Dancing

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by Gerald Jonas,

Preface by Rhoda Grauer

Harry N. Abrams Inc.

Due/Published October 1998, 256 pages, paper

ISBN 0810927918

Using new research from the fields of dance history and anthropology, as well as interviews and his own travels throughout the dance world, Jonas weaves together descriptions of dance traditions from 6 continents. Here are clear explanations of the history and aesthetics of Western ballet, kabuki and bugaku in Japan, the court dances of Ghana's Asante people, kathakali and bharata natyam in India, as well as a history of 20th-century dance crazes, the development of modern dance, and an explanation of the cultural forces fusing African and Western dance traditions that resulted in the social dances familiar to most Americans today. 275 illustrations 125 in color