LEARN TO SPEAK DANCE

From ballet to breakdancing and from backyard to Broadway, a guide to all aspects of practice, production and performance.

In this companion title to Learn to Speak Music (2009), the author, a Canadian dance teacher, offers upbeat and wide-ranging advice on why humans dance, how to use different parts of the body to step and spin and jump and how to translate a love of dance into everything from a small amateur performance to a serious career. An inviting format features brief quotations from dancers and captioned paragraphs that provide small nuggets of information. Aspiring choreographers, musicians, stage managers and set designers will find start-up pointers. If you suffer from backstage butterflies or don’t know how to take a bow, Williams provides guidance. Want to gather an audience? Read about publicity techniques using posters and online resources. Want to produce a dance video and need funding? Find out about using camera angles and exploring community resources. A double-page spread takes readers behind and in front of theater curtains in a layout that anyone interested in the arts will find informative. Kulak’s cartoon illustrations are a light-hearted accompaniment.

The enormous popularity of dance and music videos and TV dance competitions should provide a ready and eager audience of children and teens who love to move.