Customer Reviews:
 Neat introduction to dance! September 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Yet one more welcome entry for young readers by Eyewitness Books. One of my Amazon friends reviewed this book, and I felt that I needed to read it myself. Having done so, I heartily recommend this for younger readers interested in dance.
The volume begins by defining dance as (Page 8): ". . .a series of movements performed in patterns and set to an accompaniment. Every human society practices dance, which may be performed solo, in couples, or in groups." The book, at a somewhat later point, notes that dance may have larger impacts (Page 18), ". . .being used to bring people together, by reinforcing their shared beliefs about their place in the world or celebrating their relationship with the supernatural." In addition, dance tells stories.
Later, this book examines a variety of subjects, including beauty and strength, footwear, costume, dance and community, famous dancers (including such exemplars as Astaire and Rogers, Pavlova, Graham, Nijinsky), choreography (with some mention of Balanchine and Cunningham), dance crazes (remember the twist?), and so on. As always, many subjects considered.
Thus, if you want to introduce youngsters to dance, you could do a lot worse than giving them this book.
A great introduction to all things dance June 29, 2008
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
As with all the other DK Eyewitness books, "Dance" has its music program crammed with information. The Eyewitness writers and editors fill all spaces on each page, designing each with photos, illustrations, general text, item text, and enough white space to prevent the viewer from getting lost in overwhelm.
Topics in "Dance" are logically ordered from the question What is Dance?, learning to dance, ballet class, accompaniments, keeping time, themes and messages, then we get to the heart of dance: the story. Other topics included set design, behind-the-scenes workers, all integral to the story.
How to carry the story through dance is explained in more pages: beauty of the body, makeup, costumes, footwear, and masks. Each of these is detailed in two-page spreads. The history of dance takes eight pages. Dance as a part of community--public dances of various kinds, dance crazes.
Of course, a book about dance must include famous dancers and choreographers.
If you are interested in dance and would like a good introduction, look no further. If you child is interested, this is a great start. I think interest level might begin at age nine or ten.
Overall, "Dance" is a great book to own, to open again and again to learn a new piece of information about the great art of dance.
Dance book January 18, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a great book. Our granddaughter loves the pictures and I loved the broad spectrum of information it provided to her
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