis is on rhythm, spatial sense, musical sense, and placement. If you are older than that, the answer is, right away. The sooner you start, the better. If you start in your teens, you may be able to dance professionally, or you may not. Igor Youskevitch didn't start until he was 22, and he became a star; but he was Igor Youskevitch. By that age, most people can look forward to ballet only as a recreation. (But it is a *wonderful* recreation!) 2.2. When should I start taking modern dance? The general consensus seems to be, after you've had a year or two of ballet to lay a foundation. 2.3. I'm thinking of returning to ballet after -- years; how should I start? Are there videos I can buy? Your best bet is to look for a school (question 2.5), just as if you were starting for the first time. There's not much you can learn from watching videotapes; the consensus of the group has been that your money is much better spent on classes. You may want to observe a class, if you can, and see how it looks. If you still remember enough (in your mind and your muscles), you will quickly find your proper level, but take a beginners' class when you first go back. 2.4. I'm 45 (or 50 or 55 or...) years old. Is it ridiculous for me to consider ballet classes? No. It would be ridiculous only if you were contemplating a career in ballet at that age; most ballet dancers retire in their forties. (Auguste Bournonville choreographed roles for dancers in their sixties, however, and in his _Memoirs_ Casanova describes a dazzling bravura performance by Louis Dupr'e, who was then sixty.) But if you are 45 or older, you are presumably not looking for a professional career. If your body can still handle the exertion, you can start at any age. The King of Sweden was still playing tennis in his nineties. Ballet is tougher than tennis, but if you can handle it...why not? (Someone on the Net wrote, "Socrates learned to dance when he was 70 because he felt that an essential part of himself had been neglected.") Much the same answer applies to taking modern dance, with increased force. Aging affects modern dancers much less than it does ballet dancers; modern dancers will keep performing almost until they drop. The main problem for older dancers, particularly in ballet, is getting the teacher to take you seriously, and the older you get, the more acute this problem becomes. Ballet is the most ageist of the arts, after all. But pursuing an art as a recreation doesn't preclude pursuing it seriously, knocking yourself out to do the absolute best you can at it. Many teachers don't seem to realize this. You should be getting correc- tions the same as other, younger dancers. You are paying for instruction, not just for space, an accompanist, and the balletic equivalent of a square-dance caller. If you feel you aren't being taken seriously as a dancer, complain. Don't let them treat you as if you had accidentally doddered into a ballet class on your way to the nearest Senior Center. 2.5. How do I find/choose a school or teacher? If you know any dancers, ask them. You can also call the city's leading dance company (if you have one) and ask whether they have a school. If you don't, look in the Yellow Pages under dance instruction. You can also post in this group. If there are more than one studio, as there will be in large cities, go and try them all out. You will soon know when you are being well taught (see the next question). Here are some of the things you should look for: Does the class conform to the traditional format--barre, _adage_, and allegro? A place that offers something like ballet, jazz, and tap in a single class is not the place for you. Anything but pure, undiluted ballet is not for you. Even if you plan eventually to dance in another tradition, ballet is the place to start. If you're an adult, do they offer a special introductory course for absolute beginners? Such courses are rare, but priceless; go for one if it's offered. Are you made to feel that you are really *dancing*, right from the first exercises at the barre? Is dance taught as movement or only as static poses? How much individual attention and correction do you get? An experi- enced dancer can do with less, but a beginner needs a great deal. Does the teacher instruct you in the use of the head and arms, even at the barre, or does (s)he just let your arms hang down like limp spaghetti? A great deal of what makes theatrical dance theatrical is the way the dancer uses his or her head and arms. The audience probably notices these more than the feet. Does the teacher show a good working knowledge of anatomy, and does (s)he pass that knowledge on to you? How does the teacher look when (s)he moves? Do you enjoy watching him/ her move? We learn in part by conscious or unconscious imitation; is your teacher someone you want to imitate? Do they take time to show you how to do an unfamiliar step? Many teachers seem to expect you to pick a step up by watching the others; but watching the others is a bad habit. It makes you rely on the others instead of developing concentration. What is the atmosphere? Is it a warm, pleasant place to be? A good teacher explains, challenges, and encourages students--and answers their questions--without being condescending or putting them down. A good teacher gains the respect of his/her class by showing respect for them. How long is the class? The standard is an hour and a half; some studios give you only an hour and a quarter, which is too rushed. Other things being equal, hold out for the full hour and a half. Do they have a live accompanist, or taped music? Some excellent schools use tape, but a live accompanist is nearly always better. Do they have you dance to fine (classical) music? One final word: Don't be put off by a ratty-looking studio. Ballet schools are frequently hand-to-mouth operations, with little or no money to spare for decor or even maintenance, and the best instruction I ever had anywhere was in an atrociously ugly, shabby, and depressing plant. 2.6. How can I tell if a teacher is good? I don't know whether you can, at the very start, although if (s)he makes class an unpleasant experience, (s)he's bad. One way to find out is to shop around if you can. The guidelines in question 2.4 should help. After you've tried three or four, you will know who's good, or good for you, at any rate. Part of the problem is that a good teacher for one dancer may not be so for another. The good teacher is the one who gives you what you need just now. Again, don't hesitate to *shop around*, even if you feel satisfied with your current teacher. Many people have discovered wonderful teachers just because their regular teacher was, for some reason, unavailable. 