The Oxford Dictionary of Dance

By Judith Mackrell and Debra Craine

Book Overview

Here is a lively, informative roadmap to a truly protean art form, an ideal resource for everyone who loves Swan Lake or the Rockettes, Merce Cunningham or Fred Astaire.
The Oxford Dictionary of Dance offers wide coverage of dancers, choreographers, teachers, composers, technical terms, major works, important films, and organizations involved in the dance world. It embraces the new activity within traditional forms like ballet as well as the stream of new dance languages invented by fresh generations of choreographers and the many dance forms imported from the rest of the world. Readers will find information on classical ballet, Spanish flamenco, Indian Bharata Natyam, Japanese Butoh, and jazz. The volume also covers post-modern dance, examining everything from Balanchine to recent practitioners of Eurocrash, minimalism, and contact improvisation.
Ranging from the history of music to the changing design of the ballet shoe, here is a comprehensive and affordable dictionary compiled by two leading authorities on dance.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198601069
• ISBN13: 9780198601067
• Release Date: December 2000
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 536 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 9.2" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

It's about time!

At the risk of stating the obvious like a darn fool, it is a dictionary in every sense of the word. Arranged in alphabetical order, this book contains encyclopaedic entries on famous dancers, choreographers, dance companies from around the world, dance terminology and even composers like Charles Ives and Richard Strauss (whose music were used in miscellaneous dances). From Alvin Ailey to the Zurich Ballet, it serves as a quick reference for seasoned followers of dance, while pure beginners might get lost in the mass of text. Those into visual aids will also be utterly disappointed for there's none here. But on the whole, it's still worth the space on your bookshelf.