Ballet and Modern Dance (World of Art)

Susan Au

Softcover | 12.9 x 2 x 19.8 cm | 232 pp

Thames & Hudson | 2012 | 9780500204115

Everyone with an interest in dance will have felt the need for a guide to the art's rich history and complex present. Susan Au's text covers the whole subject, vividly describing the great performers and performances of the past as well as exploring in detail the dance world of today.

A generous selection of illustrations completes the picture, taking the reader from the palaces of the Medici to the lofts of Manhattan, from the dancing of Louis XIV to the experimental choreography of Twyla Tharp and Pina Bausch.

Jim Rutter's new introduction and revised and expanded final chapter set the book firmly in the twenty-first century, featuring leading choreographers and performers including Jérôme Bel, Christopher Wheeldon, Chunky Move and the "Ballet Boyz" alongside such
styles and influences as Krumping and Parkour. He also charts developments across onstage technology, new media and reality television, encompassing motion-responsive lasers, YouTube and So You Think You Can Dance to portray a vibrant, technologically
attuned and expressively evolving medium.

"A straightforward narrative whose strength lies in the author's way of creating a seamless fabric of people and activities that seems inevitable rather than accidental." Dance Research Journal

World of Art
Comprehensive in coverage and accessible to all, Thames and Hudson's World of Art series explores both the newest and the perennial in all the arts, covering themes, artists and movements that straddle the centuries and the gamut of visual culture around the globe.