From the Charleston to the Twist, Going to the Palais provides a lively and vivid account of dancing and its interaction with race, gender, class, and national identity in Britain from 1918 to 1960, exploring the pivotal role dancehalls and dancing played in twentieth-century British social and cultural history.

Whether your style is Strictly Ballroom or you have just started to Come Dancing, discover how to master the six most popular ballroom dances with this fantastic guide. Step-by-step instructions will take you through the modern classics as well as the sexy Latin moves of the Rumba and Tango. With a specially recorded accompanying CD to ensure you keep in tempo and detachable dance step cards to help guide you round the dancefloor, you'll be certain to waltz your way to dancing perfection.

The glamour, the glitz and the glitterball are back on our screens for series twelve of Strictly Come Dancing and the 2015 annual is your perfect partner to every step, spin and shimmy. Throw your own Strictly scary halloween party, swot up an all the dances from the saucy samba to the cheeky charleston, find out just how many sequins it takes to make a Strictly costume sensation and follow a day-in-the-life of a professional dancer. The 2015 official Strictly Come Dancing Annual will have you prepped, stretched and prepared from the very first foray onto the floor to the spectacular final step. Packed full of behind-the-scenes gossip, exclusive interviews, the essential lowdown on everything from make-up to costume as well as fun games and mind-boggling quizzes to test even the best ballroom brainiac, this is your essential guide to all the drama on the dancefloor.

Dance yourself fit with this official guide to all the the ballroom and latin dances from the television show -- rear cover.

As the continued success of Dancing with the Stars and Strictly Come Dancing reveals, the appetite for ballroom remains insatiable around the world. Ballroom Dance and Glamour offers a fascinating window into the global phenomenon of competitive dance. Including vibrant photographs and commentary, this book showcases the extraordinary costumes, glamorous dancers and elegance of the sport. Based on years of research at international competitions, esteemed anthropologist, photographer and ballroom dancer Jonathan S. Marion provides a unique insight into this performance art, outlining the history and basics of ballroom and explaining its huge appeal today. Offering a visual journey into the world of dance, Ballroom Dance and Glamour illuminates the beauty, skill, intensity and passion of this sport. Written in a lively and accessible manner, Ballroom Dance and Glamour will delight all dancers, dance and fashion enthusiasts and anyone captivated by the skill and glamour of ballroom dance.

This book presents an engaging sociological investigation into how gender is negotiated and performed in ballroom and Latin dancing that draws on extensive ethnographic research, as well as the author’s own experience as a dancer. It explores the key factors underpinning the popularity of this leisure activity and highlights what this reveals more broadly about the nature of gender roles at the current time. The author begins with an overview of its rich social history and shifting class status, establishing the context within which contemporary masculinities and femininities in this community are explored. Real and imagined gendered traditions are examined across a range of dancer experiences that follows the trajectory of a typical learner: from finding a partner, attending lessons and forming networks, through to taking part in competitions. The analysis of these narratives creates a nuanced picture of a dance culture that is empowering, yet also highly consumerist and image-conscious; a highly ritualised set of practices that both reinstate and transgress gender roles. This innovative contribution to the feminist leisure literature will appeal to students and scholars of anthropology, dance, sport, gender, cultural and media studies.

A tune-filled, light-footed people’s history of ballroom dancing, from Vernon and Irene Castle and Arthur Murray to Dancing with the Stars. In the early twentieth century, American ragtime and the Parisian Tango fueled a dancing craze in Britain. Public ballrooms—which had never been seen before—were built throughout the country, providing a glamorous setting for all classes to dance. The new styles of dance being defined and taught in the 1920s, as well as the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the 1930s, ensured that ballroom dancing continued to be the most popular pastime until the 1960s, rivaled only by the cinema. This book explores the vibrant history of Ballroom and Latin: the dances, the lavish venues, competitions, and influential instructors. It also traces the decline of competitive dancing and its resurgence in recent years with the hugely popular TV shows Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing with the Stars.