Download or read book The Dancing Plague written by John Waller and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping tale of one of history's most bizarre events, and what it reveals about the strange possibilities of human nature In the searing July heat of 1518, Frau Troffea stepped into the streets of Strasbourg and began to dance. Bathed in sweat, she continued to dance. Overcome with exhaustion, she stopped, and then resumed her solitary jig a few hours later. Over the next two months, roughly four hundred people succumbed to the same agonizing compulsion. At its peak, the epidemic claimed the lives of fifteen men, women, and children a day. Possibly 100 people danced to their deaths in one of the most bizarre and terrifying plagues in history. John Waller compellingly evokes the sights, sounds, and aromas; the diseases and hardships; the fervent supernaturalism and the desperate hedonism of the late medieval world. Based on new evidence, he explains why the plague occurred and how it came to an end. In doing so, he sheds light on the strangest capabilities of the human mind and on our own susceptibility to mass hysteria.

Download or read book A Time to Dance a Time to Die written by John Waller and published by Icon Books Company. This book was released on 2008 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In July 1518 a terrifying and mysterious plague struck the medieval city of Strasbourg. Hundreds of men and women danced wildly, day after day, in the punishing summer heat. Their feet blistered and bled, and their limbs ached with fatigue, but they simply could not stop. Throughout August and early September more and more were seized by the same terrible compulsion." "By the time the epidemic subsided, heat and exhaustion had claimed an untold number of lives, leaving thousands bewildered and bereaved, and an enduring enigma for future generations." "This book explains why Strasbourg's dancing plague took place. In doing so, it leads us into a largely vanished world, evoking the sights, sounds, aromas, diseases and hardships, the fervent supernaturalism and the desperate hedonism of the late-medieval world." "At the same time, it offers insights into how people behave when driven beyond the limits of endurance. Not only a historical detective story, A Time to Dance, A Time to Die is also an exploration of the strangest capabilities of the human mind and the extremes to which fear and irrationality can lead us."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book The Dance of Death written by Hans Holbein and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Danced to Death written by Lieutenant Kretser and published by Publish America. This book was released on 2005-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the summer of 1985, a woman named Teresa Moore disappeared from her job as a convenience store clerk in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, the register was untouched and nothing in the store was found to be missing. Also, the victim's purse was nearby and had nothing missing from it. In front of the store was a running hose that was used by the store to wash down the front area of debris. Apparently, Teresa was abducted inside the store by an unknown assailant whose identity would baffle detectives for the next ten years. This chilling dramatization of actual events sets the tone for an investigation into finding Teresa's merciless killer. The twists and turns of this dramatic cold-case file can easily be compared to the ranks of today's best-selling fiction. From a rookie detective who always regretted not solving his first big murder case to the latest technology worthy of an episode of CSI, Danced to Death carries with it the emotional weight and shocking details of the best true crime has to offer.

Download or read book Dance on My Grave written by Aidan Chambers and published by Harper Trophy. This book was released on 1995 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hal's summer affair with Barry Goldman ends tragically when Hal discovers he is much more committed to the relationship than his friend.

Download or read book The Girl Who Danced With Death complete collection written by Sylvain Runberg and published by Titan Comics. This book was released on 2019-01-23 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I’m not going to be able to do this alone.” Lisbeth Salander had hoped the defeat of her father, the leader of a sex abuse ring that wracked the country, would bring about a new peace for Sweden and her life. But political tensions are high across the country, and Lisbeth and Mikael Blomkvist soon find themselves thrown together against the world. From Runberg and Ortega comes an all-new original story based on the bestselling novel series by Stieg Larsson. Collects Millennium: The Girl Who Danced With Death #1-3.

Download or read book Dance We Do written by Ntozake Shange and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her first posthumous work, the revered poet crafts a personal history of Black dance and captures the careers of legendary dancers along with her own rhythmic beginnings. Many learned of Ntozake Shange’s ability to blend movement with words when her acclaimed choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf made its way to Broadway in 1976, eventually winning an Obie Award the following year. But before she found fame as a writer, poet, performer, dancer, and storyteller, she was an untrained student who found her footing in others’ classrooms. Dance We Do is a tribute to those who taught her and her passion for rhythm, movement, and dance. After 20 years of research, writing, and devotion, Ntozake Shange tells her history of Black dance through a series of portraits of the dancers who trained her, moved with her, and inspired her to share the power of the Black body with her audience. Shange celebrates and honors the contributions of the often unrecognized pioneers who continued the path Katherine Dunham paved through the twentieth century. Dance We Do features a stunning photo insert along with personal interviews with Mickey Davidson, Halifu Osumare, Camille Brown, and Dianne McIntyre. In what is now one of her final works, Ntozake Shange welcomes the reader into the world she loved best.