2.7. If the teacher makes me feel good, won't I become overconfident? Ballet is difficult, and for most of us progress is slow. Because of this, the danger isn't overconfidence but discouragement. Besides, people who feel good about themselves tend to perform better at most things than people who don't. If you are seriously worried about this, try alter- nating classes with a "feel-good" teacher and a fusser. The feel-good teacher will keep you dancing and the fusser will keep you honest. (The ideal is a teacher who does both.) In any case, feeling good really comes from knowing you have given the class your best effort (and the *best* feeling comes the day you discover you can do a step or combination you never imagined you could do). 2.8. I live in ----; where can I take classes? Again, look in the yellow pages or ask around. There is also a listing in the back of Dance Magazine every month. A project is in the works to compile a directory of schools for the Dancers' Archive. There's no telling, at this point, when it will be ready or how comprehensive it will be. But you can also post that question to this group; that's one of the things this group is for. Another alternative, if you are looking for a school outside your own area, is to use the nationwide Yellow Pages, available on CD-ROM at many public libraries. Look for Dance Instruction and copy the names. You may be able to get further information on schools from Dance/USA. Bonnie Brooks writes: Dance/USA has listings and Member Profiles on all of its member companies available (there is a cost for the Member Profiles), as well as local and regional dance service organizations. Address and phone: Dance/USA 1156 15th Street N.W. Suite 820 Washington, DC 20005 phone: (202)833-1717 fax: (202)833-2686 email: danceusa@tmn.com If there are particular cities you're interested in, we can also look at our entire database of dance companies (including non-members) to give you information about dance activity in particular cities. We don't have extensive information about non-members, but either way it would be a start. You can also consult colleges and universities in your area. Dance Magazine publishes an annual College Guide, usually announced in their February or March issue. The current (1995) price is $15.95 (US) plus $2.50 postage and handling ($23.00 total Canadian); write to 33 West 60th Street, 10th Floor, New York, New York 10023. 2.9. Where can I find out about Summer dance programs? You can ask in this group; but in addition Dance Magazine regularly publishes a special section on Summer programs in their January issue. 2.10. Where can I buy dancewear? There are stores that specialize in dancewear. Try the Yellow Pages; look at the ads in a magazine like Dance Magazine; look in the files `mailorder.txt' and `shoes.txt' in the Dancers' Archive; or consult the It's harder to find clothes for men than for women, because the market is smaller and many places do not stock clothing for men, or stock only a very limited selection. For men's tights, try sporting-goods stores, and remember also that tights and leotards are unisex. As long as you don't get sheer pink tights with red spangles, who's going to know whether you're wearing men's or women's? Buying shoes is harder, because it takes time to know when a shoe fits properly. (It must fit like a glove.) Salespeople in dancewear stores may or may not know. It may be a good idea to show the shoes on your feet to your teacher and get him/her to pass on them. 2.11. I took a class and I couldn't understand what was going on! This, I'm afraid, is all too typical. Different teachers handle absolute beginners differently, but in my experience sink-or-swim is the norm. This is because students, even in a beginners' class, are all at different stages of development (you may stay a beginner for a year or more), and there simply isn't time to stop and explain each new step for newcomers and to give them all the correction they need. This is regret- table, but inevitable, except in university courses, where everyone is normally presumed to be a rank beginner. At the David Howard Dance Center in New York they occasionally offered a short course called Introduction to Ballet, for those who know nothing at all. This is the ideal way to start, because everybody in the class is an absolute beginner, but such courses are rare. In a sink-or-swim situation, the only thing you can do is persist. If you are in a position to shop around, you can try to find a teacher who will take the time to explain things, but remember that in a large class it isn't practical to make everyone wait while you master the step. You are not supposed to watch the others while you dance, but at this early stage nearly everyone does. Certainly you should watch everyone when you are not dancing yourself (for example, when you are waiting your turn to do a com- bination). And go to performances and watch the dancers. You learn dancing through a combination of seeing, hearing, and doing. Learning your way around a studio takes time, and with time it will come to you. In any case, bear in mind that the other people in the class will NOT, repeat NOT, be laughing at you behind your back. They've all been there themselves. You will be lost a good deal of the time for perhaps the first six months, but gradually it all comes together. Some outside reading may help; look around in the library or in bookstores for intro- ductory texts that describe the various steps. (Some of these are listed in the bibliography, part 5.1.) You will never learn to dance just by reading about it, but when a step has flummoxed you in class, it can help to read a description of it in the relative tranquility of your own home. 2.12. I keep getting mixed up! We all do; don't feel bad about it. Getting mixed up and making mistakes are to the dancer what wrong notes are to the musician or typos to the writer. And in a class, it's usually less important to do the right thing than to do whatever you do the right way and on the music. Even professionals, dancers who have been doing this for years, get mixed up; I've seen it happen. If it can happen to the pros, there's no reason for the rest of us to worry. 2.13. What on earth is a "soo-soo"? (It isn't practical to define all the steps in ballet here, but there are a couple that a beginner may hear right off and wonder about. For others, consult a dictionary; there are a couple listed in the bibliography, below.) "Soo-soo" is another French term, actually _sus-sous_, or sometimes _sous-sus_. _Sus-sous_ means "over-under." (Native speakers of English have trouble with the u in that _sus_, so both syllables come out sounding the same.) It's a very tight fifth position in relev'e, one foot almost on top of the other, which probably explains the term. In exercises at the barre, you frequently hear "soo-soo sootenoo." This means ending the exercise and turning to the other side by rising into a _sus-sous_ and then turning smoothly to the other side so you can continue the exercise with the other hand on the barre. A smooth turn is a _soutenu_, "sustained," turn. 2.14. What is "B-plus"? B-plus is _crois'ee derri`ere_, usually used to describe the position you take before doing a combination. You stand in _crois'ee_ with the working leg to back, relaxed and slightly bent but ready to move when the combination begins. The term originated in the New York City Ballet, and the "B" apparently stands for Balanchine. 