Dance in the End Zone


Book Description

On November 18, 1973, wide receiver Elmo Wright scored a touchdown and became the first professional football player to dance in the end zone. You don't have to be a sports fan to feel the emotions and celebration of a really good end zone dance. Interviewed more than thirty years later, Elmo Wright said, "I've accomplished a lot in my life, but what happened in the end zone is what defines my career." If you own a business, you have something in common with Elmo. Business success may have already brought personal satisfaction and financial rewards. But what happens at your inevitable exit--in your end zone--likely defines your career. An exit that falls short can cause financial disappointment, family strife, or low self-esteem. Success at exit is the crowning achievement of a career, fulfillment of financial and family dreams, or the start of your business legacy. Dance in the End Zone will change your perceptions. Exit planning is not about some distant transaction but rather making decisions today that build a better business and position for your success. The book reveals the Seven End Zone Questions, provides more than fifty tools and tactics--the plays for your Exit Planning Playbook--and shares the real--world stories of dozens of business owners like you. Whether your ideal exit is soon or many years from now, this is a must-read to one day dance in the end zone.




Go for It!


Book Description

Intellectual property trials are not typically known for courtroom drama or excitement but, in "Go For It," Ray Niro provides a first-hand account of electrifying moments in the cross-examination of witnesses whose testimony could make or break the case. Then, on to closing argument: the case is already won. Or is it? This book gives examples of how to draw on emotion to achieve multi-million dollar verdicts not once, but nearly every time. What is the common trend in these cases involving inventors of everything every thing from DeWalt power tools to Internet auctions to secret formulas for precooked Italian sausage? Take a ride through each case, their defining moments and the formula for successful advocacy with actual trial testimony from eighteen different cases spanning two decades. Ray Niro is quite the story-teller, drawing on his childhood and family experiences to bond with jurors in the most complex kinds of cases.




Perspectives on American Dance


Book Description

Dancing embodies cultural history and beliefs, and each dance carries with it features of the place where it originated. Influenced by different social, political, and environmental circumstances, dances change and adapt. American dance evolved in large part through combinations of multiple styles and forms that arrived with each new group of immigrants. Perspectives on American Dance is the first anthology in over twenty-five years to focus exclusively on American dance practices across a wide span of American culture. This volume and its companion show how social experience, courtship, sexualities, and other aspects of life in America are translated through dancing into spatial patterns, gestures, and partner relationships. This volume of Perspectives on American Dance features essays by a young generation of authors who write with familiarity about their own era, exploring new parameters of identity and evaluating a wide variety of movement practices being performed in spaces beyond traditional proscenium stages. Topics include "dorky dancing" on YouTube; same-sex competitors on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance; racial politics in NFL touchdown dances; the commercialization of flash mobs; the connections between striptease and corporate branding; how 9/11 affected dance; the criminalization of New York City club dancing; and the joyous ironies of hipster dance. This volume emphasizes how dancing is becoming more social and interactive as technology opens up new ways to create and distribute dance. The accessible essays use a combination of movement analysis, thematic interpretation, and historical context to convey the vitality and variety of American dance. They offer new insights on American dance practices while simultaneously illustrating how dancing functions as an essential template for American culture and identity. Contributors: Jennifer Atkins | Jessica Berson | J. Ellen Gainor | Patsy Gay | Ansley Jones | Kate Mattingly | Hannah Schwadron | Sally Sommer, Ph.D. | Ina Sotirova | Dawn Springer | Michelle T. Summers | Latika L. Young | Tricia Henry Young 




Multiculturalism in the United States


Book Description

This reader focuses on the extremely current, important topic of racial and ethnic experiences in the United States today. Most of the essays were commissioned especially for this reader and have been prepared by some of the brightest voices in this cutting edge field. Instructors in search of a current, comprehensive multicultural reader will find this a valuable student resource whether it is the sole focus of their course or to be integrated into another content area.




Football


Book Description

"...provides a detailed look at America's pastime through the lens of pop culture, [an] A-to-Z inventory of how certain aspects of the game affect and reflect broader society."--from publisher description.