Download or read book Apollo s Angels written by Jennifer Homans and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-11-02 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, LOS ANGELES TIMES, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY For more than four hundred years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully told, Apollo’s Angels—the first cultural history of ballet ever written—is a groundbreaking work. From ballet’s origins in the Renaissance and the codification of its basic steps and positions under France’s Louis XIV (himself an avid dancer), the art form wound its way through the courts of Europe, from Paris and Milan to Vienna and St. Petersburg. In the twentieth century, émigré dancers taught their art to a generation in the United States and in Western Europe, setting off a new and radical transformation of dance. Jennifer Homans, a historian, critic, and former professional ballerina, wields a knowledge of dance born of dedicated practice. Her admiration and love for the ballet, as Entertainment Weekly notes, brings “a dancer’s grace and sure-footed agility to the page.”

Download or read book To Dance On Sands written by Marta Becket and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2020-11-05 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About Marta Becket . . . "Tears came to my eyes. Marta represented to me the spirit of the individual. The spirit of the theater. The spirit of creativity." -Ray Bradbury, Author "Marta's paintings have a degree of humor and playfulness. The use of color is outstanding and tell of a generosity, talent and skill." -Red Skelton, Comedian/Artist "Long before anybody invented the term performance art, Marta Becket was doing it, in an abandoned opera house in Death Valley Junction. She restored it an

Download or read book Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980 1983 written by Tim Lawrence and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the 1970s gave way to the 80s, New York's party scene entered a ferociously inventive period characterized by its creativity, intensity, and hybridity. Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor chronicles this tumultuous time, charting the sonic and social eruptions that took place in the city’s subterranean party venues as well as the way they cultivated breakthrough movements in art, performance, video, and film. Interviewing DJs, party hosts, producers, musicians, artists, and dancers, Tim Lawrence illustrates how the relatively discrete post-disco, post-punk, and hip hop scenes became marked by their level of plurality, interaction, and convergence. He also explains how the shifting urban landscape of New York supported the cultural renaissance before gentrification, Reaganomics, corporate intrusion, and the spread of AIDS brought this gritty and protean time and place in American culture to a troubled denouement.

Download or read book Dance or Die written by Ahmad Joudeh and published by Charlesbridge Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Syria-born dancer offers his deeply personal story of war, statelessness, and the pursuit of the art of dance in this inspirational memoir. DANCE OR DIE is an autobiographical coming-of-age account of Ahmad Joudeh, a young refugee who grows up in Damascus with dreams of becoming a dancer. When he is recruited by one of Syria’s top dance companies, neither bombs nor family opposition can keep him from taking classes, practicing hard, and becoming a Middle Eastern celebrity on a Lebanese reality show. Despite death threats if Ahmad continues to dance, his father kicking him out of the house, and the war around him intensifying, he persists and even gets a tattoo on his neck right where the executioner's blade would fall that says, "Dance or Die." A powerful look at refugee life in Syria, DANCE OR DIE tells of the pursuit of personal expression in the most dangerous of circumstances and of the power of art to transcend war and suffering. It follows Ahmad from Damascus to Beirut to Amsterdam, where he finds a home with one of Europe's top ballet troupes, and from where he continues to fight for the human rights of refugees everywhere through his art, his activism, and his commitment to justice.

Download or read book Dance Of Death written by Dale Hudson and published by Pinnacle Books. This book was released on 2014-08-26 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lethal Beauty Kimberly Renee Poole, 21, led a double life. The Winston-Salem, North Carolina area housewife and mother was also a topless dancer at a strip club. She craved jewelry, designer clothing, and adulterous affairs with both men and women. Brent Poole, her hopelessly devoted spouse, could deny her nothing. But that wasn't enough for Renee. She wanted his money and his life. Infernal Triangle Murder moved from fantasy to reality after Renee Poole began an affair with John Boyd Frazier, a patron at the club where she worked. On the night of June 9, 1998, on the pretext of celebrating their third wedding anniversary, Poole lured her husband to an oceanfront hotel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. While their young daughter slept in the hotel room, Renee made love to Brent on the deserted beach--then delivered him to Frazier, who shot him dead. American Nightmare From the start, police knew Renee's story didn't add up, and the investigation that followed exposed the dark details of how Brent Poole's marriage to his dream woman ended in cold blood. Author Dale Hudson's gripping account of this high-profile case of greed, lust and murder includes extensive interviews with Renee Poole herself, whose dance of death landed her in prison for life. 16 Pages Of Exclusive Photos Dale Hudson is the co-author of two previous true crime books. He holds three earned masters degrees in Psychology, Education, and Religion. He lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Download or read book Dancing on My Ashes written by Heather Gilion and published by Tate Publishing. This book was released on 2010-05 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Holly and Heather share their story and help to walk the reader through the painful yet necessary healing process for when life deals us its harshest blows. Dancing on my ashes soothes and empathizes with the broken heart, while sharing the truth of scripture, and the hope that comes from the heart of God.