2.15. How can I learn to raise my leg over my shoulder, the way I see other dancers doing? The ability to do this is known as _extension_. It is partly a matter of training (and turnout) and partly a matter of physique. Dancing masters distinguish between two basic body types in dancers, known--in French, inevitably--as _arqu'e_ and _jarret'e_. This distinction was first drawn by Noverre (question 3.6), around 1760. The terminology is misleading, because in French, _arqu'e_ means bowlegged and _jarret'e_ knock-kneed. But although even dancers' legs are rarely perfectly straight, the difference is actually functional: An _arqu'e_ dancer is tightly knit, doesn't have much extension, but is good at jumps, while a _jarret'e_ dancer is loose-limbed, not as good at jumps, but has great extension. Noverre said it was a mistake to teach these two types of dancer in exactly the same way. If you are _arqu'e_, you will probably never get your leg over your head. But we can all improve our extension by proper exercise. Once you have been taught stretching exercises in class, you can do them daily at home, and you should. You will be surprised at how much more extension you have after a year or two. Yoga exercises are also valuable; they stretch muscles that even ballet class sometimes misses. For an excellent summary of stretching exercises, including a reading list, see the stretching FAQ by Brad Appleton, posted at intervals on the alt.arts.ballet newsgroup or available by anonymous FTP from cs.huji.ac.il in the directory /pub/doc/faq/rec/martial.arts. Note that Brad's sources all recommend holding a stretch for fifteen seconds or more, to overcome the "stretch reflex." If they are right, then stretches at the barre, as they are done in most ballet classes, are too short; you should hold them longer when doing them at home. úÿ 2.16. What is a career in dancing like? Rough. It's demanding and highly competitive, especially for women. It is also psychologically stressful, because of the constant pressure for perfection. Salaries are better than they used to be, but still not good. Stagehands are paid better than dancers; so are typists. Your time will not be your own, since you may be called for rehearsals at any time, and your social life will suffer. In ballet, your career will be short, with poor prospects after retirement, and there is the ever- present danger of injuries. (A dance injuries FAQ for this group is in the works.) Merle Kessler said, "Football players, like prostitutes, are in the business of ruining their bodies for the pleasure of strangers." The same could be said, in lesser degree, of dancers. To make a career in ballet, you have to be head over heels in love with it: that, and talented and tough-minded--and lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. 2.17. My daughter's gym classes are interfering with her ballet training. What can I do to make the school listen? One poster in this group replied as follows: Primarily we have found it difficult to deal directly with PE teachers; rather, we have educated our doctor! By finding numerous articles related to ballet biomechanics and running, we were able to show our physician that good running form contradicts good ballet form. The doctor signed the school district exemption for us with the diagnosis "serious ballet student". (Similar exemptions are given to sports athletes.) If the PE teacher still fails to heed the physician's note, (which we have been told to expect in junior high here), it has been suggested to us to say to the principal "Under advice of counsel, we need the names of all who are involved in undermining our medical doctor's advice." Get from him the names of the individuals that will appear on a legal suit, whether or not you intend to proceed, including the PE teachers and the principal, or anyone else who desires to take responsibility. At this point, the principal will probably wake up. While you have his attention, explain: 1) the number of years your child has devoted to training; explain the commitment; iterate the time and expense you have contributed to support the pursuit of her dream; 2) show the state's minimum PE requirement in minutes per week, compared to the number of minutes per week your daughter trains --usually the ballet training exceeds the PE requirements by four- or five-to-one. 3) show the body of evidence that you presented to your physician, along with the physician's exemption. 4) explain the damage that PE commonly inflicts on a serious ballet student. 5) Impart the information that if your daughter does suffer injury, you will request damages based on a full ballet career, which has been denied her because of the school's inflexibility and shortsighted stupidity. In these times, authorities prioritize matters by legal threats, thus attracting what they hope to avoid. Best of luck. Write back if you are successful. --William Fitzgerald wdfitzgrld@pplant.ucdavis.edu ================================ Continued in Part 3.... ================================ -- -- Tom Parsons | To do great work one must be very idle D.T.L. | as well as very industrious. | --Samuel Butler about ballet and modern (contemporary) dance. Recommended reading for anyone wanting to post to alt.arts.ballet. Archive-name: dance/ballet-modern-faq/part4 ================================ Part 4 of four parts ================================ ================ Contents: 4. Miscellaneous questions 4.1. Is there software for doing choreography? 4.2. Is there software for my dance studio? 4.3. What is Contact Improvisation? 5. Reading List 5.1. Books 5.2. Periodicals ================ 4. Miscellaneous questions 4.1. Is there software for doing choreography? Do you mean software for doing choreography (that is, for modelling it on the computer) or for writing it down (i.e., notation)? 