A step-by-step guide to learning five different social dances including the swing, cha-cha, fox-trot, waltz, and polka, with illustrations that show proper technique, suggestions for detecting and correcting errors, practice drills, and checklists for evaluating progress; includes a music CD.

Studying Dance: A Guide for Campus and Beyond is a comprehensive bridge for students transitioning into the first year of a college dance program. Through this text, students will understand dance in new and exciting ways, embrace it as an academic discipline, navigate and take charge of their dance education, and visualize potential careers after graduation. Studying Dance: A Guide for Campus and Beyond opens students’ eyes to all the artistic, cultural, and educational aspects of dance. By expanding their thinking, students will move to a deeper understanding of themselves as dancers and the world around them. The author demystifies the entire first-year experience while guiding students in the discovery of dance as a multifaceted discipline. Students will examine academic expectations, time management, the importance of staying focused, and balancing school and life. They will delve into the various areas of dance and a range of careers and paths available to them. They will learn the differences in types of college dance courses, the approaches used, and how to personalize their dance education through individualized instructional opportunities and peer collaboration. The text also will prompt students to visualize and plan their dance lives beyond campus so they can set clear goals for studying and succeeding as young professionals. Studying Dance: A Guide for Campus and Beyond contains many student-friendly features: • 15 easy-to-digest chapters provide the rules of the road that lead to a successful freshman year and future career • 49 interviews with current dance students, recent graduates, and dance professionals encourage students to reflect on and take charge of their learning • Web resource with learning activities, glossary lists, web links, and other tools personalize each student’s journey through the content With this text, teachers can help students expand their thinking about dance in ways that will lead to success on campus and beyond.

If the saying “To be the best, you must learn from the best” holds true, then this book is gold for all aspiring dancers. Dance Composition Basics, Second Edition, doesn’t just feature the works and brilliance of dance and choreographic legends Alonzo King and Dwight Rhoden—it is completely based on the choreographic operations and forms in three of their original works: Chants and Dreamer by King and Verge by Rhoden. All compositional exercises in the book are based on those three works, and the book itself is expertly crafted by Pamela Anderson Sofras, who has 34 years of experience teaching dance at the university level. Dance Composition Basics, designed for beginning dance composition courses, introduces dancers to choreography through a series of problem-solving activities. The activities are starting points for novice dancers to embark on their own attempts at choreography. Useful Tools The book offers several useful tools for instructors: 27 lesson plans that draw from and highlight selected portions of original compositions by King and Rhoden 33 reproducible assessment and self-evaluation forms An instructor guide that includes a sample course syllabus plus written exams for each chapter PowerPoint presentations to guide students through each lesson A web resource featuring online videos that are closely tied to the lesson plans and provide a richer learning experience for students; students can access this resource inside or outside of class Highly Valuable Video Resource The videos give students access to Alonzo King and Dwight Rhoden, highly successful and respected choreographers, who share their processes and techniques. Many video clips show the choreographers working on the same movement concepts featured in the corresponding lesson. Students will see the choreographers in action with professional dancers as they develop the movement material for each dance. Because students get to see the choreographers and dancers struggling with the same creative concepts they have been assigned, these clips add tremendous value to Dance Composition. Book and Web Resource Organization The text is split into five chapters, each of which features several lessons based on that chapter’s choreographic concept. Each lesson contains the following: An introductory statement and a vocabulary list A warm-up to prepare the body and focus the mind Structured improvisations that help dancers understand the movement concepts of the lesson Problem-solving activities that allow dancers to apply the concepts presented in the improvisations Discussion questions to engage dancers and promote understanding Assessment rubrics to guide evaluation of each dancer’s learning At the end of the book, a glossary provides definitions for the vocabulary terms introduced in the chapters. The main menu of the web resource corresponds with the five chapters in the book. To guide students’ use of the videos, icons have been placed throughout the book, referring readers to additional information in the web resource. Reviewing the videos will provide further insight into the choreographic assignment. The web resource also contains all the discussion questions, assessments, and evaluations found in the book. Instructors can distribute these to students electronically or print them out. Instructors can also adapt the forms to meet their specific needs. The Learning Process Dance Composition takes students through a systematic learning process: reading about a concept, discussing the concept, seeing the concept played out on video with professional choreographers and dancers, and exploring the concept through their own movement ideas. Through this process, which includes structured improvisations, students discover a movement vocabulary and original dance phrases. They then more fully develop their movement ideas, with specific movement assignments, and are given feedback by their peers and the instructor. Invaluable Resource Dance Composition Basics, Second Edition, is an invaluable resource for dancers of all styles, from ballet to modern jazz, as it introduces them to some of the compositional structures used by professional choreographers. Through the carefully designed lessons in the book and the expert examples on the video clips, students can use this resource to take their first confident and exhilarating steps into the craft of choreography.