Download or read book Loves Music Loves To Dance written by Mary Higgins Clark and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-01-31 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Erin and Darcy, answering personal ads as research for a TV show, discover a whole new New York sub-culture - adulterers, con men, the shy and frankly weird, all looking for love. And one man looking for something darker . . . A serial killer who has just got away with murder for fifteen years, and has promised himself just two more . . .

Download or read book I Was a Dancer written by Jacques D'Amboise and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Who am I? I’m a man; an American, a father, a teacher, but most of all, I am a person who knows how the arts can change lives, because they transformed mine. I was a dancer.” In this rich, expansive, spirited memoir, Jacques d’Amboise, one of America’s most celebrated classical dancers, and former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for more than three decades, tells the extraordinary story of his life in dance, and of America’s most renowned and admired dance companies. He writes of his classical studies beginning at the age of eight at The School of American Ballet. At twelve he was asked to perform with Ballet Society; three years later he joined the New York City Ballet and made his European debut at London’s Covent Garden. As George Balanchine’s protégé, d’Amboise had more works choreographed on him by “the supreme Ballet Master” than any other dancer, among them Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux; Episodes; A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream; Jewels; Raymonda Variations. He writes of his boyhood—born Joseph Ahearn—in Dedham, Massachusetts; his mother (“the Boss”) moving the family to New York City’s Washington Heights; dragging her son and daughter to ballet class (paying the teacher $7.50 from hats she made and sold on street corners, and with chickens she cooked stuffed with chestnuts); his mother changing the family name from Ahearn to her maiden name, d’Amboise (“It’s aristocratic. It has the ‘d’ apostrophe. It sounds better for the ballet, and it’s a better name”). We see him. a neighborhood tough, in Catholic schools being taught by the nuns; on the streets, fighting with neighborhood gangs, and taking ten classes a week at the School of American Ballet . . . being taught professional class by Balanchine and by other teachers of great legend: Anatole Oboukhoff, premier danseur of the Maryinsky; and Pierre Vladimiroff, Pavlova’s partner. D’Amboise writes about Balanchine’s succession of ballerina muses who inspired him to near-obsessive passion and led him to create extraordinary ballets, dancers with whom d’Amboise partnered—Maria Tallchief; Tanaquil LeClercq, a stick-skinny teenager who blossomed into an exquisite, witty, sophisticated “angel” with her “long limbs and dramatic, mysterious elegance . . .”; the iridescent Allegra Kent; Melissa Hayden; Suzanne Farrell, who Balanchine called his “alabaster princess,” her every fiber, every movement imbued with passion and energy; Kay Mazzo; Kyra Nichols (“She’s perfect,” Balanchine said. “Uncomplicated—like fresh water”); and Karin von Aroldingen, to whom Balanchine left most of his ballets. D’Amboise writes about dancing with and courting one of the company’s members, who became his wife for fifty-three years, and the four children they had . . . On going to Hollywood to make Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and being offered a long-term contract at MGM (“If you’re not careful,” Balanchine warned, “you will have sold your soul for seven years”) . . . On Jerome Robbins (“Jerry could be charming and complimentary, and then, five minutes later, attack, and crush your spirit—all to see how it would influence the dance movements”). D’Amboise writes of the moment when he realizes his dancing career is over and he begins a new life and new dream teaching children all over the world about the arts through the magic of dance. A riveting, magical book, as transformative as dancing itself.

Download or read book What the Eye Hears written by Brian Seibert and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 670 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magisterial, revelatory, and-most suitably-entertaining, What the Eye Hears offers an authoritative account of the great American art of tap dancing. Brian Seibert, a dance critic for The New York Times, begins by exploring tap's origins as a hybrid of the jig and clog dancing from the British Isles and dances brought from Africa by slaves. He tracks tap's transfer to the stage through blackface minstrelsy and charts its growth as a cousin to jazz in the vaudeville circuits and nightclubs of the early twentieth century. Seibert chronicles tap's spread to ubiquity on Broadway and in Hollywood, analyzes its decline after World War II, and celebrates its rediscovery and reinvention by new generations of American and international performers. In the process, we discover how the history of tap dancing is central to any meaningful account of American popular culture. This is a story with a huge cast of characters, from Master Juba (it was probably a performance of his in a Five Points cellar that Charles Dickens described in American Notes for General Circulation) through Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Gene Kelly and Paul Draper to Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. Seibert traces the stylistic development of tap through individual practitioners, vividly depicting dancers both well remembered and now obscure. And he illuminates the cultural exchange between blacks and whites over centuries, the interplay of imitation and theft, as well as the moving story of African-Americans in show business, wielding enormous influence as they grapple with the pain and pride of a complicated legacy.What the Eye Hears teaches us to see and hear the entire history of tap in its every step.

Download or read book The Dance of Death written by Ambrose Bierce and published by . This book was released on 1877 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: