Here are 81 books that Let's Dance! fans have personally recommended if you like
Let's Dance!.
Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
Dance has always been an important part of my life. I specialized in dance in college (Denison University) and graduate school (MFA, University of Michigan) and danced professionally for twelve years. As a dance educator, I’ve taught in colleges, conservatories, schools, and community centers, teaching toddlers, senior adults, and every age in between. I’ve authored two books for teachers, three picture books, articles in journals, and verses for children’s magazines. I share my passion for dance by writing and teaching, and visiting schools, libraries, and book festivals. I believe that every child should have the opportunity to participate in the arts; they are essential and transformational forces in our lives.
I love this book because its central theme is to inspire children to explore different kinds of movement. The prompts are all centered around animals, with lots of words that help to describe the animals and how they move.
Words like “stretch,” “waggle,” “march,” and “splash” help children use their imaginations and explore many ways of moving their bodies. The beautiful illustrations by Hannah Abbo will also inspire young readers.
Learn about animals and get grooving with this fun and lively picture book from a renowned STEAM expert and arts educator!
Discover the amazing ways that animals use movement to communicate! Lighthearted text and vibrant illustrations teach readers how peacocks strut and honeybees waggle, and even invites kids to get up and try out some animal-inspired dance moves themselves!
Dance has always been an important part of my life. I specialized in dance in college (Denison University) and graduate school (MFA, University of Michigan) and danced professionally for twelve years. As a dance educator, I’ve taught in colleges, conservatories, schools, and community centers, teaching toddlers, senior adults, and every age in between. I’ve authored two books for teachers, three picture books, articles in journals, and verses for children’s magazines. I share my passion for dance by writing and teaching, and visiting schools, libraries, and book festivals. I believe that every child should have the opportunity to participate in the arts; they are essential and transformational forces in our lives.
I love the variety of movement words in this book that offer children so many ideas about how to dance and what to dance about. It encourages children to dance however they want and offers playful prompts like emotions (dance because you’re happy or sad), different body parts (dance with your face or your fingers), and different places (dance at the bus stop!).
This book has colorful and fun illustrations by the author to enhance the lively movement ideas.
A playful picture book that urges readers to bop, bounce, and shake from the author of Fraidyzoo
There are so many ways to dance! You can jiggle or wiggle or stomp. You
can bop or bounce or go completely nuts. You can dance at the market or
the bus stop, with your fingers or your face. You can dance because
you're happy or even because you're sad.
But, what's the best way to dance?
Exactly how you want to!
In How Do You Dance?,
author-illustrator Thyra Heder explores dance in all of its creativity,
humor, and-most of all-joy, in a…
Dance has always been an important part of my life. I specialized in dance in college (Denison University) and graduate school (MFA, University of Michigan) and danced professionally for twelve years. As a dance educator, I’ve taught in colleges, conservatories, schools, and community centers, teaching toddlers, senior adults, and every age in between. I’ve authored two books for teachers, three picture books, articles in journals, and verses for children’s magazines. I share my passion for dance by writing and teaching, and visiting schools, libraries, and book festivals. I believe that every child should have the opportunity to participate in the arts; they are essential and transformational forces in our lives.
This picture book is one of twenty in the Dance-It-Out Movement Story series. Each picture book tells a delightful story that serves as a catalyst for children to “dance it out,” with colorful and playful illustrations by Sudipta Steve Dasgupta.
This one is the story of Danika, who loves ballet and incorporates it into her life in many fun and creative ways. The book has instructions and photos to inspire children to dance along with the story.
Two Ballerinas dance on the pages of this charming story of ballet passion.
"Overflowing with enthusiasm for ballet, this book is a celebration of all those who live with dance in their souls. Effervescent images of both Danika and Ballerina Konora will inspire children to mirror their movements both while reading the story and after it ends". (—Mary Lanni, Librarian Reviewer)
Danika loves ballet. She translates each ordinary aspect of her life into a remarkable dance performance. Ballerina Konora (a professional ballerina) joins the fun with how-to instructions and photos for kids who want to dance along with Danika, Penelope…
Dance has always been an important part of my life. I specialized in dance in college (Denison University) and graduate school (MFA, University of Michigan) and danced professionally for twelve years. As a dance educator, I’ve taught in colleges, conservatories, schools, and community centers, teaching toddlers, senior adults, and every age in between. I’ve authored two books for teachers, three picture books, articles in journals, and verses for children’s magazines. I share my passion for dance by writing and teaching, and visiting schools, libraries, and book festivals. I believe that every child should have the opportunity to participate in the arts; they are essential and transformational forces in our lives.
This book, written by a lifelong dance educator, is the second in a planned series that helps children learn about science and nature through movement. The creative movement prompts come directly from images of light, both natural and man-made.
The book is filled with ideas to encourage children to learn about the nature of light, darkness, reflection, and refraction, and to use these images to inspire creativity and learning. Beautiful illustrations by the author are superimposed with photographs of young children dancing about the different aspects of light.