4.1.1. The only software for doing choreography known to this group is a program called LifeForms. There are versions for the Macintosh and for Silicon Graphics (SGI) systems. The following information and opinions are extracted from postings to alt.arts.ballet. These postings date from October, 1994; more up-to- date information may be available from Macromedia. LifeForms was developed at Simon Fraser University by a team including dancers and computer programmers. Its original name was COMPOSE and it's over 10 years in development. There are currently 2 versions available. The high end version runs on a Silicon Graphic workstation and creates amazing lifelike animation. The less powerful version runs on a Macintosh and is not quite so thrilling, especially in its emulation of walking and running. --Sandi Kurtz Life Forms is *commercial* software (and fairly expensive com- mercial software at that!) Although it was developed originally at Simon Fraser University (under the name "Compose") it was marketed by Kinetic Effects and then taken over by Macromedia (the people who make Macromedia Director and Macromodel.) They don't advertise it any more, but I believe they still sell it. --Jim Williams The program is still being developed, however, so there are a few strange "problems". For instance, there is no gravity in the computer so using props and climbing up stairs hasn't been accomplished yet. Partnering also looks a bit funky because two dancers can occupy the same space at once. --Lisa M. Hahn The truly time-consuming aspect of LifeForms is the initial creation of your movement vocabulary (called a palette). You build everything from scratch, which gives you the chance to make exactly what you want, but does take time. I've had just a bit of experience with the program, but like all truly good video games it hooks you quickly. --Sandi Kurtz Based on my experiences with the demo version, I'd say that it does what it claims it will do--produce realistic human-figure motion --but I'm skeptical of it as a working tool for *most* choreographers. (I suspect that Merce used it mostly as a gimmick.) Although the commercial version ships with a library of dance poses, you still have to painstaking-ly shape the "body" of each figure into the position you want for *each* "keyframe" of your animation. Since the program moves the limbs from one keyframe to the next in the most direct manner, this means you have to set a lot of keyframes: just getting a conventional, rounded ballet port de bras, for example, needs several intermediate points to get the arms to make the necessary rounded movement rather than just going in a straight line. And since you have to position each figure one limb at a time, it's very slow to put together even a simple dance sequence. (Part of the problem, of course, is that a keyboard or mouse interface is a lot less efficient than simply getting into the studio with a live dancer and saying, "Here, do this...") LifeForms might be useful for experimenting with short phrases of movement, especially for modernist choreographers who don't work so much from "set" movements and poses anyway. But it's hard to imagine using it to create an entire work. I still think there's a need for the equivalent of a "word processor" for choreographers -- something that would make it easier for them to assemble, arrange and edit their ideas. (I've even tried to write such a program, but the conceptual problems are ***hard***!) But I don't think that's what Life Forms can do. --Jim Williams There is also a program called Poser, from Fractal Design, which might be thought of as a choreography program. Jim Williams writes, If you don't need to do animation, just show body positions (useful for teaching, illustrations etc.) another piece of software to consider is a new application called Poser, from Fractal Design. I've got it and have been working with it. This is in effect a software "mannequin" that you can pose in various positions, then render into detailed images. It isn't designed to produce animated sequences the way Life Forms is; instead, it's useful for producing "still photos" of body positions. The rendering quality isn't photo-realistic, but is much more detailed than the wireframe images produced by Life Forms. Poser's price is quite reasonable ($99 US until Aug. 31) and it's relatively easy to learn and use. Currently it's available ONLY for Macintosh and requires either a Power Macintosh or a 680x0 Mac with an FPU [note: FPU stands for floating-point unit]; that means some popular Macs that use the FPU-less 68LC040 chip will NOT work. (I haven't been able to find out whether the shareware control panel SoftwareFPU can be used as a workaround or not.) I've been using it on a fairly modest Mac, a Color Classic with add-on FPU, and it runs fine, although somewhat slowly. Poser allows you to create your own "libraries" of frequently-used positions, body types, camera positions, and lighting setups (you're limited to three lights, but they're fully adjustable in direction, intensity and color.) These libraries can be re-used as needed, so you can work fairly quickly once you've invested the time to create libraries of poses you use most. --Jim Williams 4.1.2. For choreographic *notation*, there is a program for the Macintosh called Labanwriter. According to callum.downie@brunel.ac.uk, it is available from FTP sites after a search by the likes of "archie." He says there is also a Macintosh version for Benesh notation called MacBenesh, developed at Univ of Waterloo by Rhonda Ryman and others. Contact: The Benesh Institute, 12 Lisson Grove, London NW1 6TS, Tel No 44 (0) 171 258 3041 Fax 44 (0) 171 724 6434 For further information, see `topics/labanotation-dialog-FAQ.txt' in the Dancers' Archive. For information on dance notation in general, see also Dance Notation Bureau 33 West 21st Street New York, New York 10010 (212) 807-7899 4.2. Is there software for my dance studio? Mark J. Zetler writes: My wife (& I) have a dance studio in San Diego. I've been using COMPUDANCE by a company in Texas called Theatrical Administration Consultants (210) 497-4327 for about 7 years. It seems to do the job, and the author seems to be responsive to the people who use the program. There are some quirky things that that are annoying but all in all the program works. I think the price is around $300 (????). I have only run into 3 other programs. The first one was about $100 and didn't do anything. I don't think the company exists any more. The High Priced Spread is called DANCE MANAGER. Last I heard (I could be wrong) the price was about $1,200. The demo of the program implied this program could do everything. I just could not justify the cost. The last program I've run into is called IN MOTION: THE STUDIO MANAGER from Full Spectrum in Anaheim Hills, CA. (714) 921-8743. ($200ish) The program looked promising but seemed to run everything from the accounting end not the student. I'll try to explain, at our studio most question/problems are easier to resolve by first looking up the student, seeing what classes they are registered in, look at the billing, then look at the payments. With the IN MOTION:you have to go to different places to find all that info. In COMPUDANCE you can do all that from one starting place (presentation ain't as pretty as the other programs but I still got the info and that is what counts). Compudance will have a Windows version in summer '96. 