A Woman's Book of Power : Using Dance to Cultivate Energy [Paperback]

Karen Andes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

"Karen Andes emphasizes an integral approach to fitness - one that involves body, mind, heart and soul. She addresses different aspects of our beings with her unique combination of the physical and spiritual." - Michael Murphy, co-founder of Esalen Institute; author of Golf In the Kingdom, The Future of the Body, and The Kingdom of Shivas Irons Always at the forefront of health and physical fitness, renowned teacher-trainer Karen Andes has reinvented exercise for women by re-introducing dance as a source of both aerobic and spiritual fitness. This easy to understand, step-by-step guide explores the round, soft movements that feel more natural to the female body. By incorporating influences from Middle Eastern dance, other ancient sacred dances, as well as martial arts and yoga, Karen Andes has created a simple approach to movement which draws on our ancient past and serves our modern lives.

Product Details

• Paperback: 201 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade; 1st edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399523723
• ISBN-13: 978-0399523724
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,787,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Since publishing this triology I have been on a wild journey of movement exploration: lifting, dancing and yogically twirling myself through space using a Fly Gym yoga swing, a pole and padded monkey bars.

While I still love the meditative quality of weight lifting and dancing the sacred swirls and spirals, leveraging body weight and playing with and against gravity have taught me so much more (and made me stronger in the intrinsic "connecting" muscles).

Please visit www.flygym.com and see the wonderful uses of the Fly Gym swing. It's medicine for all levels and can be used for rehab or serious fitness and everything in between.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent exercises and new agey, girl power filler, November 2, 2001

By 

Shantell Powell "The ShanMonster" (Kitchener, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Woman's Book of Power : Using Dance to Cultivate Energy (Paperback)

Karen Andes has some great ideas in A Woman's Book of Power. The dance exercises and visualization techniques are superb. Movements are broken down in flowery right-brain and clinical left-brain fashions, which work well independently or in tandem. I have already been using some of her techniques in my own dance and fitness classes, and the students love it.

However, the exercises are only part of the book. The rest of the book appears to preach woman power. As an equalitarian, I find the language of these sections exclusionary. The book is written specifically with women in mind as an audience, but the materials within are of equal validity for men and children. I'm not sure why she labels right-brain thinking as feminine and left-brain thinking as male, but this seems to be the thesis on which this book is based. When Karen Andes waxes philosophical about the "feminine" shapes of circles, spirals, and waves, she falls into the same trap as Freud with his phallic imagery. Even Freud was credited as saying, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Andes notes, "Young women seem instinctively drawn to a tribal way of life. They dress alike, travel in packs, love adornment and ceremony." Somehow, she seems to be overlooking how young men tend to act in the same way, with their similar clothing, tastes in music, and team sports.

When she laments "Would male architects design building not only in blueprints but also with a sensitivity to the ground the building sit on, the curves in a hillside, the angles of then sun?", she ignores visionary architects like Frank Lloyd Wright.

Similar false conclusions are made when she writes, "People will ask, 'What's this Goddess thing? It sounds so trendy.' The answer is simple. No one ever asks if God is a trend." As a secular humanist, skeptic, and agnostic, I beg to differ....

I could nit-pick other details like this for quite a while, but it wouldn't serve much of a purpose. If you are the sort of person who likes to read about the aggrandizement of feel-good femininity, you will most likely enjoy the book. Karen has a lucid, easy-to-follow writing style. If you're a more "masculine" (read, left-brain) thinker, you will enjoy the exercise breakdowns. And yes, men can glean practical information from them, too.

6 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to achieve piece of mind as a woman and a firm body, September 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Woman's Book of Power : Using Dance to Cultivate Energy (Paperback)

Every woman should read this book, Karen is entertaining and makes exercise fun. She addresses the true feelings of women and their bodies. Dance has never been so fun