This manual suggests that anyone can learn to dance without the aid of a teacher. After providing a short discussion on organizing balls, appropriate dress, and etiquette, the book focuses on the popular ballroom dances of the era--quadrilles, polka, schottisch, polka mazurka, and varsoviana. This "do it yourself" mentality was common during the late nineteenth century. This particular dance manual was reissued in 1876 under the title: Offenbach's dancing without a master.

During the 1800s, dance and etiquette manuals provided ordinary men and women with the keys to becoming gentlemen and ladies--and thus advancing in society. Why dance? To the insecure and status-oriented upper middle class, the ballroom embodied the perfect setting in which to demonstrate one's fitness for membership in genteel society. From the Ballroom to Hell collects over 100 little-known excerpts from dance, etiquette, beauty, and fashion manuals from the nineteenth century. Included are instructions for performing various dances, as well as musical scores, costume patterns, and the proper way to hold one's posture, fork, gloves, and fan. While of particular interest to dancers, dance historians, and choreographers, anyone fascinated by the ways and mores of the period will find From the Ballroom to Hell an endearing and informative glimpse of America's past.

New York dancing master Hillgrove acknowledges that he has "availed himself of all the books from which he might elicit any valuable information." Indeed, very little of the manual is original. Divided into six parts, Hillgrove discusses the benefits of dance, dress, deportment and etiquette in the ballroom and the supper room. The second part focuses on bows and courtesies, positions of the feet, and provides exercises for the feet and legs. The third and fourth parts discuss the quadrille and provide many figures. The fifth part is devoted to round dances such as the waltz, polka, schottisch, galop, and polka mazurka. The last section focuses on more quadrille figures and other group dances such as the "Virginia Reel," "Money Musk," and College Hornpipe.

Alex North's A Streetcar Named Desire: A Film Score Guide examines the acclaimed score for Elia Kazan's much-celebrated adaptation of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Situating the score within the context of Alex North's life and career, the book begins with an overview of North's musical training and his works up to his first scores for Hollywood in 1950, demonstrating how his experience in writing music for stage, concert hall, dance, and documentaries each contributed to the skills necessary for film composition. Annette Davison uses examples from North's film career to identify and describe his scoring techniques. Using manuscript and archival research, Davison explores both the play's debut stage production and the film's production process, with a particular emphasis on the genesis and development of the music heard in the film. Considering the influence and changes imposed by the film's studio (Warner Bros.), the Production Code Administration, and the Catholic Legion of Decency on the film, Davison explores the impact of these changes on the interpretation of this finely balanced drama, comparing the different versions of the film and its scores. The book concludes with a full and detailed analysis of the jazz-inflected score, taking a holistic approach and using both musicology and film studies to investigate the ways it gives a dynamic shape to the film as a whole.