Books for Teachers
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General
​-Attention and Focus in Dance: Enhancing Power, Precision and Artistry – Clare Guss-West
-The Creative Habit: Learn In and Use It for Life – Twyla Tharp
32 practical exercises based on the lessons Twyla Tharp has learned to develop and hone your creative talents.
-Dance Adventures: True Stories About Dancing Abroad – Mehan Taylor Morrison
Short Essays about exploring dance in different countries.
-Dance Appreciation – Dawn Davis Loring and Julie L. Pentz
Exploring and connecting dance with other academic and artistic disciplines to broaden it's appreciation as an art form and a lifetime physical activity.
-Futures of Dance Studies – Susan Manning, Janice Ross and Rebecca Schneider
-Keep It Moving: Lessons for the Rest of Your Life – Twyla Tharp
A series of no-nonsense mediations on how to live with purpose as time passes.
-The Living World of Dance: Artistry in Motion – Jack and Linda Vartoogian and Carol Cooper Garey
Photos of dance heritage around the world.
-Perpetual Motion: Dance, Digital Cultures, and the Common – Harmony Bench
Studies of dance in the digital age with a pandemic.
-Trash the Trophies – Chasta Hamilton
Chasta shows you how she challenged preconceived notions of success in the dance industry transformed her studio and increase ROI.
-Weird dance: Curious and Bizarre Dancing Trivia – Tim Rayborn
-Writing In and About the Performing and Visual Arts: Creating, Performing, and Teaching – Stephen J. Corbett, Jennifer Lin LeMesurier, Teagan E. Decker, and Betsy Cooper
An intersection of writing and the choreographic process with written activities.
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Anatomy & Conditioning
-Bodystories: A Guide to Experiential Anatomy – Andrea Olsen
-Conditioning for Dance: Training for Peak Performance in All Dance Forms – Eric Franklin
-Dance Anatomy (2nd Edition) – Jacqui Greene Haas
100 effective exercises to correct alignment placement and breathing.
-Motor Learning and Control for Dance: Principles and Practices for Performers and Teachers – Donna H. Krasnow and M. Virginia Wilmerding
A look at motor learning theory from a dance perspective.
Biographies & Memoirs
—–Ÿ——-And Then We Danced: A Voyage into the Groove – Henry Alford
-America Dances: A Personal Chronicle-in Words and Pictures – Agnes De Mille
-Balanchine’s Apprentice: From Hollywood to New York and Back – John Clifford
-Being a Ballerina: The Power and Perfection of a Dancing Life – Gavin Larsen
-Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical (Broadway Legacies) – Kevin Winkler
-Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy – Misty Copeland
-Center Center: A Funny, Sexy, Sad Almost-Memoir of a Boy in Ballet – James Whiteside
-Dance to the Piper – Agnes de Mille and Joan Acocella
-Dancing into My Bolshoi Dream: A Vision that Turns into Reality – Anna Duvall
-Dancing on My Grave: An Autobiography – Gelsey Kirkland
-Dancing Past the Light: The Life of Tanaquil Le Clercq – Orel Protopopescu
-Daniel Lewis: A Life in Choreography and the Art of Dance – Donna H. Krasnow and Daniel E. Lewis
-I Was a Dancer – Jacques D'Amboise
-Josephine Baker and the Rainbow Tribe – Matthew Pratt Guterl
-Marius Petipa: The Emperor’s Ballet Master – Nadine Meisner
-Martha: The life and Work of Martha Graham - A Biography – Agnes De Mille
-Out loud: A Memoir – Mark Morris
-Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina – Georgina Pazcoguin
-Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina – Michaela DePrince
-Ted Shawn: His Life, Writings and Dances – Paul A. Scolieri
Choreography
-Choreography: A Basic Approach Using Improvisation – Sandra Cerny Minton
63 exercises to illustrate and solve choreographic problems.
-The Intimate Act of Choreography – Lynne Anne Blom
A book that covers all aspects of choreography.
-Tandem Dances: Choreographing Immersive Performance – Julia M. Ritter
Explores choreography and movement within immersive performances.
Dance Education
-Brain-Compatible Dance Education (2nd Edition) – Anne Green Gilbert
A look at brain research to connect science to teaching and learning in dance classrooms.
-Dance Education Resources for the Classroom – Lindsay Blackburne
Secondary classroom curriculum resources.
-Dance Teaching Methods and Curriculum Design: Comprehensive K12 Dance Education (2nd Edition) – Gyle Kassing and Danielle Jay-Kirshenbaum
Pedagogy on child development, teaching styles and unit planning.
-Ethical Dilemmas in Dance Education: Case Studies on Humanizing Dance Pedagogy – Doug Risner and Karen Schupp
Case studies that present scenarios covering a wide range of classroom dilemmas.
-Moving Lessons: Margaret H’Doubler and the Beginning of Dance in American Education (2nd Edition) – Janice L. Ross
A look on the origins and influences on dance in American universities.
-The Natural Body in Somatics Dance Training – Doran George
The history of somatics and it’s application in training and choreography.
Early Childhood
-Creative Dance for All Ages – Anne Green Gilbert
Theory, methodology and lesson plans for creative movement classes.
-The 1st Three Years of Dance: Teaching Tips, Lesson Plans and Syllabi for Successful Dance Classes – Gina Evans
Novels
-​The Italian Ballerina – Kristy Cambron
A historical novel set during World War II where a ballerina, two American medics and a young Jewish girl band together to save Italian Jews.
