Balanchine Variations
Nancy Goldner
Just released this May, this paperback covers Balanchine’s choreography from 1928’s Apollo to Ballodella Regina of 1978. The writings are based on a series of lectures Goldner has given over the past decade, along with former NYCB principal dancer Merrill Ashley, under the auspices of the Balanchine Trust and Balanchine Foundation. The literature on Balanchine is vast, but it is primarily biographical. Balanchine Variations is the first book to concentrate on the ballets themselves, providing critical analysis and detailed descriptions of what the dancers actually do.
For further information about Balanchine check out the Balanchine Catalogue.
Read our Feb/March article about this valuable new resource. Click here

First Position: A Century of Ballet Artists
Toba Singer
Greenwood Publishing
Author Toba Singer polled scores of dance critics, dance teachers and professors, and active and retired professional dancers to create a list that represents the best of the various styles of ballet from the last one hundred years. The result is a collective biography that introduces the reader to dancers both with household names and those known mostly to ballet aficionados. Profiled dancers include Carlos Acosta, Alicia Alonso, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Erik Bruhn, Lazaro Carreno, Margot Fonteyn, Carla Fracci, Gelsey Kirkland, Li Cunxin, Muriel Maffre, Natalia Makarova, Arthur Mitchell, Rudolf Nureyev, Anna Pavlova, and Maya Plisetskaya.

Teaching Dance: The Spectrum of Styles
Elizabeth Gibbons
Authorhouse
Published last July this new teachers’ tool is designed to enhance, educate and expand upon your already established dance curriculum. This book shares a spectrum of teaching techniques to help you reach and develop every student. Complete with worksheets and examples it give you the confidence to develop yourself as a well-rounded, well-informed instructor, whilst giving you the freedom to explore. Whether you are facing a class of students for the first time or are an experienced teacher, whether you teach children or adults, you will find this information helpful.

Dance: Current Selected Research
Volume 6
Edited by Lynnette Y. Overby
Billie Lepczyk
with the cooperation of The National Dance Association (USA)
AMS Press Inc
Published in December this new dance research publication is an in-depth reference book for those studying dance culture.
It includes eight studies and essays that explore a wide variety of topics
on current dance research.

San Francisco Ballet at Seventy-Five
Janice Ross
Chronicle Books, LLC
Dance scholar and historian Janice Ross explores San Francisco Ballet's ascent from its humble beginnings in 1933 to its current status as an internationally acclaimed cultural institution in celebration of the Ballet’s 75th anniversary. The book contains many beautiful photographs. To view an interactive preview of the book visit http://www.sfballet.org/at75/sfballetat75/interactive.asp

The Body Eclectic: Evolving Practices in Dance Training
Melanie Bales
Rebecca Nettl-Fiol
University of Illinois Press
Published in February, this paperback is a discussion of current practices in modern dance training. It includes a rich collection of essays and interviews exploring modern dance technique training from the past fifty years. The book looks at the culture of dance and examines choreographic process and style, dancer agency and participation in the creative process, and changes in the role and purpose of training.

Dancing Through Life: Lessons Learned on and off the Dance Floor
Antoinette Benevento and Edwin Dobb
St Martin’s Press
Released in September Dancing Through Life is a warm and encouraging self-help book that draws inspiration and motivation from ballroom dancing. Antoinette Benevento, a former national ballroom dancing champion and co-owner of Fred Astaire Dance Studios, has been a student of the ballroom stage for 25 years. She has discovered that getting out on the dance floor is a powerful and empowering metaphor for living fully in all realms of life.

The People Have Never Stopped Dancing: Native American Modern Dance Histories
Jacqueline Shea Murphy
University of Minnesota Press
Published in October, this book addresses the American Indian, absent and present, in modern dance studies. During the past thirty years, Native American dance has emerged as a visible force on concert stages throughout North America. In this first major study of contemporary Native American dance, Jacqueline Shea Murphy shows how these performances are at once diverse and connected by common influences.

Choreography: A Basic Approach Using Improvisation, Third Edition
Sandra Cerny Minton
Human Kinetics Publishers
Choreography: A Basic Approach Using Improvisation is the complete guide to understanding the entire process of choreography, from concept to stage production. Thousands of dancers and dance instructors have used the first two editions of this book to solve common challenges in choreography, improvise movement phrases, expand movements into dances, and organize dances into complete productions and concerts.

In the Wings: Behind the Scenes at the New York City Ballet
Kyle Froman
Wiley
In October, Kyle Froman, an 11-year member of the New York City Ballet corps de ballet released his first book, In the Wings: Behind the Scenes at the New York City Ballet. The 118 page, hardcover book features a foreward by Peter Martins, Ballet Master in Chief of New York City Ballet, and many colour and black and white photographs with text by Mr. Froman.  The work of two years, the volume takes the reader through class, rehearsals, training, preparation, injuries, and, ultimately, the triumph of performance in a way that only a dance-insider could. It is a very privileged look at the inner daily life of NYCB.

Green World: Merce Cunningham
Patsy Tarr and Abbott Miller
2wice Arts Foundation
While visiting Miami in February last year, The Merce Cunningham Dance Company spent a day with photographer Katherine Wolkoff exploring the lush gardens of Vizcaya, the historic Gilded Age mansion. From dawn to sunset, the group spontaneously danced among the Venetian inspired grottos, cascading fountains and radiating walks. This book captures the magic of the day and Cunningham’s choreography in photographs.