General Books

Patrick Swayze: One Last Dance

Wendy Leigh

Amazon Price: $16.49 List Price: $24.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon Spotlight Entertainment Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $11.45

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Actors & Actresses
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Entertainers

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A heartwarming, in-depth portrait of the beloved star whose sensational performances in Dirty Dancing and Ghost seduced a generation, and whose courage in the face of illness captivated millions

For almost thirty years, Patrick Swayze has been an American icon of masculinity and sex appeal, strong but sensitive, romantic yet dangerous.

In this intimate and revealing biography, New York Times bestselling author Wendy Leigh shares the inspiring untold story of Patrick's incredible life: his show business childhood, his fairy-tale love affair with wife Lisa Niemi, his catapult into alcoholism after his father's untimely death, the daredevil exploits that almost killed him, and his courageous fight against pancreatic cancer, a fight that has off-ered hope and encouragement to others grap-pling with similar life-threatening illnesses.

Ever since the steamy low-budget film Dirty Dancing skyrocketed Patrick to fame and cemented his place in the hearts of audiences around the world, he has been one of our most cherished public figures. Based on interviews with countless sources who have never spoken about Patrick before -- from the Texas beauty who shared his first kiss, to the woman he almost married, to the manager who worked closely with him from his teen idol days until his romantic tour de force in Ghost -- and many more, Leigh unveils surprising details about the charismatic actor's life on- and off-screen. Beginning with his training as a dancer with his choreographer mother and spanning his remarkable -- and at times challenging -- career, this groundbreaking biography of the un-forgettable entertainer is the mesmerizing, enduring, and definitive story of a man who captured our hearts.

Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery

Eric N. Franklin

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Human Kinetics Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 59 new & used starting at $17.97

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Destined to become a classic text and reference, Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery shows you how to use imaging techniques to improve posture and alignment and release excess tension. The book`s 195 illustrations will help you visualize the images and exercises and show you how to use them in a variety of contexts.

Part I of Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery discusses the origins and uses of imagery and includes 36 exercises that demonstrate dynamic alignment in practice. You`ll explore the importance of posture and dynamic alignment and discover how to use imagery to affect body movement.

Part II explains the biomechanical and anatomical principles behind complex imagery and illustrates 52 exercises to bring these principles to life. You`ll learn how to use basic physics to create a strong yet fluid balance in your muscles and joints.

Part III provides 250 anatomical imagery exercises to help you fine-tune alignments and increase body awareness. The exercises focus on different regions of the body--the pelvis, hips, knees, lower legs, spine, shoulders, arms, hands, head, and neck--as well as on breathing. You can select specific images to address individual needs or follow the sequence presented in the book.

And Part IV provides 23 holistic exercises to sculpt and improve alignment in various positions--standing, supine, and sitting. These exercises will help you establish a body image that facilitates dynamic alignment and releases excess tension.

By practicing the techniques described in Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, you`ll tap into the power of imagery and create better movement.

Conditioning for Dance

Eric Franklin

Amazon Price: $16.29 List Price: $23.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Human Kinetics Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 62 new & used starting at $14.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Conditioning for Dance improves your technique and performance in all dance forms by strengthening the body’s core while improving your coordination, balance, alignment, and flexibility. The result is more lift without tension, deeper pliés, higher jumps with less effort, tighter turns, and improved extension and turnout.

The innovative, proven techniques in this book will help you execute key movements better as you

·strengthen the muscles you use in dance by performing exercises with elastic resistance bands;
·start and move in proper alignment using imagery;
·improve your balance and release tension through playful exercises with small balls;
·develop leg and torso power that translates to higher jumps and tighter turns; and
·optimize your flexibility through touch, movement awareness, and imagery.

Conditioning for Dance features 102 imagery illustrations paired with dance-specific exercises to help you maximize body–mind conditioning. The book culminates with a 20-minute, full-body barre workout routine designed to help you warm up, condition, and refine your dance technique.

By working the muscles through movements and ranges of motion that approximate the demands of your chosen dance form, you directly enrich your performance capabilities. And as you strengthen the body’s core, stretch to gain just the right amount of flexibility, and incorporate the power of the mind, you unleash your full artistic and physical potential.

The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition

Anne Bogart, Tina Landau

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Theatre Communications Group Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $7.12

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation that grew out of the postmodern dance world. It was first articulated by choreographer Mary Overlie, who broke down the two dominant issues performers deal with-space and time-into six categories. Since that time, directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau have expanded her notions and adapted them for actors to function together spontaneously and intuitively and to generate bold, theatrical work.

The Viewpoints are a set of names given to certain principles of movement through time and space-they constitute a language for talking about what happens on stage. Coupling this with Composition, which is the practice of selecting and arranging the separate components of theatrical language into a cohesive work of art, provides theatre artists with an important new tool for creating and understanding their art form.

