Dancing queen Anne-Marie Williams has a wonderfully open, inclusive approach to dance. She starts with movement: Dance, as she puts it, is just a mashup of everyday movement and your imagination. Your instrument is the human body, and your job as a dancer is to find out what it can do!Within the pages of this book, judgement, self-consciousness and embarassment are forbidden. Instead, use the prompts and and tips to learn how to move in a way that speaks to your unique rhythms and heart. If you weren't interested in dance before, you will be by the time you're done reading!
For extra inspiration, Williams has included video recommendations that span dance styles from ballet to b-boy (breakdancing, apparently, is so out!) For those with America's Best Dance Crew dreams, there are tips for assembling a your crew: business tips to help you go bigtime, and practical info on how to work with the behind the scenes folks who make performances go.
It helps that this excellent information is packaged up into a retro-styled, glossy tome weighing in at a respectable 96 pages. The sharp art-deco palette and squared-off art perfectly illustrate the balance of precision and creativity that's needed to carry off a dance. This is a wonderful example of art and text working together to make a finished product that pops.
For kids or teens who can't help wiggling and jiggling along to the music, this book might just be the catalyst that propels them into a full fledged dance career. It certainly made me want to kick up my heels!
Nonfiction
Grades 6-12
Click here to check out the Port Moody Public Library's catalogue.
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