The book is worth reading. It has some great dance photos. The book covers lots of dance history-(English, African, Cuban, and Dutch) that I haven't seen. I also like the part about how salsa and rumba originated and developed. Salsa has always been a mystery to me (with the many styles and lack of structure or syllabus) and she broke down the orgins and how it has developed. She discusses improvised dancing (Salsa, West Coast Swing and A. Tango). She writes about English dance history, but nothing about Russian dance history. Her take on Latin dance history was interesting, however, I did tire of the brown face stuff or tanned faces and all the racial implications. She even discusses new innovative dance teams and high school dance programs.
One chapter profiled fictional characters attending a dance competition. She could have written a few more chapters with these characters-or maybe even a fictional dance novel.
She sheds a slant on how grotesque and money hungry Pro Am dancing can be. She discusses how biased and manipulating dance judges can be. All the glamour psychololgy got old after a few chapters.
The author had a very short lived competition life. She could have written more on how hard it is to break into the Rising Star circuit. Or if she had been more successful--what it takes to get farther up the ladder-- especially if one is a very hard worker, with little money and not extremely talented.
The book is long and detailed--not perfect, but provides lots of information about dance. Not a text book-but appears to be well researched.
You can buy it used at Amazon for about $10.
I recently read a biography on Fred Astaire--don't remember the author, it was a wonderful book. What are your favorite dance books--especially biographies or novels?
