Something In The Way She Moves: Dancing Women From Salome To Madonna

By Wendy Buonaventura and Dashka Slater

With heroines like Josephine Baker, Colette, Isadora Duncan, and the cancaneuses of the Moulin Rouge, this is far from a conventional history.Rich with both fascinating anecdotes (such as the New Jersey girl picked up by the police for dancing the very sexy turkey trot one day during the Roaring Twenties), and astonishing facts (the first geishas were men), Something in the Way She Moves shows us the world of dance and sex through women's eyes. Best-selling author Wendy Buonaventura brings us from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where immigrants created the delicious tango, to Paris and the bawdy, leggy cancan dancers of the Moulin Rouge, to New York, where struggling African-Americans cakewalked, Charlestoned, and shimmied into the public eye, creating "jazz dance" (originally--and tellingly--called "jass" dance). This is a book for lovers of dance and lovers of history alike, and an engrossing introduction to a slightly seamy side of a cultural legacy.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306813483
• ISBN13: 9780306813481
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.3" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Historical Perspective on Women in Dance

Wendy Buonaventura's book is a book about the way women have gained freedom from the constraint's of society through dance. How the "battle of the sexes" have played out on the dance floor, and how society views women during different historical periods. This book is a "must read" for any serious student of dance, whether male or female. Some people may find sections of the book offensive, but, hey, the way women were treated in society and are still treated is offensive, Wendy just points out the obvious! It's an intelligent, thoughtful, well-written book, with all her sources listed for further study. For those of us women in the dance world, it rings very true and very close to home. However, this book should be read by the general public, just not dancers. It is for anyone interested in societal pressures on women, and men, and how dance often spurs change. I have bought this book for dancer friends and donated to a few libraries, it is a book that should be on every dancer's shelf.