This contemporary title explores African dance trends in today s health-oriented world. The teenage reader is exposed to the health and fitness perspective of African dance, African regional differences, dance meanings, and History, and is encouraged to draw conclusions as to the appropriateness of the activity in his or her life. Safety issues are presented where appropriate. African Dance Trends has been developed to encourage teens to analyze the information and satisfies many of the Common Core specific goals, higher level skills, and progressive strategies for middle grade and junior high level students.

Trends in Twenty-First Century African Theatre and Performance is a collection of regionally focused articles on African theatre and performance. The volume provides a broad exploration of the current state of African theatre and performance and considers the directions they are taking in the 21st Century. It contains sections on current trends in theatre and performance studies, on applied/community theatre and on playwrights. The chapters have evolved out of a working group process, in which papers were submitted to peer-group scrutiny over a period of four years, at four international conferences. The book will be particularly useful as a key text for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in non-western theatre and performance (where this includes African theatre and performance), and would be a very useful resource for theatre scholars and anyone interested in African performance forms and cultures.

Embracing dramatic similarities, glaring disjunctions, and striking innovations, this book explores the history and context of dance on the land we know today as the United States of America. Designed for weekly use in dance history courses, it traces dance in the USA as it broke traditional forms, crossed genres, provoked social and political change, and drove cultural exchange and collision. The authors put a particular focus on those whose voices have been silenced, unacknowledged, and/or uncredited – exploring racial prejudice and injustice, intersectional feminism, protest movements, and economic conditions, as well as demonstrating how socio-political issues and movements affect and are affected by dance. In looking at concert dance, vernacular dance, ritual dance, and the convergence of these forms, the chapters acknowledge the richness of dance in today’s USA and the strong foundations on which it stands. Milestones are a range of accessible textbooks, breaking down the need-to-know moments in the social, cultural, political, and artistic development of foundational subject areas. This book is ideal for undergraduate courses that embrace culturally responsive pedagogy and seek to shift the direction of the lens from western theatrical dance towards the wealth of dance forms in the United States.

Martial arts have been around for centuries, yet they are just as popular today as ever. The various techniques which are part of aikido, karate, and tae kwon do can prove to be extremely valuable self-defense skills. Practicing martial arts is also an excellent way to stay in good physical condition. In the mood for a fast-paced workout? Kickboxing or Tae Bo may be just your thing. Tai chi, on the other hand, is known for having calming and even healing qualities. Whichever type of martial art you choose to learn, it can help you become a more disciplined and self-confident person.

Dance intersects with ethnicity in a powerful variety of ways and at a broad set of venues. Dance practices and attitudes about ethnicity have sometimes been the source of outright discord, as when African Americans were - and sometimes still are - told that their bodies are 'not right' for ballet, when Anglo Americans painted their faces black to perform in minstrel shows, when 19th century Christian missionaries banned the performance of particular native dance traditions throughout much of Polynesia, and when the Spanish conquistadors and church officials banned sacred Aztec dance rituals. More recently, dance performances became a locus of ethnic disunity in the former Yugoslavia as the Serbs of Bosnia attended dance concerts but only applauded for the Serbian dances, presaging the violent disintegration of that failed state. The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Ethnicity brings together scholars from across the globe in an investigation of what it means to define oneself in an ethnic category and how this category is performed and represented by dance as an ethnicity. Newly-commissioned for the volume, the chapters of the book place a reflective lens on dance and its context to examine the role of dance as performed embodiment of the historical moments and associated lived identities. In bringing modern dance and ballet into the conversation alongside forms more often considered ethnic, the chapters ask the reader to contemplate previous categories of folk, ethnic, classical, and modern. From this standpoint, the book considers how dance maintains, challenges, resists or in some cases evolves new forms of identity based on prior categories. Ultimately, the goal of the book is to acknowledge the depth of research that has been undertaken and to promote continued research and conceptualization of dance and its role in the creation of ethnicity. Dance and ethnicity is an increasingly active area of scholarly inquiry in dance studies and ethnomusicology alike and the need is great for serious scholarship to shape the contours of these debates. The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Ethnicity provides an authoritative and up-to-date survey of original research from leading experts which will set the tone for future scholarly conversation.

This contemporary title explores line dances around the world in today s health-oriented world. The young reader is exposed to the health and fitness perspective of line dancing, and is encouraged to draw conclusions as to the appropriateness of the activity in his or her life. A variety of line dances, including the Electric Slide, the Cupid Shuffle, the Macarena, and the Wobble are presented, along with the History and origin of line dancing. Safety issues are presented where appropriate. Line Dances Around the World has been developed to encourage young readers to analyze the information and satisfies many of the Common Core specific goals, higher level skills, and progressive strategies for middle grade and junior high level students.