Books for Black Dance Legacy, Q-U Authors

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					Jose! Born to Dance: The Story of Jose Limon By: Susanna Reich José was a boy with a song in his heart and a dance in his step. Born in Mexico in 1908, he came into the world kicking like a steer, and grew up to love to draw, play the piano, and dream. José's dreaming took him to faraway places. He dreamed of bullfighters and the sounds of the cancan dancers that he saw with his father. Dance lit a fire in José's soul.

					Cabin in the Sky: A Musical Fantasy (DVD) By: Lynn Root Music by: Vernon Duke Lyrics by: John Latouche Production Staged by: George Balanchine Book Directed by: Albert Lewis Setting and Costumes designed by: Boris Aaronson Little Joe, a compulsive gambler, promises his wife, Petunia, that he'll quit gambling and be a moral man. Soon after, he is killed over his gambling debts. Joe then has six months to redeem his soul and enter Heaven “ otherwise he will be condemned to Hell. Lucifer Jr. and his sexy representative, Georgia Brown, try to push Joe toward sin. While the General and Petunia work to convince Joe to save his soul.

					When I Grow Up: Misty Copeland (Scholastic Reader, Level 3) By: Lexi Ryals Misty Copeland is one of the most famous dancers in the world. But before she was dancing for millions of fans, Misty was just a young girl who loved ballet, even though she didn't look like the typical ballerina. Learn how she made it all the way to the top in this exciting level 3 biography!

					The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography of Pearl Primus By: Peggy and Murray Schwartz Pearl Primus (1919–1994) blazed onto the dance scene in 1943 with stunning works that incorporated social and racial protest into their dance aesthetic. In The Dance Claimed Me, Peggy and Murray Schwartz, friends and colleagues of Primus, offer an intimate perspective on her life and explore her influences on American culture, dance, and education. They trace Primus' path from her childhood in Trinidad, through her rise as an influential international dancer, an early member of the New Dance Group (whose motto was "Dance is a weapon"), and a pioneer in dance anthropology.

					Dance We Do: A Poet Explores Black Dance By: Ntozake Shange In her first posthumous work, the revered poet crafts a personal history of Black dance and captures the careers of legendary dancers along with her own rhythmic beginnings. After 20 years of research, writing, and devotion, Ntozake Shange tells her history of Black dance through a series of portraits of the dancers who trained her, moved with her, and inspired her to share the power of the Black body with her audience. Shange celebrates and honors the contributions of the often unrecognized pioneers who continued the path Katherine Dunham paved through the twentieth century. Dance We Do features a stunning photo insert along with personal interviews with Mickey Davidson, Halifu Osumare, Camille Brown, and Dianne McIntyre. In what is now one of her final works, Ntozake Shange welcomes the reader into the world she loved best.

					Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance By: Marshall Winslow Stearns, Jeans Stearns The phrase jazz dance has a special meaning for professionals who dance to jazz music (they use it to describe non-tap body movement); and another meaning for studios coast to coast teaching 'Modern Jazz Dance' (a blend of Euro-American styles that owes little to jazz and less to jazz rhythms). However, we are dealing here with what may eventually be referred to as jazz dance, and we could not think of a more suitable title.

					Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy By: Robert Farris Thompson This landmark book shows how five African civilizations—Yoruba, Kongo, Ejagham, Mande and Cross River—have informed and are reflected in the aesthetic, social and metaphysical traditions (music, sculpture, textiles, architecture, religion, idiogrammatic writing) of black people in the United States, Cuba, Haiti, Trinidad, Mexico, Brazil and other places in the New World.

					Tango: The Art History of Love By: Robert Farris Thompson In this generously illustrated book, world-renowned Yale art historian Robert Farris Thompson gives us the definitive account of tango, "the fabulous dance of the past hundred years–and the most beautiful, in the opinion of Martha Graham.” Thompson traces tango’s evolution in the nineteenth century under European, Andalusian-Gaucho, and African influences through its representations by Hollywood and dramatizations in dance halls throughout the world. He shows us tango not only as brilliant choreography but also as text, music, art, and philosophy of life. Passionately argued and unparalleled in its research, its synthesis, and its depth of understanding, Tango: The Art History of Love is a monumental achievement.

					Dancing Class: Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Divides in American Dance, 1890-1920 By: Linda J. Tomko Tomko blazes a new trail in dance scholarship by interconnecting U.S. History and dance studies.... the first to argue successfully that middle-class U.S. women promoted a new dance practice to manage industrial changes, crowded urban living, massive immigration, and interchange and repositioning among different classes." ―Choice From salons to dance halls to settlement houses, new dance practices at the turn of the century became a vehicle for expressing cultural issues and negotiating matters of gender. By examining master narratives of modern dance history, this provocative and insightful book demonstrates the cultural agency of Progressive-era dance practices.