Tap-dance Fever


Book Description

Annabelle Applegate will not stop tap-dancing no matter what the frustrated citizens of Fiddlers Creek do to make her quit.




Dance Class Vol. 3


Book Description

Julie, Lucy, and Alia are best friends who share the same passion: dance! A new year of classes has begun and this year, in addition to their regular ballet and modern dance classes, the three girls are introduced to a new style of dance — African folk! Powered by deep percussion-based music, this style is unlike anything they've ever tried before. While the girls enjoy their new art form, problems at home and in the classroom threaten to cause them to have to stop taking their dance classes. Can the girls balance their studies and their extracurricular activities, or will they have to give up dancing for good?




Tap Dancing America


Book Description

Here is the vibrant, colorful, high-stepping story of tap -- the first comprehensive, fully documented history of a uniquely American art form. Writing with all the verve and grace of tap itself, Constance Valis Hill offers a sweeping narrative, filling a major gap in American dance history and placing tap firmly center stage.




What the Eye Hears


Book Description

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




The Essential Guide to Tap Dance


Book Description

From the propulsive rhythm of the African dancer, to the swinging ragtime of the American jazz age, tap dancing has evolved into a unique blend of cultural expression, improvisation and creativity, open to all ages and abilities. With clear step-by-step instructions, The Essential Guide to Tap Dance covers basic steps such as the shuffle, pick up and paddle, before building these into traditional combinations such as the time step and shim sham. Additional material includes the history and development of tap dancing; rhythm and musicality; learning the language of tap dancing; the role of improvisation and choreography and finally, the basic steps to advanced techniques. This is the perfect companion to instruct the beginner tap dancer and expand the more experienced dancer's technique, offering full-colour pictures, helpful instruction and essential notes on this vibrant and accessible dance form. Illustrated throughout with 138 colour photographs and line artworks.




Dance Fever


Book Description

Jess teaches her best friend Sophie, who is nervous about her first dance party, some good dance moves while Sophie's brother does his best to annoy them.




Tap!


Book Description

"If you like tap dancing and tap dancers--this is your book."--Gene Kelly From the vaudeville era, through the Astaire-Rogers movies, to the intricate artistry of bebop, tap has dominated American dance with its rhythm, originality, and humor. This book collects the voices and memories of thirty of America's best-loved tap-dance stars and two hundred rare theater, film, and publicity photographs. Here Shirley Temple recalls her magical duo with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson; Fayard Nicholas describes his days at Harlem's Cotton Club performing with Cab Calloway; Fred Kelly visits his and his brother Gene's Pittsburgh dance studio; Hermes Pan reminisces about his work with George Gershwin, Ginger Rogers, and Fred Astaire; and, in a chapter new to this edition, Toy and Wing tell about their days as the world's leading Asian tap duo. Appended with the most comprehensive listing of tap acts, recordings, and films ever compiled-newly updated for this paperback edition-Tap! brings to life the legends of one of America's most cherished and enduring art forms. Foreword by Gregory Hines




Beginning Tap Dance


Book Description

Beginning Tap Dance With HKPropel Access introduces students to tap dance techniques and cultivates an appreciation of tap dance as a performing art. Focusing on novice dancers, experienced tap dancer and dance instructor Lisa Lewis offers step-by-step instruction to help beginning tap dancers match the beat of their enthusiasm to the rhythm of their feet! Designed for students enrolled in introductory tap dance courses, Beginning Tap Dance contains concise descriptions of exercises, steps, and techniques. Related online tools delivered via HKPropel feature more than 70 video clips of tap steps with verbal cues to help students review content from class or learn other beginning steps. It also contains learning features to support and extend students’ knowledge of tap dance, including assignments, e-journaling prompts, tests of tap dance terminology, a glossary, and links to further study. The book introduces the dance form by detailing its physical and mental benefits. Students learn about etiquette, proper attire, class expectations, health, and injury prevention for dancers. After basic dance steps are introduced, tap steps are presented in groups with one, two, three, and four or more sounds. Chapters also introduce students to the history, major works, artists, styles, and aesthetics of tap dance as a performing art. Beginning Tap Dance is ideal to support both academic and kinesthetic learning. Instructions, photos, and video clips of techniques help students practice outside of class. The text and online learning tools complement studio teaching by providing historical, artistic, and practical knowledge of tap dance plus activities, assessments, and support in skill acquisition. With Beginning Tap Dance, students can learn and enjoy performing tap dance as they gain an appreciation of the dance form. Beginning Tap Dance is a part of Human Kinetics’ Interactive Dance Series. The series includes resources for ballet, modern, tap, jazz, musical theatre, and hip-hop dance that support introductory dance technique courses taught through dance, physical education, and fine arts departments. Each student-friendly text has related online learning tools including video clips of dance instruction, assignments, and activities. The Interactive Dance Series offers students a collection of guides to learning, performing, and viewing dance. A code for accessing HKPropel is included with this ebook.




Useless Magic


Book Description

Lyrics and never-before-seen poetry and sketches from the iconic musician of Florence and the Machine Songs can be incredibly prophetic, like subconscious warnings or messages to myself, but I often don't know what I'm trying to say till years later. Or a prediction comes true and I couldn't do anything to stop it, so it seems like a kind of useless magic.




Martina Ballerina


Book Description

Little Martina loves to dance! She leaps in the grocery aisles, shimmies in the park, and plis in her kindergarten classroom. Each week, she attends ballet and sets her spirit free. The music fills her with great joy, and she dances to her hearts contentbut she doesnt listen to her teacher. Martina just does whatever she wants to do instead. Her lack of discipline inspires her parents to take her to a ballet performance so that she can see the hard work of a real ballerina. She does learn a few things at the show, but Martina is still a wild thing at the barre. When the director of the Nouvelle Ballet Troupe comes to Martinas class in search of a young ballet dancer with promise, Martina is thrilled. The director needs a young lady to be featured in The Nutcracker, so at the audition, Martina gives it her allbut she still wont listen. Martina must learn the hard way that ballerinas are calm, poised, and good at taking instruction. Will little Martina achieve her dream of making it onstage or will a difficult lesson and a setback make her want to give up?