Performing Arts

Modern Dance Techniques and Teaching is truly one of a kind: it is the only book to be published documenting Martha Graham's movement philosophy, as recorded by two of Graham's original followers. The purpose of the book, according to its authors, is "to analyze, illustrate and organize for teaching purposes some of the vocabulary (techniques) of modern dance to provide a reference and a guide for teachers and students of modern dance." more...

Price: $11.95

Prior to the civil rights movement, comedians performed for audiences that were clearly delineated by race. Black comedians performed (primarily) for black audiences and white comedians performed for whites. Yet during the past forty-five years, black comics have become progressively more central to mainstream culture. In Laughing Mad, Bambi Haggins looks at how this transition occurred in a variety of media and shows how these integration processes have empowered black comedians to shape popular notions of the African American condition—for better and for worse. Historically, African American performers have been able to use comedy as a pedagogic tool, interjecting astute observations about race relations while the audience is laughing. And yet, Haggins makes the convincing argument that the potential of African American comedy remains fundamentally unfulfilled as long as performances of blackness must be made culturally digestible for mass consumption. Haggins examines the comic televisual and cinematic personae of Dick Gregory, Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, and Richard Pryor and considers how these figures set the stage for black comedy in the next four decades. She reads Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock as emblematic of the first and second waves of post–civil rights era African American comedy, and she looks at the socio-cultural politics of Whoopi Goldberg’s comic persona through the lens of gender and crossover. Laughing Mad also explores how the comedy of Dave Chappelle speaks to and for the post-soul generation. more...

Price: $17.00

Noted scholar Bill Nichols provides a one-of-a-kind overview of the most important topics and issues in documentary history and criticism. Designed for students in any field that makes use of visual evidence and persuasive strategies, from law to anthropology, and from history to journalism, this book spells out the issues and concepts that characterize documentary film and video production and provides the foundational key to further explorations in this area of film making. more...

Price: $15.95

Harrop deals with the intellectual, practical and spiritual issues of what acting is about. Covering the range of actor training and practice from Stanislavski to the Post-Modern, he examines the spiritual and moral purposes of acting in society. more...

Price: $37.95

From the world's first feature film in 1906 to the world's first feature documentaries shot between 1895 and 1901, Australia has always done great things in film. Not only did Australia give birth to film but also to some of the biggest stars of the twentieth century. In the 1980s and 1990s we saw the first low budget films that billed; Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, Guy Pearce, Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman, Eric Bana and Geoffrey Rush. We pushed the barriers of sexuality in film with naked Elle MacPherson in Sirens and Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge. With directors such as Baz Luhrman and actors such as Geoffrey Rush, Australian cinema has become a whole lot more artistic and risqué. Although often undervalued in a multi-billion dollar international film industry, Australia has led the way in artistry, location films, documentaries, nakedness, coarse language, crime, anti-establishment, sexuality and realism. more...

Price: $9.99