This dance journal follows author, researcher, and university lecturer Laura Kline as she embarks on a unique journey towards heightened awareness. It records her daily insecurities as a fifty-five-year-old dance student—doing undercover research for her next lesbian romance novel—at her own university. Nervous about joining this high-risk contact improvisation class, she soon realizes what a tremendous opportunity it offers the protagonists, two fictional female dancers who fall in love. Little does she suspect how this course, along with her weekly 5Rhythms® dance sessions, will impact her personal growth and worldview, by forcing her to slow down and experience the intense flavor of each moment. It even enhances her survival skills. When the COVID-19 pandemic hits, her daily journal reflections broaden to include noisy neighbors, walls closing in on her, her partner, and their cat during the sudden stay-at-home order, struggles with teaching remotely, loss of sleep, weight loss, etc. Without realizing it, Laura becomes the protagonist of her own book—this journal. Her lively and humoristic adventure through dance illustrates how becoming present—even for five short minutes while standing still in pure silence—what she calls the Happy Dance—can literally lift people up, providing a safe space to traverse unexpected rocky roads. Her expedition is pebbled with injury and stress, yet she continues dancing. Page by page, with Laura’s stick-figure illustrations, we gradually see how Laura unearths a youthful buoyancy in her musculoskeletal system, lubricating her achy joints, giving them a bounce as she treads barefoot into the kitchen—or masters the moonwalk in her school’s photocopy room. Through a deep exploration of mindful movement and contact improvisation, we observe Laura as she dances her way to greater health, stability, healing, and happiness.

“Peter Lovatt, author of The Dance Cure,… the ease with which his dancing can cheer me up is frightening.” — The Guardian “Peter Lovatt, author of The Dance Cure… the ease with which his dancing can cheer me up is frightening.” — The Guardian

Dance Psychology is the study of dance and dancers from a scientific, psychological perspective. Written by Dr Peter Lovatt (AKA Dr Dance), this Dance Psychology textbook provides a general introduction to the Psychology of Dance and then it delves in to eleven of the most central questions concerning Dance Psychology. Are humans born to dance? Does the way you move your body change the way you think? Will dancing make people happier? Can dancing put people in to a trance-like state? Will a person's dance confidence change across the lifespan? Does dancing make people healthier? Why do we enjoy watching some dance performances more than others? How do dancers remember so many dance routines? Why don't dancers get dizzy? Will dancing improve a person's self-esteem? How do we communicate emotions with our body? Drawing on academic literature, this book is engaging, technical and, in places, critical; it is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Dance Psychology.

Dream big, try your best, then do your happy dance with Snoopy and the Peanuts gang in this uplifting story that’s perfect for gift-giving! You tried your best, you gave it your all, you went for that kick…when you knew you might fall! You never lost hope, you always aimed high, you kept your eyes set on that hint of blue sky. So take a deep breath, then jump at the chance: This day is your day…and this dance is your dance! It’s not always easy to achieve your dreams, study for a test, or score a goal: just ask the Peanuts. But Charlie Brown tries again and again to kick that football and Snoopy never stops believing his doghouse will take flight. Whether you fall or fly, win or lose, if you’ve tried your best…do a happy dance! Having a can-do attitude, working hard, and refusing to give up—even if someone calls you a blockhead—is the biggest accomplishment of all! This special story is the perfect gift for graduates of all ages—and for anyone who needs a little inspiration to put on their dancing shoes! © 2016 Peanuts Worldwide LLC

He’s a happy-go-lucky cowboy who enjoys dancing, appreciates life and loves being single… she’s a woman with a hard past and now working even harder to make the right moves… and life is looking up—but it’s a no go for romance… trust is something she no longer has. Caleb Buckley enjoys watching his brothers and cousins fall in love and he’s really enjoying the town’s newfound love of holding a dance once a month for all those who want to come into town to have a good time. He has no plans to settle down, but lately his attention is snagged by the quiet beauty who is working at the ladies’ clothing store. The one who doesn’t dance with anyone. The one whose stance and beautiful eyes clearly say “keep away”. Jasmine Scott has a past she’s determined to leave behind. And after her mother introduces her to the small town of Lone Star, Texas, she’s moved to town and is working at the lovely dress store and things are looking good. Only problem is the Buckley brother she’s quietly watched with reluctant sneak peeks. Caleb took her “stand back” warning early on and has done just that while he dances with every female at the town dances. The man obviously enjoys life… but she’s not going there. And yet sometimes life takes a turn and there is no control—and she’s about to find that out—but she’s going to fight it with all she’s got. Welcome back to the Buckley brothers and cousin’s life in Lone Star… the town full of wonderful, meddling people who suddenly have a new couple to focus on matching up. Can love overcome despite the reluctance of two people who aren’t on the lookout for it?

Fifteen stunning short stories from Nobel Prize–winning author Alice Munro, “a true master of the form” (Salman Rushdie). “How does one know when one is in the grip of art—of a major talent? . . . It is art that speaks from the pages of Alice Munro’s stories.”—The Wall Street Journal A young girl gets an unexpected glimpse into her father’s past when she realizes the sales call they’ve made one summer afternoon during the Great Depression is to his old sweetheart. A married woman, returning home after the death of her invalid mother, tries to release the sister who’d stayed behind as their mother’s caretaker. The audience at a children’s piano recital receives a surprising lesson in the power of art to transform when a not-quite-right student performs with unexpected musicality and a spirit of joy. In Dance of the Happy Shades, Alice Munro conjures ordinary lives with an extraordinary vision, displaying the remarkable talent for which she is now widely celebrated. Set on farms, by river marshes, in the lonely towns and new suburbs of western Ontario, these tales are luminous acts of attention to those vivid moments when revelation emerges from the layers of experience that lie behind even the most everyday events and lives.

Poems for the hopeless romantic to thumb through when their car breaks down in the rain on a lonely gravel road. **************** Where else-but in Ryan Scariano's Not Your Happy Dance-might we find an irresistible love poem about a sweetheart canning dill pickles? Where else might another beguiling poem praise that same woman by feting her delight-dance, her "goofy little rumpus?" In the infectious music of Scariano's poems, a lilac has "loamy eyes"; sugar ants are "little seasonal keystrokes"; and vinegar can "inhale summer's glow / and exhale that long amber breath." Wending through this collection, each reader can be the lucky traveler who makes the claim that "Muse Road snuck up / out of the fog / and kissed me." -Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate Emerita What I have always loved about Ryan Scariano's work is its direct engagement with joy. Despite what the title of this zing-ful collection suggests, these are poems that break, like a rainbow might, through a spectrum of emotion grounded in pleasure, in awe, in wonder. After I read this book I sat back and felt held by the nouns of the world, real and imagined, seen and unseen. This is a poet who knows how to live into language and by doing so, he invites us to experience the splendor of fully being. -Emily Kendal Frey, author of The Grief Performance and Sorrow Arrow Ryan Scariano's poems are filled with the kind of deep attention that makes the reader long to be its object-to be a "starry green shard of sea glass," a "moth fluttering in the small white breeze," or "the wounded heart on blackbird's sleeve." It's entirely possible to be seduced by a voice on a page. That's what happened to me six years ago when I read Ryan's first book, Smithereens, and I've been waiting for this book ever since. -Henrietta Goodman, author of All That Held Us and Take What You Want