4.3. What is Contact Improvisation? Contact Improvisation is a modern dance form invented by Steve Paxton in 1972. The emphasis is on touching (not surprisingly) and on the use of body weight; it has been compared to a kind of cooperative, non- combative wrestling. To judge by the descriptions and pictures in Novack (1990), it is most often done by pairs of dancers. There is a great deal of lifting, falling, and supporting of one dancer by the other. It started out as at least a semi-social dance form but has become more professional as the years have gone by. It is claimed that contact improvisation requires no prior dance training, but it's clear (and not surprising) that as you learn from experience the range of things you can do increases. In the descriptions that follow, taken from postings to alt.arts.ballet, there is not complete agreement on what it requires of the dancer or what it does to/for him/her: "It was extremely cool stuff, but you really had to be a good dancer, i.e., modern or ballet, in order to pull it off." -- CarlosC14 "Contact improv seems like something that would be experienced in dramatically different ways by those with formal dance training (ballet jazz modern) versus those without (despite what everyone says). My impression is that the students from the CU dance department got much more out of the workshops than I did. Mostly I got *bruises*, because I don't have a lot of natural padding and there I was rolling around on the floor with someone on top of me. My backbone, knees, and hips were repeatedly ground into the floor. Oh, gee, what fun. >-( " --Robinne Gray "It's usually associated with modern/contemporary dance in that many of the same people do it. Take some music, anything really, and work with it as pairs, triples, n-tuples. Usually some vocabulary has been worked to use. Most `improvisation' has been worked on more than routines. With a common vocabulary and the music, the dancers can interact with each other and it doesn't just become a mess as everyone `does their own thing.' The `contact' is because everyone is working together and physically close, whether imitating a `maul' (rugby union) or breaking into smaller groups for a time." --Callum Downie "The risk-taking, weight-sharing and be-here-now aspects of this form are truly intoxicating once you get past the bruised body stages. Just like judo, it really is possible to do without hurting yourself once you master the first technical level." --Randy Barron ================================ 5. Reading List 5.1. Books You will never learn ballet or any other kind of dance just by reading about it; you will never learn a step that way. But you should know the cultural and historical background of your art, even if you are an amateur, and once you have been shown a step, it helps to have an additional description to which you can refer at home. A list like this is necessarily incomplete. Moreover, dance books seem to go out of print more quickly than do other books, so some of these may be difficult to find except in a well-stocked library. The books listed here are chiefly ones that can probably provide answers to questions like the ones in this FAQ. New books will be added as time goes on. 5.1.1. Introductory Books ------------------------- Dufort, Anthony. _Ballet Steps: Practice to Performance_. Potter, 1990; ISBN 0-517-57770-4. Describes, with words and excellent drawings, the essential steps and movements of ballet. Starts with warm-ups, then barre and center work, partnering, and shows how these moves are assembled using examples of classical ballets. NOT a textbook for students; intended for an audience member to help appreciate the language of ballet. (Summary courtesy of svkeeley@aol.com.) Jacob, Ellen. _Dancing: the All-in-One Guide for Dancers, Teachers, and Parents_. Revised edition. New York: Variety Arts, 1993, ISBN 0- 937180-10-6. This and Robbins (below) are probably the best introductory books. Jacobs does not restrict herself to ballet but describes the dance world generally: what it's like to dance; dance for amateurs, children, and professionals; what the options are; what classes are like; what a career may be like. Kerner, Mary, _Barefoot to Balanchine: How to Watch Dance_. Anchor Books, 1990, ISBN: 0-385-26436-4. Contains a brief history of dance, chapters on choreographers, steps, combinations, training, and how performances are mounted. (Summary courtesy of svkeeley@aol.com.) Robbins, Jane. _Classical Dance_. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1981, ISBN 0-03-048941-5, probably out of print. The other of the two good introductory books. This one is more for spectators; Jacobs is more for aspiring dancers. Strictly ballet; describes some steps in remarkably great detail for an introductory, non-professional book. Summarizes some ballets and provides a concise but exceptionally good history of technique. Terry, Walter. _Ballet Companion_. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1968. 5.1.2. General History ---------------------- Anderson, Jack. _Ballet and Modern Dance: a Concise History_. Second edition. Princeton: Princeton Book Company, 1986, ISBN 0-87127-172- 9. Shorter and less comprehensive than either Kirstein or Sachs, but more recent and (IMHO) more readable. This is the history of dance I would have written, if I could. Au, Susan. _Ballet and Modern Dance_. Thames & Hudson, 1988, ISBN 0-500- 20219-2. Also a college text, slightly less focussed on the US than Anderson, but no primary source materials. Kirstein, Lincoln. _Dance: A Short History of Classic Theatrical Dancing_. Princeton: Princeton Book Company, 1987, ISBN 87127-019-6. Covers everything from ancient times to approximately the 1940s. --------. _Four Centuries of Ballet_. New York: Dover Books, ISBN 0- 486- 24631-0. Some general historical background followed by discussions of fifty ballets. Generously illustrated. Lawson, Joan. _A History of Ballet and Its Makers_. London: Pitman Pub. Corp., 1964. More narrowly focussed than Sorell, Kirstein, or Sachs but, within its limits, more detailed. Sachs, Kurt. _World History of the Dance_. New York: Norton, 1953, apparently out of print. The definitive history in its time, now dated but not yet superseded. Sorell, Walter. _Dance in its Time_. