Review by Choice Review
The author, associated with the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London, is an internationally known practitioner and writer on dance. She collected her headwords and phrases from classes, workshops, books, journals, program notes, theses, media events, film, and interviews, wherever "dance people" communicate. Entries are recent, chiefly 1991-95, mostly British with some American influence; none predate 1900. Arrangement is topical in seven sections: dance "domain," performers, movement, choreographic concepts, sound and space, events, and research. Within sections, entries are not alphabetical but are grouped by similar concept or close relationship--e.g., "Centripetal," "Centrifugal," "En Dedans," "En Dehors," and "Choreutic Unit" all depict aspects of movement in relation to the dancer's central body axis. Users must depend on the term and author indexes. A list of oral contributors gives brief biographical information; many entries refer to a lengthy bibliography. Citations do not provide page numbers, so tracing quotations will be difficult. Because the entries often describe rather than define concepts and may be subjective, this is an incomparable, artistic glossary more than a dictionary. For all students of dance. E. B. Nibley American University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
