The last hundred years have seen dance become an increasingly integral element of popular culture. From ballroom dancing to breakdancing, A Century of Dance offers an intimate, engaging exploration of the choreographers, dancers, and impressarios, as well as the dance steps and crazes, that have transfixed the public and transformed both art and leisure. Here are the sultry gyrations of Josephine Baker; the phenomenal tap work of the Nicholas Brothers; the innovative Hollywood grace of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; the Broadway hi-jinx of Bob Fosse; and much more. With 360 stunning color and black-and-white photographs and entries on every significant personality and trend in dance since 1900, A Century of Dance is an unparalleled guide to the transcendent world of twentieth century popular dance.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Featuring a colorful if lightweight survey of the last 100 years of social dance, Driver, a London-based arts writer, describes how an era is reflected in its social dances--because dance is interwoven into ordinary people's daily lives as "social ritual, leisure activity, entertainment." Driver credits technological advances--records, television and movies--with changing dance styles and fueling fads nationwide. Beginning with the turn-of-the-century waltz, which, he says, "ruled the dancehalls" at the time, (and the first social dance to turn dancing couples face-to-face), Driver traces how popular music and contemporary style melded into dances mirroring the social changes of the century. Ragtime, vaudeville, tap, Broadway, rock 'n' roll, the disco-hustle craze and the Latin American influence (spread by Xavier Cugat and Ricky Martin, among others) are brought to life with 360 energetic color and b&w photographs of performers and dance posters, eye-catching sidebars ("The Great Dance Bands," "Bob Fosse") and other graphics. On the other hand, the author's commentary is fairly superficial (Savion Glover's mother realized early on that "he had an unusually advanced sense of rhythm"), and Driver's accuracy is sometimes suspect (he incorrectly places Madonna dancing "briefly" with the Paul Taylor Company). From the turkey trot to hip-hop, this volume gives a vivid visual record of all the century's dance crazes.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The century just ended will be known for innovations in technology, transportation, and, if this book is any indication, dance. As both entertainment and social activity, dance gets top billing in this colorful production, bursting with photographs and publicity stills. Driver (Traditions of London) tells the story of popular dance on and off the stage and screen, describing the dancers, choreographers, dances, and fads that glided, slid, hopped, stomped, jumped, tapped, tangoed, and boogied through the last 100 years. Each of the ten chapters surveys a decade of dance, from the origins of the waltz at the turn of the century, to the ragtime era, to Broadway and Hollywood of the Forties, to today's hip hop, techno, rave, and club cultures. The layout is carefully choreographed with a text punctuated by images of dance and dancers that almost jump off the page. The book features a glossary of dance terms, a general index, and an index of people. Especially recommended for performing arts and popular culture collections, as well as for the coffee tables of dance lovers everywhere. Carolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Zero fact checking,
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This review is from: A Century of Dance: A Hundred Years of Musical Movement, from Waltz to Hip Hop (Paperback)
There are a couple areas of dance in which I am profoundly knowledgeable. The short paragraphs about those two areas are so full of errors that they were obviously invented by the author without bothering to do even the slightest amount of research into them. If I can't trust those two short passages, why should I trust the accuracy of anything at all in this superficial mess. Huge waste of money.
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