Introduction
This page collects recommended books related to choreography history, practice, and notable names. If you are studying choreography, be sure to also check out our page Dance on Video at the end of this guide to find resources to help you locate and watch performances.
Selected Resources
Tandem Dances: Choreographing Immersive Performance by Call Number: Online ResourceTandem Dances: Choreographing Immersive Performance proposes dance and choreography as frames through which to examine immersive theatre, more broadly known as immersive performance. The idea of tandemness—suggesting motion that is achieved by two bodies working together and acting in conjunction with one another—is critical throughout the book. Author Julia M. Ritter persuasively argues that practitioners of immersive productions deploy choreography as a structural mechanism to mobilize the bodies of cast and audience members to perform together.
Contemporary Choreography by Call Number: GV1782.5 .C668 2009This innovative text provides a range of articles covering choreographic enquiry, investigation into the creative process, and traditional understandings of dance making. By capturing the essence and progress of choreography in the twenty-first century this reader supports and encourages rigorous thinking and research for future generations of dance practitioners and scholars.
The Choreographic by Call Number: Online ResourceAn investigation of dance and choreography that views them not only as artistic strategies but also as intrinsically theoretical and critical practices. The choreographic stages a conversation in which artwork is not only looked at but looks back; it is about contact that touches even across distance.
Fifty contemporary choreographers by Call Number: GV1785.A1 F548 2021Fifty Contemporary Choreographers is a unique and authoritative guide to the lives and work of prominent living contemporary choreographers; this third edition includes many new names in the field of choreography. Representing a wide range of dance genres and styles, each entry locates the individual in the context of contemporary dance and explores their impact.
Film Choreographers and Dance Directors by Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating GV1779 B55 F5This is a comprehensive reference work to 970 choreographers who worked in nearly 3,500 films. For each, there is a biography providing date and place of birth (and death when appropriate), a description of their choreographic style and a listing of their stage, television, music video, nightclub and concert credits. This is followed by a listing of the movies they choreographed. A decade-by-decade history of dance on film and a filmography of choreographically important works in each decade are included.
Speaking of Dance by Call Number: GV1782.5 M67S6Speaking of Dance: Twelve Contemporary Choreographers on Their Craft delves into the choreographic processes of some of America's most engaging and revolutionary dancemakers.
