CHRONICLES OF THE AMERICAN DANCE

Authored by a variety of contributors (with few exceptions of wide familiarity to the uninitiated) these chronicles of this art, its performers and performances combine both historical and human interest. Opening with the dance as given by the ""convulsioners"" of the Shaker sect, a variety of people and phases in this field receive coverage: John Durang, the first famous American dancer of the 18th century; Master Juba, ignored initiator who blended the African dance form with the American; the Black Crook, the great musical spectacle of the 60's; Dodworth's famous ""Dancing Academy"" and ballroom dancing; ballerinas Mary Ann Lee and Augusta Maywood; the classic male dancer- George Washington Smith; and the innovators, Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, Maud Allan, the Denisbawns, Martha Graham... If primarily for the devotees of this art, the material here has much of unusual, unorthodox interest.