Dance Teacher Blog: Finding the Right Books for Your Dance Classroom

POINTE 5*6*7*8
Dance Teacher Blog
Finding the Right Books for Your Dance Classroom

My Dance Books

I love dance books!  I love any book about any type of dance.  It's one of my "dancers tricks."  I always felt it kept me in the artistic world a lot longer than my more agile, more talented peers.  That's hard to admit, but my love of books from an early age, helped create longevity in my dance career.  Instead of burning out by age 18, I was refreshed and renewed.  I tried yoga because of an article I read in Dancer Magazine when I fifteen.  I read a beautiful biography on Nijinsky, A Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky,  when I graduated college that opened my eyes to my own form and style of dancing.  (Nijinsky: A Life of Genius and Madness  by Richard Buckle is also an excellent book!)

Whether the book is a dance book geared towards elementary aged students or a young teen, you can create lessons, stories, dance history assignments all around the pages of a book.  In a recent article in The Horn Book Magazine Jill Homan Randall writes: 


"Books about dance can articulate the language of the art form, providing definitions and correct terminology to help children really understand what dance is all about.  They can also help paint an accurate picture of life as a dancer by showing the hard work and day-to-day experiences of people who practice the art."-Jill Homan Randall January 2013

Read more about Jill Homan Randall and her list of "Good Dance Books" on her Blog

I have a little dance library in my studio that may inspire a barre combination in my ballet classes or a picture book that may help me teach lines, and shapes to my creative movement dancers.  My 6th grade Contemporary class is learning about Bill T. Jones, Pilobolus and Martha Graham.  I have pictures, you tube videos, and books for my lesson.  It's nice to have that voice that is not your own teach your students something new about dance.  I also hear from my school's librarian how my dance students often select dance books for their non-fiction book reports.  A 5th grade student doing a report on Martha Graham's Appalachian Spring is pretty impressive.

MY FAVORITE DANCE BOOKS FOR TEACHING
Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet Gail Grant
Modern Dance Wendy Garofoli
Basic Principles of Classical Ballet Antatole Chujoy
The Pointe Book Second Edition Janice Barringer & Sarah Schlesinger
Teaching Beginning Ballet Technique Gayle Kassing & Danielle M. Jay

MY FAVORITE DANCE BOOKS FOR MY STUDENTS AGES 5-18
DANCE Bill T. Jones & Susan Kuklin
DANCE From Ballet to Breakin'- Lorrie Mack
Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan
Ballet of the Elephants Leda Schubert
The Ballet Book Darcy Bussell in association with The Royal Ballet School
Tales from the Ballet Louis Untermeyer
Dance Performance From Rehearsal to Opening Night Kristin Kessel
Let's Dance! George Ancona


No matter the age of your dance students they can all learn something about dance that isn't just about learning a new technique.  Perhaps it's opening their imagination to create a piece of choreography, or it helps them define a piece of movement.

 "A good book about dance inspires children through words and images.  It opens up the world of dance training, backstage experiences, performing, and celebrating through movement.  Together with words and pictures we will stretch, jump, turn and leap.  A good book about dance shares the magic and joy of the art form in all of it's roles in cultures throughout the world." Jill Homan Randall What Makes a Good Book About Dance?