Primarily intended for the many theatre artists who, in the last several years, have become intrigued with Viewpoints yet have had no single source to refer to in their investigations. It can also be used by anyone with a general interest in collaboration and the creative process, whether in art, business or daily life.

Anne Bogart is Artistic Director of the SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is the recipient of two OBIE Awards and a Bessie Award, and is an associate professor at Columbia University. Her recent works include Alice's Adventures; Bobrauschenbergamerica; Small Lives, Big Dreams; Marathon Dancing; and The Baltimore Waltz.

Tina Landau, noted director and playwright, whose original work includes Space (Time magazine 10 Best), Dream True (with composer Ricky Ian Gordon) and Floyd Collins (with composer Adam Guettel), which received the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, an OBIE Award and seven Drama Desk nominations. She has been an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company since 1997.

Relax Your Neck, Liberate Your Shoulders: The Ultimate Exercise Program for Tension Relief

Eric Franklin

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Princeton Book Company Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $11.81

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Alternative Medicine -> Healing
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Disorders & Diseases -> Pain Management

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Visualization = relief 5 out of 5 stars.
57 of 58 people found this review helpful.

Eric Franklin, a dancer and choreographer, has been teaching imaging techniques for years to dancers and others. Imaging is basically using visualization to relax the body. Sounds hokey? It isn't - it truly works!

I bought this book as I was having chronic shoulder tension and felt I wanted to try something new. The imaging techniques presented are simple - and you can do them any time, anywhere - with your mind being the only equipment needed!

Franklin goes into detail about how your shoulders and neck work - and has many different ways to aid your tension. Although visualization can be difficult for some people, his exercises make it simple and you are bound to find a few gems here to assist you in releasing your upper body stress.

There are pictures throughout - not the greatest artwork, but they convey what you are working on clearly enough. I found the language to be precise and easy to grasp. After using this book for a few weeks, I have been having less stress in my shoulder and am feeling much freer. I use a few of the techniques with my yoga students as well.

Editorial Review:

A foolproof guide to releasing shoulder and neck tension, this book shows how imagery and touch can be used to eliminate stiffness and pain. It provides simple and effective exercises that can be done at home, at work, or on the road. Sufferers of upper body pain will learn how to detect and eradicate early signs of tension by better understanding the connection between emotional states and tension. These individuals will learn how to survive stressful situations calmly and without tensing a single muscle. An explanation of the anatomy of the shoulders provides a better understanding of how improving the alignment of the head, neck, and shoulders will ease the strain on muscles and joints and promote an aura of confidence and health.

Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese

Dita Von Teese

Amazon Price: $30.36 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperEntertainment Amazon Marketplace: 65 new & used starting at $21.93

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

On one side, Dita Von Teese shares the beauty of the burlesque world, with bubblegum dreams and show tunes to strip to. Flip over for fantasies in fetish with dramatic costumes and the allure of submission.

Burlesque and the Art of the Teese

"I advocate glamour. Every day. Every minute."

I'm a good dancer and a nice girl, but I'm a great showgirl. I sell, in a word, magic. Burlesque is a world of illusion and dreams and of course, the striptease. Whether I am bathing in my martini glass, riding my sparkling carousel horse, or emerging from my giant gold powder compact, I live out my most glamorous fantasies by bringing nostalgic imagery to life.

Let me show you my world of gorgeous pin-ups, tantalizing stripteases, and femmes fatales. I'll give you a glimpse into my life, but a lady never reveals all.

Fetish and the Art of the Teese

You may have come for the fetish. Or you may just be sneaking a peek at this mysterious and peculiar other side. No matter what you've come for, there is something for you to indulge in.

My world of fetish may not be the one that you would expect. As a burlesque performer, I entice my audience, bringing their minds closer and closer to sex and then -- as good temptress must -- snatching it away. As a fetish star, I apply the same techniques. . . .

An opera-length kid leather glove, a strict wasp waist, an impossibly high patent leather heel, a severely painted red lip. . . . Come with me into my world of decadent fetishism.

Dancing: The Pleasure, Power, and Art of Movement

Gerald Jonas

Amazon Price: $23.75 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harry N. Abrams Amazon Marketplace: 140 new & used starting at $12.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Good book 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The book was fine. It was for Wayne State University's DNC 1000 course. I found the book to be easy reading and informative. It gives you insight on different dance forms from around the world and gives you a fuller appreciation of dance as an art. :-)
Thanks Amazon!

Dancing - college textbook order 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Product was purchased known to be used, and was in excellent shape except for one tiny minute crease on the cover's bottom corner, which I accepted ahead of time by knowing the product was not new. You would never have known it was used otherwise. Had I expected perfection, I would have purchased a new copy. The product was well worth the price.

Editorial Review:

The first illustrated, international survey of dancing covers all aspects of dance--not only the major theatrical traditions, but also dance as a form of social, cultural, and religious expression. 275 illustrations, 125 in full color.