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-231-06391-1. A social history of dance. Tatchell, Judy. _The World of Ballet_. Usborne Publishing, 1994, ISBN 0-7460-1692-1. Lots and lots of pretty pictures; at first glance it seems to be ALL pictures, but there's a lot of info crammed in there, too. Gives hints on watching ballets, describes the changing styles from century to century, costumes, scenery, also describes (with photos and captions) the basic moves, gives short bios of some famous dancers and choreographers and companies, short synopses of about 30 ballets. (Summary courtesy of svkeeley@aol.com.) 5.1.3. Biography, Memoirs, and Specific History ----------------------------------------------- Acocella, Joan. _Mark Morris_. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1993, ISBN 0- 374-20295-8. Anderson, Jack. _The One and Only, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo_. Princeton: Princeton Books, 1981, 0-87127-127-3, out of print. Before the Ford Foundation money, the Ballet Russes style was American ballet. --------. _The American Dance Festival_. Duke University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-8223-0683-2. History of the festival with a great index to productions and teachers. Ashley, Merrill. _Dancing for Balanchine_. New York: Dutton, 1984, ISBN 0-525-24280-5. A memoir, but full of technical detail as well as the usual reminiscences; explains why Balanchine thought _battement tendu_ so important. Required reading for any serious student. Banes, Sally. _Democracy's Body: Judson Dance Theater 1962-1964_. Duke University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-8223-1399-5. Painstaking documentation of a volatile period. --------. _Terpsichore in Sneakers_. 2nd ed. University Press of New England, 1987, ISBN 0-8195-6160-6. (Make sure to get the second edition; it has an extended introduction with a wonderful pocket analysis/description of postmodern dance.) Blair, Fredrika. _Isadora Portrait of the Artist as a Woman_. McGraw- Hill, 1985, ISBN 0-07-005598-X, out of print. Probably the best of the biographies. Cohen, Selma Jeanne. _The Modern Dance: Seven Statements of Belief_. Wesleyan University Press, 1966, ISBN 0-8195-6003-0. Interviews seven modern choreographers (including Nikolais, Limon, Sokolow), includes their responses to a hypothetical commission (choreograph a work about the Prodigal Son!) De Mille, Agnes. _Dance to the Piper_. Da Capo Press, 1980, ISBN 0-306- 79613--9. From California youth through _Oklahoma_. --------. _Martha: the Life and Work of Martha Graham_. New York: Random House/Vintage, 1991, ISBN 0-679-74176-3 (paper). Dunham, Katherine. _A Touch of Innocence_. University of Chicago Press, 1994, ISBN 0-226-17112-4. Early life, how she got to Haiti, Fokine, Michel. _Fokine: Memoirs of a Ballet Master_. Boston: Little, Brown, 1961. Fonteyn, Margot. _Autobiography_. Warner, 1977, ISBN 0-446-81380-X. Descriptions of early Royal Ballet especially nice. úÿ Garafola, Lynn. _Diaghilev's Ballet Russe_. Oxford University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-19-507604-4. Thorough discussion of a complex and influential part of dance history. Graham, Martha. _Blood Memory_. Pocket Books, 1992, ISBN 0-671-78217- 7. Green, Martin. _Mountain of Truth: The Counterculture Begins--Ascona 1900-1920_. University of New England Press, 1986, ISBN 0-87451-365- 0. Genesis of Rudolph Laban's work (also beginnings of Germany's Green Party). Gruen, John. _People Who Dance_. Princeton: Princeton Books (juvenile), 1988, ISBN 0-916622-74-6, out of print. Hilton, Wendy. _Dance of Court and Theatre: The French Noble Style 1690- 1725_. Princeton: Princeton Books, ISBN 0-916622-09-6. Some actual instruction in baroque dance as well as historical analysis, the period when ballet detached itself from social dance. Detailed description of 18th-century dance notation. Hodgson, John, and Preston-Dunlop, Valerie Rudolph. _Laban: An Introduc- tion to His Work and Influence_. Princeton: Princeton Books, 0-7463- 0584-2, out of print. Just what it says. Humphrey, Doris. _Doris Humphrey: An Artist First_. University Press of New England, 1972, ISBN 0-8195-6054-5, out of print. Humphrey's autobiography, finished by Selma Jeanne Cohen. Karsavina, Tamara. _Theater Street_. 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton Books, 1981, ISBN 0-903102-47-1. Autobiography, description of life at the Maryinsky as well as early Ballet Russe. Kendall, Elizabeth. _Where She Danced: The Birth of American Art Dance_. University of California Press, 1984, ISBN 0-520-05173-4. With this, the Blair and Shelton, excellent overview of the birth of American Modern Dance. Klosty, James, ed. _Merce Cunningham_. Dutton, 1985, ISBN 0-8415-0372- 9, out of print. Hard to find, but great essays by many former collaborators and company members. Lawson, Joan. _Teaching Young Dancers_. Brooklyn: Theatre Arts Books, 1984, out of print. Good on placement (contains some instructive anatomical drawings); explains many steps (although by no means all), with descriptions and photographs showing right and wrong ways to execute them. Lieven, Prince Peter. _The Birth of the Ballets Russes_. Trans. by L. Zarine. George Allen & Unwin, 1936. Reprint with new introduction by Catherine Lieven Ritter. New York: Dover Books, 1973. Mason, Francis, editor. _I Remember Balanchine_. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1991, ISBN 0-385-26611-1. Reminiscences of dancers and others who worked with Balanchine. A good view of ballet in general and 20th-century ballet history as well as of Balanchine. Mazo, Joseph. _Prime Movers_. Princeton: Princeton Books, 1983, ISBN 0- 916622-27-4, out of print. History of American Modern Dance. McDonagh, Don. _Rise and Fall and Rise of Modern Dance_. A Cappella Books, 1990, 1-55652-089-1. Some factual errors, but nice description of transition in modern dance in the 60's. Migel, Parmenia. _The Ballerinas: From the Court of Louis XIV to Pavlova_. Da Capo Press, 1980, ISBN 0-306-80115-9. Ballet history in biographic vignettes, a charming read. Mueller, John. _Astaire Dancing_. Random House, 1991, ISBN 0-517-06075- 2. Excellent analysis and great photos. Scholl, Tim. _From Petipa to Balanchine: Classical Revival and the Modernization of Ballet_. Routledge, 1994, ISBN 0-415-09222-1. Shead, Richard. _Ballets Russe_. London: Quarto Publishing, 1989. Reprint [apparently]. Secaucus (New Jersey): Wellfleet Press, n.d.. ISBN 1-55521-438-X. Lavishly illustrated cocktail-table book with intelligent and well-written accompanying text. Shelton, Suzanne. _Ruth St. Denis: A Biography of the Divine Dancer_. University of Texas at Austin Press, 1990, ISBN 0-292-77046-4. She's not taken as seriously as Duncan today, but St. Denis was immensely influential. Siegel, Marcia. _Days on Earth: The Dance of Doris Humphrey_. Duke University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-8223-1346-4. Excellent description of work and explanations of Humphrey's theoretical underpinnings, great sympathies for Humphrey as a humanist. Sorrel, Walter. _Dance Has Many Faces_. A capella Books, 1992, ISBN 1- 55652-124-3. Stuart, Otis. _Perpetual Motion: the Public and Private Lives of Rudolph Nureyev_. