Performing Arts

Grace's name may be a bit of a misnomer, for graceful she is not. She wants to be a ballerina, but dancing is not her forte. Give it up, Grace, the other girls tell her. Saddened, Grace turns to drawing--and when she does, she...

Harry Houdini astounded audiences around the globe with his death-defying acts and illusions. With his wife, Bess, often by his side, he freed himself from ropes, handcuffs, straitjackets, and prison cells. Once he even made a ten-thousand-pound elephant vanish into thin air Yet Harry's...

In Returning the Gaze Anna Everett revises American film history by recuperating the extensive and all-but-forgotten participation of black film critics during the early twentieth century. While much of the existing scholarship on blacks and the cinema focuses on image studies and stereotypical representations,...

Democracy's Body offers a lively, detailed account of the beginnings of the Judson Dance Theater--a popular center of dance experimentation in New York's Greenwich Village--and its place in the larger history of the avant-garde art scene of the 1960s. JDT started when Robert Dunn,...

Author: Ralph PendletonPublisher: WesleyanPublished: 01/01/1958Pages: 212Binding Type: PaperbackISBN: 9780819560537This title is only available via back order

Robin Wood-one of the foremost critics of cinema-has laid the groundwork for anyone writing about the horror film in the last half-century. Wood's interest in horror spanned his entire career and was a form of popular cinema to which he devoted unwavering attention. Robin...

Located twenty miles south of Detroit where the Detroit River meets Lake Erie, Bob-lo Island was the ultimate summer playground for families from Detroit and Windsor for nearly one hundred years. In its heyday, the island housed an amusement park with one of the...

Why are there so few Black filmmakers who control their own work? Why are there scarcely any Black women behind the camera? What happens to Black filmmakers when they move from independent production to the mainstream? What does it mean for whites to control...

Bela Lugosi won immediate fame for his portrayal of the immortal count in the 1931 film Dracula. After a decade of trying vainly to broaden his range and secure parts to challenge his acting abilities, Lugosi resigned himself to a career as the world's...

Often typecast as a menacing figure, Peter Lorre achieved Hollywood fame first as a featured player and later as a character actor, trademarking his screen performances with a delicately strung balance between good and evil. His portrayal of the child murderer in Fritz Lang's...

"An insightful read from one of the ballet world's most beloved married couples "--Melinda Roy, former principal dancer, New York City Ballet "Wonderfully complete and instructive, written by two artists who have lived what they write about and are sharing their life experience from...

"What a superb and inspiring book this is It is a celebration of the art of teaching ballet and it will delight anyone who is interested in classical dancing. . . . It is by a dancer, for dancers, about dancing, and we should...

The dramatic concluding months of The Wars of the Roses provide the setting for Shakespeare's incomparable saga of power and intrigue. Under the editorial supervision of Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, two of today's most accomplished Shakespearean scholars, this Modern Library series incorporates definitive...

Twenty-one philosophers investigate the implications of the Jurassic Park franchise for our lives, our values, and our future. Human beings live and thrive by modifying nature, but when do the risks of changing nature outweigh the likely benefits? If it's true that "Life will...

Informed, controversial, ranging from a melancholy study of rock and roll's descent into show business to a hilarious look at the spectacle that is the Jerry Lewis Telethon, these twenty essays offer an unusual and (ironically) entertaining study of American media by one of...

In this newly revised second edition, veteran stage designers and technical directors Dennis Dorn and Mark Shanda introduce industry-standard drafting and designing practices with step-by-step discussions, illustrations, worksheets, and problems to help students develop and refine drafting and other related skills needed for entertainment...

An only child, a mama's boy--Elvis was a shy kid who struggled to make friends and found comfort singing in church and learning guitar. While in high school, he continued his music but was often ridiculed by students. On a whim, he recorded a...

The legendary Hollywood star blazes a fiery trail in this enthralling portrait of a brilliant actress and the movies her talent elevated to greatness In Dark Victory, noted film critic and biographer Ed Sikov paints the most detailed picture ever delivered of Bette Davis,...

For anyone with a beloved pet, this delightful and heartwarming story set at the circus shows that quiet qualities like friendship, kindness, and loyalty are important and worthy. Jane is an ordinary dog in an extraordinary circus. She isn't strong, graceful, or brave like...

Welcome to the spiritual neighborhood of Fred Rogers"I like you as you are Exactly and precisely I think you turned out nicely And I like you as you are."Fred Rogers fiercely believed that all people deserve love. This conviction wasn't simply sentimental: it came...