-Juba! – Walter Dean Myers
Historical fiction novel on the first recorded tap dancer.
-Murder in 1st Position: An On Pointe Mystery – Lori Robbins
-Murder in 2nd Position: An On Pointe Mystery – Lori Robbins
-A Time to Dance – Padma Venkatraman
A classical dance prodigy struggles to regain her passion in the ancient bharatenatyam dance form.
-Tiny Pretty Things & Shiny Broken Pieces – Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton
Drama novels about characters competing to be prima at their elite ballet school.
-The Winner: A Ballroom Dance Novel – Erin Bomboy
A story of two dancers competing in the most prestigious ballroom dance competition.
Genres
Ballet
-Balanchine’s Ballerinas: Conversations with the Muses – Robert Tracy and Sharon DeLano
-The Ballerina Mindset: How to Protect your Mental Health while Striving for Excellence – Megan Fairchild
-Ballet and Modern Dance: A Concise History – Jack Anderson
-Ballet Basics – Sandra Noll Hammond
An introduction to ballet technique for adult beginners.
-Ballet Recipes: The Ingredients of Classical Ballet Technique – Maricelle Peeters
-Beginning Ballet – Gayle Kassing
An instructional guide.
-Classical Ballet Technique – Gretchen Ward Warren
-Dance Theatre of Harlem – Judy Tyrus and Paul Novosel
The historical creation and struggles of the community dance company who’s theme reflects: “All can do ballet”.
-Dancing for Balanchine – Merrille Ashley
-Home at the Barre: Adult Ballet – Dawn C. Crouch
-The Perfect Pointe Book – Lisa Howell B.Phty
-The Pointe Book: Shoes, Training & Technique (2nd Edition) – Janice Barringer and Sarah Schlesinger
-Pointe Work: Ten Reasons Why and When – Dawn C. Crouch
-Private View: Inside Baryshnikov’s American Ballet Theatre – John Fraser
-(Re:) Claiming Ballet – Adesola Akinleye
Essays that bring light to the overlooked influences that inform the culture of ballet.
-Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet Itself – Chloe Angyal
-Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet – Stephan Manes
Insight on how ballet really happens around the world in a variety of settings.
Ballroom
​
-Ballroom Dancing (10th Edition) – Alex Moore
Comprehensive handbook to Ballroom dance.
-The Essential Guide to Ballroom Dance – Janet Cunningham-Clayton and Malcolm Fernandes
-Glamour Addiction: Inside the American Ballroom Dance Industry – Juliet E. McMains
-Life On The Wood Floor – Jenell Maranto
Professional ballroom dance champion, Jenell Maranto, chronicles her experience of learning ballroom dance.
Hip Hop
​
-Beginning Hip Hop Dance – E. Moncell Durden
An instructional guide.
-Break Dancing – Curtis Marlow
History and instructional guide on break dancing and electric boogie (1984).
-From Hucklebuck to Hip-Hop, Social Dance in the African American Community in Philadelphia – John Roberts
-Hip Hop Dance (The American Dance Floor) – Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
An overview of the history of hip hop culture and an exploration of its dance style.
-The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies – Mary Fogarty and Imani Kai Johnson
Comprehensive research covering many Hip Hop and Funk dance styles.
Jazz
-Beginning Jazz Dance – James Robey
An instructional guide.
-Between Beats: The Jazz Tradition and Black Vernacular Dance – Christi Jay Wells
A history of Jazz dance that unpacks common terminology.
-Jazz Dance Class (Beginning thru Advanced) – Gus Giordano
-The Luigi Jazz Dance Technique – Kenneth Wydro
Modern
​
-Ballet and Modern Dance: A Concise History – Jack Anderson
-Beginning Modern Dance – Miriam Giguere
An instructional guide.
-Onstage with Martha Graham – Stuart Hodes
Memoir of a male dancer in early modern US dance history.
Tap
-Beginning Tap Dance – Lisa Lewis
An instructional guide.
-Tap! – Rusty Frank
A collection of voices and memories from 30 tap artists throughout history.
-The Tap Dance Dictionary – Mark Knowles
-Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History – Constance Valis Hill
-Tap into Improv: A Guide to Tap Improvisation – Barbara Duffy
-TapWorks: A Tap Dictionary and Reference Manual – Beverly Fletcher
-What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing –Brian Seibert
Other Genres
-Aerial Dance: A Guide to Dance with Rope and Harness – Jenefer Davies
-Beginning Musical Theater Dance – Diana Dart Harris
An instructional guide.
-Contemporary Indian Dance: New Creative Choreography in India and the Diaspora – K. Katrak
-Dancing Women: Choreographing Corporeal Histories of Hindi Cinema – Usha Iyer
-Drumming Asian America: Taiko, Performance and Cultural Politics – Angela K. Ahlgren
-The Grand Union: Accidental Anarchists of Downtown Dance 1970-1976 – Wendy Perron
A book on the Grand Union improvisation group and their exploration of play in postmodern dance.
-Heat and Alterity in Contemporary Dance: South-South Choreographies – Ananya Chatterjea
-Mudras of India: A Comprehensive Guide to the Hand Gestures of Yoga and Indian Dance – Cain Carroll, Revital Carroll
-Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof – Alisa Solomon