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995, ISBN0-671-87539-6. Life and loves; how he became a dancer; how he made all that money. Taper, Bernard. _Balanchine: A Biography_. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984, ISBN 0-520-06059-8. Vivid and revealing; provides some insight into Balanchine's working methods. Taylor, Paul. _Private Domain_. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1988, ISBN 0- 86547-322-6. Autobiography, very anecdotal (lots of good stories!). Tharp, Twyla. _Push Comes to Shove_. Bantam, 1993, ISBN 0-553-37264-5. Autobiography, sounds the way her dances look. Vaughan, David. _Frederick Ashton and His Ballets_. Knopf, 1977, ISBN 0- 394-41085-8, out of print. Great biography and analyis of style, hard to find. Villella, Edward. _Prodigal Son_. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992, ISBN 0-671-79717-4. The story of a tough, ambitious, willful man who worked with, loved, and frequently fought with George Balanchine. Gives a feeling of what it's like to take classes and to find one's way in a world-class company. 5.1.4. Criticism and Analysis ----------------------------- Anderson, Richard L. _Calliope's Sisters: A Comparative Study of Philosophies of Art_. Prentice-Hall, 1989, ISBN 0-13-1554125-5. Looks at several non-Western art philosphies. Banes, Sally. _Writing Dancing in the Age of Postmodernism_. University Press of New England, 1994, ISBN 0-8195-6268-8. Collection of recent materials, excellent on postmodern dance. Chazin-Bennahum, Judith. _The Ballets of Antony Tudor_. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-19-507186-7. The great choreographer's career and works. Cohen, Selma Jeanne. _Next Week, Swan Lake_. University Press of New England, ISBN 0-8195-6110-X. Excellent introduction to philosophical issues in dance without needing a philosophy background. Copeland, Roger, and Cohen, Marshall, eds. _What is Dance?_. Oxford University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-19-503197-0. Anthology of primary source readings in several areas, good overview. Croce, Arlene. _Afterimages_. Random House, 1977, ISBN 0-394-41093-9, out of print. Her first anthology, great discussion of Balanchine and NYCB. Denby, Edwin. _Dance Writings_. Knopf, 1986, ISBN 0-394-54416-1. Anthology of everything, beautiful writing even if you don't agree with him, considered spiritual father of many contemporary critics. --------. _Looking at the Dance_. New York: Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1949. Some of the best dance criticism written in the 20th century. The first part of the book ("Meaning in Ballet") is a particularly good introduction to ballet for the newcomer. Emery, Lynne Fauley. _Black Dance From 1619 to Today_. Ayer Co. Publishing, 1988, ISBN 0-88143-074-9. Foster, Susan. _Reading Dancing: Bodies and Subjects in Contemporary Choreography_. University of California Press, 1986, ISBN 0-520- 06333- 3. Deconstruction applied to contemporary dance, very influential text. Jowitt, Deborah. _Dance Beat_. Books on Demand, ISBN 0-317-28434-7. Her first anthology, great look at "dance boom" NYC. --------. _Time and the Dancing Image_. University of California Press, 1989, ISBN 0-520-06627-8. Connecting eras in dance to their historical contexts. (Why does Romantic ballet look the way it does?) --------. _The Dance in Mind_. David R. Godine, 1985, ISBN 0-87923-534- 9. Anthology of more recent reviews. Kraus, Richard, Chapman, Sarah, & Dixon-Stowell, Brenda. _History of the Dance in Art and Education_. Prentice-Hall, 1990, ISBN 0-13-389362- 6. College text, very helpful for dance education history (not always easy to find). Langer, Susanne. _Problems of Art_. Macmillan, 1977, ISBN 0-02-367510- 1. One of the first contemporary philosophers to take dance seriously. McFee, Graham. _Understanding Dance_. Routledge, 1992, ISBN 0-415- 07810- 5. British philosopher. Siegel, Marcia. _Watching the Dance Go By_. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977, ISBN 0-395-25173-7, out of print. Her first anthology. --------. _The Shapes of Change_. University of California Press, 1985, ISBN 0-520-04212-3. The history of American dance seen through specific works--excellent description. --------. _The Tail of the Dragon_. Duke University Press, 1991, ISBN 0-8223-1156-9. Recent anthology. Sparshot, Francis, _Off the Ground: First Steps in a Philosophical Consideration of Dance_. Princeton University Press, 1988, ISBN 0- 692- 07327-9. Stearns, Marshall, and Jean. _Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance_. Da Capo Press, 1994, ISBN 0-306-80553-7. 5.1.5. Reference ---------------- Balanchine, George, and Francis Mason. _101 Stories of the Great Ballets_, edited by Francis Mason. Garden City, N. Y.: Anchor/Doubleday, 1989. Exactly what its title says. Chujoy, Anatole, and P. W. Manchester. _Dance Encyclopedia_. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978. Huge and encyclopedic, a first-rate reference; unfortunately now out of print. Getz, Leslie. _Dancers and Choreographers: A Selected Bibliography_, Moyer Bell, 1995, ISBN 1-55921-109-1 . Getz edits "Attitudes and Arabesques," an excellent bibliography/index--this should be as good. Grant, Gail. _Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet_. New York: Dover Books, 1982, ISBN 0-486-21843-0. Describes just about every step in minute detail; the descriptions are in balletic terminology and require more than a beginner's knowledge of ballet. Highly recommended for advanced students. Jonas, Gerald. _Dancing_. Harry N. Abrams, 1992, ISBN 0-8109-3212-1. "Companion text" to PBS series, but much better than that implies! Kersley, Leo, and Janet Sinclair. _A Dictionary of Ballet Terms_. 2nd ed. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1964. Reprint. Da Capo Press, 1979, ISBN 0-306-80094-2. Illustrated with attractive line drawings; more helpful to a beginner than Grant. Discusses _arqu'e_ and _jarret'e_. Koegler, Horst. _Oxford Concise Dictionary of Ballet_. Oxford University Press, 1977, second edition, ISBN 0-19-311330-9, out of print. Very nice source for performance dates, original casts, brief descriptions (not a technique dictionary), not exclusively ballet. Robertson, Allen, and Donald Hutera. _The Dance Handbook_. Boston, G. K. Hall & Co., 1988. ISBN 0-8161-9095-X. A handy dictionary of dance and dancers, arranged by categories. Terry, Walter. _Ballet Companion_. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1968. 5.1.6. Source Materials ----------------------- Arbeau, Thoinot. _Orchesiography_. 1589. Trans. by Mary Stuart Evans: Kamin Dance Pub., 1948. Reprint, with introduction and notes by Julia Sutton and Labanotation section by Mireille Backer and Julia Sutton, New York: Dover Press, 1967, ISBN 0-486-21745-0. Blasis, Carlo. _Theory and Practice of the Art of Dancing_. 