A Sense of Dance: Exploring Your Movement Potential

Rating:
Summary: Like having a Friend guide you through the process
Review: A delightful, thorough and original review of the many skeins that weave through dance. The three chapters on choreographing were unbelievably helpful as I went through the process of making some of my own dances. Like having a trusted friend talk you through the process. I was able to critically examine and revise (or throw-out!) some of the elements I was using. As the previous reviewer noted, a unique and particularly helpful aspect of this book is the numerous movement and compositional exercises the author walks (dances) you through.

Rating:
Summary: Like having a Friend guide you through the process
Review: A delightful, thorough and original review of the many skeins that weave through dance. The three chapters on choreographing were unbelievably helpful as I went through the process of making some of my own dances. Like having a trusted friend talk you through the process. I was able to critically examine and revise (or throw-out!) some of the elements I was using. As the previous reviewer noted, a unique and particularly helpful aspect of this book is the numerous movement and compositional exercises the author walks (dances) you through.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Introduction to Dance
Review: This book is an excellent guide for the beginning dance student. It is also useful for a more general audience, because the book is not only about dancing, but more fundamentally "is about finding ways to acknowledge who you are and what you know so that you can apply your own unique resources to any creative endeavor." The book provides a wealth of both theory and practical information, but the emphasis is always on you, the dancer or student of life, discovering who you are through dance and other physical movement. So that you understand what she's saying physically and not just mentally, Schrader supplements her text with a host of practical exercises, many of which focus on increasing your awareness of your body and of your physical environment. At the end of each chapter, she also provides a number of questions to deepen your thinking about the subjects addressed. The book is written in an extremely clear, engaging, well organized, and occasionally humorous vein. The book provides enough information, exercises, and questions to enable committed students to attain a substantial degree of mastery of dancing, whether as a performer, choreographer, or observer, and does so in a way that is not intimidating to the beginning student. The book is full of pictures, diagrams, and figures to make it easier to understand and more fun to read. A truly outstanding book that almost anyone can benefit from, and one that sets the standard as an introduction to dance.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Introduction to Dance
Review: This book is an excellent guide for the beginning dance student. It is also useful for a more general audience, because the book is not only about dancing, but more fundamentally "is about finding ways to acknowledge who you are and what you know so that you can apply your own unique resources to any creative endeavor." The book provides a wealth of both theory and practical information, but the emphasis is always on you, the dancer or student of life, discovering who you are through dance and other physical movement. So that you understand what she's saying physically and not just mentally, Schrader supplements her text with a host of practical exercises, many of which focus on increasing your awareness of your body and of your physical environment. At the end of each chapter, she also provides a number of questions to deepen your thinking about the subjects addressed. The book is written in an extremely clear, engaging, well organized, and occasionally humorous vein. The book provides enough information, exercises, and questions to enable committed students to attain a substantial degree of mastery of dancing, whether as a performer, choreographer, or observer, and does so in a way that is not intimidating to the beginning student. The book is full of pictures, diagrams, and figures to make it easier to understand and more fun to read. A truly outstanding book that almost anyone can benefit from, and one that sets the standard as an introduction to dance.