African Americans in Sports


Book Description

Research on African American athletes generally fo-cuses on negative stereotypes of physical prowess, and socially controversial themes. Most studies in-vestigate racism, prejudice, discrimination, and ex-ploitation experienced by African American athletes. Many studies contrast African American and white athletes on a number of variables that support pre-vailing elitist stereotypes and denigrate African Ameri-can athletes. But few studies investigate the diverse and complex cultural dichotomies within the infrastruc-ture of sport in the African American community. Gary Sailes maintains that it is crucial to develop a more eclectic and immersed cultural approach when investigating African American involvement in com-petitive sports. The contributors to 'African Americans in Sports' show that there are also intrinsic cultural paradigms that are evident, presenting an informa-tive and interesting narrative regarding African American athletes. The chapters that make up this volume were written by noted scholars who were selected based on their expertise in their specific academic areas. They write about different components of the experience of African American male athletes. Chapters and contributors include: "Race and Athletic Performance: A Physiological Review" by David W. Hunter; "The Athletic Dominance of African Americans--Is There a Genetic Basis?" by Vinay Harpalani; "African American Player Codes on Celebration, Taunting, and Sportsmanlike Conduct" by Vernon L. Andrews; and "Stacking in Major League Baseball" by Earl Smith and C. Keith Harrison. Many chapters were originally published as a special issue of the 'Journal of African American Men.' This volume should be read by all those involved in athletics, as well as by sports sociologists and African American studies scholars.




Dancing Down the Barricades


Book Description

A deep dive into racial politics, Hollywood, and Black cultural struggles for liberation as reflected in the extraordinary life and times of Sammy Davis Jr. Through the lens of Sammy Davis Jr.'s six-decade career in show business--from vaudeville to Vegas to Broadway, Hollywood, and network TV--Dancing Down the Barricades examines the workings of race in American culture. The title phrase holds two contradictory meanings regarding Davis's cultural politics: Did he dance the barricades down, as he liked to think, or did he simply dance down them, as his more radical critics would have it? Davis was at once a pioneering, barrier-busting, anti-Jim Crow activist and someone who was widely associated with accommodationism and wannabe whiteness. Historian Matthew Frye Jacobson attends to both threads, analyzing how industry norms, productions, scripts, roles, and audience expectations and responses were all framed by race against the backdrop of a changing America. In the spirit of better understanding Davis's life and career, Dancing Down the Barricades examines the complexities of his constraints, freedoms, and choices for what they reveal about Black history and American political culture.




Kingdom Men Rising


Book Description

God is good and powerful and wants the best for your life. He has big plans for you. You believe these things are true. But what is your own responsibility as a man when it comes to becoming all God created you to be? How can you walk in victory and faith and make an impact on others for God? Kingdom Men Rising challenges men to foster personal discipleship and apply discipleship skills and a leadership mindset to all areas of life. Dr. Tony Evans brings his insights, stories, and wise counsel from God's Word to clear all obstacles in your path, leading you to the abundant life you've been called to live. And along the way, you'll find your heart stirred to reach for more, no longer settling for a faith that just goes through the motions. The life of King David is used as the book's foundation, and topics include overcoming temptation, restoration from sin, how to disciple others, and finally how to leave a legacy of faith and godly influence. Replace helplessness, boredom, and regret with vibrancy, power, and joy. Let Kingdom Men Rising help you take the next step in your faith to become the powerful man of God you were made to be.




Indigenous Dance and Dancing Indian


Book Description

Focusing on the enactment of identity in dance, Indigenous Dance and Dancing Indian is a cross-cultural, cross-ethnic, and cross-national comparison of indigenous dance practices. Considering four genres of dance in which indigenous people are represented--K'iche Maya traditional dance, powwow, folkloric dance, and dancing sports mascots--the book addresses both the ideational and behavioral dimensions of identity. Each dance is examined as a unique cultural expression in individual chapters, and then all are compared in the conclusion, where striking parallels and important divergences are revealed. Ultimately, Krystal describes how dancers and audiences work to construct and consume satisfying and meaningful identities through dance by either challenging social inequality or reinforcing the present social order. Detailed ethnographic work, thorough case studies, and an insightful narrative voice make Indigenous Dance and Dancing Indian a substantial addition to scholarly literature on dance in the Americas. It will be of interest to scholars of Native American studies, social sciences, and performing arts.




Dance for Sports


Book Description

In Dance for Sports, author, teacher, dancer, athlete, and researcher Margo Apostolos offers a new training approach for athletes and coaches that synthesizes common techniques between athletics and dance. By utilizing this approach, in- and off-season athletes can improve efficiency and technique. Throughout the book, Apostolos shows the potential exchange between sport and dance in exercises that focus on overlapping physical components of both practices including flexibility, strength, coordination, agility, balance, and timing. She also demonstrates how dance serves sport as a cross training activity with additional opportunities for athletes to explore creativity, improvisation, and mindfulness. Discussion with athletes from several sports interweaves each chapter to expand the learning process and offer useful anecdotes. Based upon the author's decades-long career and extensive experience with athletes and coaches in a variety of sports such as football, basketball, swimming, tennis, track and field and more, Dance for Sports provides a fully integrative guide for students and instructors alike.