1820. Trans. by [?] Cyril Beaumont. Reprint. New York: Dover Press, 1968, ISBN not known. --------. _The Code of Terpsichore_. Reprint. Brooklyn: Dance Horizons, ISBN not known. May be out of print. Cohen, Selma Jeanne, _Dance as a Theater Art_. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton Book Company, 1992, ISBN 0-87127-173-7. Very good collection of source materials on all aspects of dance from 1581 to 1991. Noverre, Jean Georges. _Letters on Dancing and Ballets_. 1803. Trans. by Cyril Beaumont, 1930. Reprint. Brooklyn, New York: Dance Horizons, 1975, ISBN not known. Steinberg, Cobbett, ed. _The Dance Anthology_. New American Library. Anthology of primary source readings with brief historical essays-- very out of print. 5.1.7. Technique ---------------- Barringer, Janice, and Sarah Schlesinger. _The Pointe Book_. Pennington (New Jersey). Pennington (N. J.): Princeton Book Company, 1991, ISBN 0-87127-150-8. Dolin, Anton. _Pas de Deux: the Art of Partnering_. New York: Dover. ISBN 0-486-22038-9 Royal Academy of Dancing. _Step-by-Step Ballet Class_. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1993, ISBN 0-8092-3499-8. Describes and illustrates elementary steps; organized by grade from pre-primary to grade five. Warren, Gretchen. _Classical Ballet Technique_. Tampa: University of South Florida Press, 1989, ISBN 0-8130-0945-6. A picture book for serious dancers: a dictionary of steps defined by photographs of them as done by professionals. A companion book to Grant or to Kersley and Sinclair. 5.1.8. Stretching, fitness, & sports/dance medicine --------------------------------------------------- Alter, Judy. _Stretch and Strengthen_. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1986, ISBN 0-395-52808-9. One of the references recommended in Brad Appleton's stretching FAQ. Alter, Michael. _Sport Stretch_. Leisure Press, 1990, ISBN 0-88011-381- 2. One of the references recommended in Brad Appleton's stretching FAQ. Berardi, Gigi. _Finding Balance: Fitness and Training for a Lifetime in Dance_. Princeton:. Princeton Book Company/Dance Horizons, ISBN 0- 87127-160-5. Blakey, W. Paul. _Stretching Without Pain_. Twin Eagles Educational & Healing Institute, Box 2031, Sechelt, British Columbia V0N 3A0, Canada. ISBN 1-896238-00-9. --------. _The Muscle Book_. Twin Eagles Educational & Healing Institute, Box 2031, Sechelt, British Columbia V0N 3A0, Canada. ISBN 1-896238- 01-7 Cooper, Robert K. _Health & Fitness Excellence: The Scientific Action_. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1989, ISBN 0-395-54453-X. One of the references recommended in Brad Appleton's stretching FAQ. Howse and Hancock. _Dance Technique and Injury Prevention_. London: A & C Black, 1992, ISBN 0-7136-3601-7; Theatre Arts Books/Routledge, 1992, ISBN 0-87830-022-8. Nagrin, Daniel. _How to Dance Forever: Surviving Against the Odds_. New York: William Morrow, 1988, ISBN 0-688-07479-0. Kurz, Tom. _Stretching Scientifically: a Guide to Flexibility Training_. Stadion, 1994, ISBN 0-940149-30-3. One of the references recommended in Brad Appleton's stretching FAQ. 5.1.9. Miscellaneous -------------------- Blom, Lynne Anne, and L. Tarin Chaplin. _The Moment of Movement: Dance Improvisation_. Pittsburgh: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1988, ISBN 0- 8229-3586-4. Just what its title says. Sketchy coverage of contact improvisation. Laws, Kenneth, and Cynthia Harvey. _Physics, Dance, and the Pas de Deux_. New York: Schirmer Books, 1994, ISBN 0-02-871326-5. Companion videotape ISBN 0-02-871327-3. Newtonian mechanics applied to ballet technique. Not for every dancer, but very illuminating for anyone who comes to ballet with a technical or scientific background. Novack, Cynthia. _Sharing the Dance_. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1990, ISBN 0-299-12440-1. About contact improvisation. Sawyer, Elizabeth. _Dance with the Music_. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-521-31925-0. Mostly for pianists who accompany classes and rehearsals, but interesting reading for anyone who cares about music for ballet. Wolfram, Eric. _Your Dance Resume_. San Francisco, Calif.: Dancepress [(800) 815-6422] 1995, ISBN 1-880404-06-0. Provides concise and easily readable step-by-step advice for dancers negotiating today's competitive job market: preparation of resumes and cover letters; photographs and videos; and advice securing and triumphantly navigating auditions. Stern's Performing Arts Directory. 5.2. Periodicals (Thanks to Estelle Souche for names of French magazines.) Attitude: The Dancers' Magazine Dance Giant Steps 1040 Park Place, Suite C-5 Brooklyn, New York 11213 Attitudes and Arabesques (guide to current dance publications) Leslie Getz Getz Dance Library 1075 Marcusen Drive Menlo Park, Calif. 94025 (415) 326-9775 Ballet Review Marcel Dekker, Inc. 46 Morton Street New York, N. Y. 10014 (212) 633-8264 Ballet 2000 [French: address not known] Ballett International / Tanz Aktuell Published by: Friedrich Verlag Postfach 100 150 D-30917 Seelze Germany Contact Quarterly P.O. Box 603 Northampton, Mass. 01060 Dance Connection #603, 815 - 1st Street S. W. Calgary, Alberta T2P-1N3 Canada E-mail (advertising & editorial): eltonh@cuug.ab.ca Dance Ink 145 Central Park West New York, N. Y. 10023 úÿ Dance International Roedde House 1415 Barclay Street Vancouver, BC V6G 1J6 Canada (604) 681-1525 Fax (604) 681-7732 Dance Magazine 33 West 60th Street New York, N. Y. 10023 (212) 245-9050 Subscriptions: 800-331-1750 e-mail: dancemag@panix.com Dance Now Dance Books Ltd. 15 Cecil Court St. Martin's Lane London WC2N 4EZ, England. Dance and the Arts (was Dance Pages) P.O. Box 916 Ansonia Station New York, N. Y. 10023 Dance Teacher Now e-mail: dancenow@aol.com The Dancing Times 45-47 Clerkenwell Green London EC1R 0EB, England Tel: +44 171 250 3006 Fax: +44 171 253 6679 DanceView P.O. Box 34435 Martin Luther King Station Washington, D. C. 20043 Danse Conservatoire 33 rue de Douai 75009 Paris FRANCE fax: 93/41/61/55 Danser Service des abonnements BP 68 7 77932 Perthes Cedex FRANCE fax: 40/02/63/90 Les Saisons de la Danse Service des abonnements 7 avenue Rachel 75018 Paris FRANCE tel: 43/87/08/69 Fax: 42/93/97/74 The New Dance Review Quarterly 32 West 82nd Street #2F New York, N. Y. 10024 Studies in Dance History Princeton Periodicals P.O. Box 380 Pennington, N. J. 08534 TBC News (Newsletter of Trisha Brown's company) 225 Lafayette Street Suite 807 New York, N. Y. 10012 I've seen a Hungarian publication, Tancm"uv'esz'et, but I didn't have an opportunity to translate the publication information. Later, perhaps. -- -- Tom Parsons | To do great work one must be very idle D.T.L. | as well as very industrious. | --Samuel Butler