Discovering Dance is the ideal introductory text for students with little to no dance experience. Teachers can adapt this course to meet students where they are, whether they are new to dance or already have some dance experience. The material helps students consider where movement comes from and why humans are compelled to move, grasp the foundational concepts of dance, and explore movement activities from the perspectives of a dancer, a choreographer, and an observer. The result is a well-rounded educational experience for students to build on, whether they want to further explore dance or choreography or otherwise factor dance into college or career goals. Discovering Dance will help students in these ways: • Meet national and state standards in dance education and learn from a pedagogically sound scope and sequence that allow them to address 21st-century learning goals. • Discover dance through creating, performing, analyzing, understanding, responding to, connecting to, and evaluating dance and dance forms. • Step into a flexible dance curriculum that is appropriate for one or more years of instruction. • Build on their dance experience, whether they want to further explore dance or choreography or otherwise factor dance into college or career goals. • Use student web resources to enhance their learning. The book is divided into four parts and 16 chapters. Part I focuses on the foundational concepts of dance and art processes, wellness, safety, dance elements, and composition. Part II delves into societal facets of dance, including historical, social, folk, and cultural dance. In part III, students explore dance on stage, including ballet, modern dance, jazz dance, and tap dance, and also examine aspects of performance and production. Part IV rounds out the course by preparing students for dance in college or as a career and throughout life. Each chapter helps students • discover new dance genres; • explore dance genres through its history, artists, vocabulary, and significant works; • apply dance concepts through movement, written, oral, visual, technology, and multimedia assignments, thus deepening their knowledge and abilities; • enhance learning by completing in each chapter a portfolio assignment; and • use the Did You Know and Spotlight elements to expand on the chapter content and gain more insight into dance artists, companies, and events. Learning objectives, vocabulary terms, and an essential question at the beginning of each chapter prepare students for their learning experience. Students then move through the chapter, engaging in a variety of movement discovery, exploration, response, and research activities. The activities and assignments meet the needs of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners and help students explore dance through vocabulary, history, culture, creation, performance, and choreography. This personal discovery is greatly aided by technology—including learning experiences that require taking photos; watching or creating short videos of dancers’ performances; creating timelines, graphs, drawings, and diagrams; and creating soundscapes. Chapters conclude with a portfolio assignment or project and a chapter review quiz. A comprehensive glossary further facilitates learning. In addition, some chapters contain Explore More elements, which trigger students to investigate selected dance styles on the web resource. These sections offer students insight into various dance genres and styles; for example, in the chapter on cultural dance, students can explore more about street dances, Mexican folkloric dance, African dance, Indian dance, and Japanese dance. The online components further strengthen the book and enrich the students’ learning experience. These resources also help teachers to prepare for and manage their classes. Here is an overview of the resources: Teacher Web Resource • Learning objectives • Extended learning activities • Handouts and assignments that students can complete, save, and print to turn in • Explore More sections of selected chapters to introduce students to additional social, folk, cultural, and contemporary dance styles • Chapter glossary terms both with and without the definitions • Chapter PowerPoint presentations • Information on assessment tools • Interactive chapter review quizzes • Answer keys for handouts, assignment sheets, and quizzes • Unit exams and answer sheets • Video and audio clips for selected dance genres • Web links and web search terms for resources to enhance the learning • Additional teacher resources to support and extend the teaching and learning process (these resources include chapter learning objectives, enduring understanding and essential questions, chapter quotes, teacher-directed information to support teaching specific activities, and web links) Student Web Resource • Handouts and assignments that students can complete, save, and print to turn in • Explore More sections of selected chapters to introduce students to additional social, folk, cultural, and contemporary dance styles • Chapter glossary terms both with and without the definitions so students can test their knowledge • Information on assessment tools • Interactive chapter review quizzes • Video and audio clips for selected dance genres • Web links and web search terms for resources to enhance the learning