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AMERICA DANCING

Name: AMERICA DANCING
Author: Megan Pugh
ISBN: 978-0-300-20131-4

FROM THE CAKEWALK TO THE MOONWALK

by Megan Pugh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 17, 2015

Pugh gracefully dances the fine line between critic and fan.

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In her debut, a scholar and freelance critic transforms some key people and events into artful coat trees on which to hang the history of American popular dance.

Pugh is offering not a detailed, comprehensive history but a focused, intentionally limited account. Some readers may quibble with her choices—why chapters on Agnes de Mille and Michael Jackson and not Bob Fosse and Gene Kelly?—but as the text unfurls, most readers will be satisfied (Fosse does get significant mention in Jackson’s chapter). The author opens with a startling moment: the 1939 arrest of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in Times Square for loitering while contemplating a neon sign of himself, and Robinson’s influence, as well as the influences of numerous other black dancers, glides through the text. Others meriting considerable attention include Fred Astaire and Paul Taylor, but Pugh is careful to include myriad other important figures, including Hermes Pan (who worked with Astaire) and Cholly Atkins (whose work Jackson studied closely). Some will find surprises here, as well. With his wife, Henry Ford wrote a manual for square dancers (Good Morning, 1926), and Michael Jackson learned the moonwalk from others, practicing for years before he presented it to the public. Although Pugh’s scholarship is considerable, she is writing not for a scholarly but for a general audience. Readers won’t get lost in any forest of arcane vocabulary or be confused by charts and diagrams. Her intent, instead, is to show dance’s sort of mockingbird origins: moves come from earlier moves and moments—evolution, not intelligent design. At times, the author has a dancer’s grace in the flow of her prose. She calls a piece by Paul Taylor “an exercise in delicious contrarianism.” Her tone is relentlessly positive, however, with seldom a discouraging word.

Pugh gracefully dances the fine line between critic and fan.

Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-300-20131-4

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Yale Univ.

Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.