Dance Appreciation

Dance Appreciation is an exciting exploration of how to understand and think about dance in all of its various contexts. This new edition has been revised and updated to include contemporary considerations of the art of dance along with enhanced discussion questions and prompts for the dance student.

This book unfolds a brief history of dance with engaging insight into the social, cultural, aesthetic, and kinetic aspects of various forms of dance. Dedicated chapters cover ballet, modern, tap, jazz, hip-hop dance, and social dance complete with summaries, charts, timelines, discussion questions, movement prompts, and online resources all designed to foster awareness of and appreciation for dance in a variety of contexts. This wealth of resources helps to uncover the fascinating components that makes this art form so diverse and entertaining, and to answer the questions of why we dance and how we dance.

Written for the novice dancer as well as the more experienced dance student, Dance Appreciation enables readers to learn and think critically about dance as a form of entertainment and art.

Online resources are provided for students and instructors, with videos of dance movements, additional online references, PowerPoint slides for each chapter, updated quiz and exam banks, and reflective questions and assignment ideas. These resources are available at www.routledge.com/cw/clark.

Author Biography

Amanda Clark is a Professor at Western Kentucky University, USA, where she teaches all levels of jazz and tap dance technique, along with dance theory coursework. Amanda received an MFA in Dance from the University of Oklahoma and a BPA in Dance Performance from Oklahoma City University. She has taught dance and presented choreography nationally and internationally. Amanda’s primary research interests lie in the history and pedagogy of jazz and tap dance as reflected in her text Dance Pedagogy (Routledge, 2024).

Sara Pecina is the Director of Dance at Berry College, USA. She received her MFA in Dance from the University of Oklahoma and graduated with a BA in Dance from Western Kentucky University. She has presented research on the history and pedagogy of jazz and tap dance both nationally and internationally at various dance conferences, including both the National Dance Education Organization and the Dance Studies Association annual conferences. Sara is a certified mat Pilates instructor and has also trained to teach Dance for Parkinson’s Disease with Mark Morris Dance Group and is in the American Tap Dance Foundation’s Rhythm Tap Teacher Program.