A Dance Through Time
A Dance Through Time

Author: Lynn Kurland

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2003-09-02

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1101653566

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From Lynn Kurland, the New York Times bestselling author of the Nine Kingdom series. Scotland, 1311. James MacLeod was the most respected—and feared—laird in all of Scotland. He loved his men like brothers and his land with a passion. And he allowed no women to cross the threshold of his keep... New York City, 1996. With an indifferent fiance and a stalled writing career, Elizabeth Smith found passion and adventure only in the unpublished romance novels that she wrote. Until a Scottish hero began calling to her... Elizabeth longed for the man of her dreams. But she knew she was overworked when she began hearing his voice—when she was awake. To clear her mind, she took a walk in Gramercy Park. She dozed off on a bench—and woke up in a lush forest in forteenth-century Scotland. A forest surrounding the castle of James MacLeod, an arrogant and handsome lord with a very familiar voice. Elizabeth would turn his ordered world upside down and go where no woman had ever gone before: straight into his heart...

Dancing Through Time
Dancing Through Time

Author:

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2012-11-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780786473915

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From Chaucer to Fitzgerald, writers have used dancing as a vital, if subtle, element in plot and character development. The ballroom, an important element of society in real life, was a backdrop to grand passions or pivotal encounters--ideal ground for commentary on the social milieu. This work presents 88 literary selections (from etiquette manuals, diaries, poems, plays, essays and novels) that together form a survey of social dance in England and America over a span of 500 years. They illustrate specific dances, social dance behavior or the intimate reactions of participants. One finds, for example, the ultimate downfalls of Flaubert's Emma Bovary, Hardy's Eustacia Vye, and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina are all foretold in pivotal dance scenes. Fully indexed.

A Time to Dance
A Time to Dance

Author: Padma Venkatraman

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2014-05-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0698158261

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Padma Venkatraman’s inspiring story of a young girl’s struggle to regain her passion and find a new peace is told lyrically through verse that captures the beauty and mystery of India and the ancient bharatanatyam dance form. This is a stunning novel about spiritual awakening, the power of art, and above all, the courage and resilience of the human spirit. Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.

Keeping Together in Time
Keeping Together in Time

Author: William H. McNeill

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0674040872

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Could something as simple and seemingly natural as falling into step have marked us for evolutionary success? In Keeping Together in Time one of the most widely read and respected historians in America pursues the possibility that coordinated rhythmic movement--and the shared feelings it evokes--has been a powerful force in holding human groups together.As he has done for historical phenomena as diverse as warfare, plague, and the pursuit of power, William H. McNeill brings a dazzling breadth and depth of knowledge to his study of dance and drill in human history. From the records of distant and ancient peoples to the latest findings of the life sciences, he discovers evidence that rhythmic movement has played a profound role in creating and sustaining human communities. The behavior of chimpanzees, festival village dances, the close-order drill of early modern Europe, the ecstatic dance-trances of shamans and dervishes, the goose-stepping Nazi formations, the morning exercises of factory workers in Japan--all these and many more figure in the bold picture McNeill draws. A sense of community is the key, and shared movement, whether dance or military drill, is its mainspring. McNeill focuses on the visceral and emotional sensations such movement arouses, particularly the euphoric fellow-feeling he calls "muscular bonding." These sensations, he suggests, endow groups with a capacity for cooperation, which in turn improves their chance of survival. A tour de force of imagination and scholarship, Keeping Together in Time reveals the muscular, rhythmic dimension of human solidarity. Its lessons will serve us well as we contemplate the future of the human community and of our various local communities.

A Dance Through Time
A Dance Through Time

Author: Jeremy Barlow

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781851242993

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A knees-up at a country fair, a pair of dancing ogres, children round a maypole, ballroom champions, decadent masquerade, and celebrations at Piccadilly Circus on VE day all feature in this enchanting survey of dance illustration through the centuries. What do these vibrant, often elegant and sometimes irreverent images reveal to us about the history of social dancing and changing attitudes towards the dance floor?In his richly illustrated book, Jeremy Barlow surveys over 600 years of imagery, drawing out major themes in the representation of dance. He shows how over the centuries, artists and illustrators have represented dance in a stylized and often humorous manner, with curved, flowing lines for the gracious dancer and angular postures for the uncouth, rustic, or exhibitionistic performer. He also reveals how artists have responded in imaginative ways to the challenge of how to convey a sense of the dancer's movement through a frozen moment in print, and what techniques illustrators have used to demonstrate specific poses and steps, from the galliard, mazurka, and minuet to the waltz, tango, and cha cha cha. Finally he examines the age-old tension between decorum and licence on the dance floor and how this changed with the advent of jive and the untutored vitality of rock'n' roll. The book draws on a wide range of materials in the Bodleian Library, including fourteenth-century manuscripts, satirical prints, dance cards, and invitations to balls. Each image is carefully analysed for what it can reveal to us about behavioural codes and satirical intent, providing an unusual insight into the social history and imagery of dance.

Decentring Dancing Texts
Decentring Dancing Texts

Author: Janet Lansdale

Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan

Published: 2008-07-24

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13:

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In this book, eleven authors analyze recent dance practices in the theatre, in club culture and on film, addressing dance in interdisciplinary relationship with music, painting and play texts. This text attempts to fill a gap with an up-to-date account of exciting and challenging new work, illuminated by fascinating new theoretical frameworks.