The Dancing Light is the second in a series of books by dance educator Karen Diaz Ensanian, created to facilitate dance making with young children. The book exposes them to beautiful visual art, view photos of young dancers demonstrating science concepts through their movement, and hear poetic verse and action words that help them illustrate the nature of LIGHT. By embodying this information, the student makes deep connections in their body, mind, to the world, and to the nature of light. This is an opportunity to learn by way of movement. Internalizing the information and imagery, students will gain a…
As an undergraduate at the University of Leeds in the 1960s the principal influence on my life and thinking was Trevor Ling an Anglican Priest and Buddhist who eventually became a Professor of comparative religion at the University of Manchester. He was the start of my research on Islam and Asia and my peripatetic career having lived in Scotland, Germany, Holland, America, Australia and Singapore. I became a professor of the sociology of religion in the Asia Research Center at the National University of Singapore. I have published two books on Singapore, a handbook of religions in Asia, and several works on the body, medicine, ageing and human vulnerability.
It concerns the complex and demanding process of becoming proficient in dance procedures. The stages involve becoming deeply mindful of the body. The novice has to become attached and subordinated to a ‘master’ who can of course be a woman. Through these rituals the novice becomes enculturated into the dance aesthetic and the wider culture. The core energy required by dance comes from the abdomen to empower the dancer. The training involves self-cultivation. Eventually the mind no longer hinders the expressivity of the body.
How do music and dance reveal the ways in which a community interacts with the world? How are the senses used in communicating cultural knowledge? In Sensational Knowledge, ethnomusicologist and dancer Tomie Hahn uncovers the process and nuances of learning nihon buyo, a traditional Japanese dance form. She uses case studies of dancers at all levels, as well as her own firsthand experiences, to investigate the complex language of bodies, especially across cultural divides. Paying particular attention to the effect of body-to-body transmission, and how culturally constructed processes of transmission influence our sense of self, Hahn argues that the senses…
The most important words of advice my incisive editor at Knopf, Victoria Wilson, gave me while I was laboring upon my biography of Martha Graham – coming out in October, you can pre-order it now – was to say that “she was not a goddess, and you don’t want to worship her.” Yes, I had the nerve to take on this formidable and forbidding figure as a result of bearing witness to her anti-War masterwork, Chronicle, on a winter evening fourteen years ago. Yes, I believed that modern dance was the missing link in my long exploration of American modernism. And yes, I believe that I have proven my point, painting Martha Graham’s portrait as a person – rather than an icon.
I am sure many of you already know this visionary philosopher from his ground-breaking The Hero With a Thousand Faces. You may not be aware that Campbell was married to Jean Erdman, one of Martha Graham’s principal dancers in the ‘30s and ‘40s. Campbell’s initiations to modern dance came at Sarah Lawrence College when witnessing Erdman as Graham’s student; and then at Bennington, where Erdman performed with Graham’s company. His own learned background in the archetypal ethos of C.G. Jung made Campbell a prime candidate for Graham’s deeply-digging, Nietzschean/ecstatic archaic/abstract movement vocabulary. The choreographer and the professor spoke the same kinaesthetic language, Erdman remembered. There were many late nights when “Martha would call Joe on the phone” with some arcane question about her mythographic pieces in progress – Night Journey and Errand into the Maze. Many of Campbell’s essays in this book were first published in Dance Observer…
Joseph Campbell’s collected writings on dance and art, edited and introduced by Nancy Allison, CMA, the founder of Jean Erdman Dance, and including Campbell’s unpublished manuscript “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts,” the book he was working on when he died.
Dance was one of mythologist Joseph Campbell’s wide-ranging passions. His wife, Jean Erdman, was a leading figure in modern dance who worked with Martha Graham and had Merce Cunningham in her first company. When Campbell retired from teaching in 1972, he and Erdman formed the Theater of the Open Eye, where for nearly fifteen years they…
I began studying women’s lives in college (1960s), but recently realized that I (like others) passed myself off as a gender specialist, but had been ignoring men’s roles, beliefs, and behaviour in gender dynamics. I was put off by the studies that too consistently showed men as always violent and controlling. Many studies emphasized men at war, men abusing women, and gay men with HIV/AIDS; there seemed no recognition of positive masculine traits. Recognizing also that men had different ideals about their own masculinity in different places, I examined men’s lives among international elites and in communities in the US, Sumatra, and Indonesia, where I’d done ethnographic research.
Erotic Triangles returns to a part of the world I know well, though the topic is alien to my own natural resource emphasis. Yet I found it fascinating for its symbolic analyses of West Java’s musical and art worlds – intertwined intimately with the relations between men and women and among men. Its emphasis on triangles was the inspiration for me to structure my own analyses as a harp (another ‘triangle’), within which the strings signify traits that men value in a given culture. Spiller’s analysis inspired my own analogy between the creation of harp music and the clusters of values that influence men’s identities, their personal and cultural ‘songs.’
In West Java, Indonesia, all it takes is a woman's voice and a drumbeat to make a man get up and dance. Every day, men there - be they students, pedicab drivers, civil servants, or businessmen - breach ordinary standards of decorum and succumb to the rhythm at village ceremonies, weddings, political rallies, and nightclubs. The music the men dance to varies from traditional gong ensembles to the contemporary pop known as dangdut, but they consistently dance with great enthusiasm. In "Erotic Triangles", Henry Spiller draws on decades of ethnographic research to explore the reasons behind this phenomenon, arguing that…
I’m an artist with an analytical mind. I love art and stories but I also love systems and processes. Ever since taking a class at art school about making pop-ups, I’ve been in love with paper engineering. It’s been the perfect synthesis of all my loves. There’s something fascinating about transforming an everyday object (paper) into something unexpected. Combined that with a great story and you have a magical experience! I like focusing my work on books for young readers (board books - picture books) because it gives adults and kids an opportunity to interact with each other and build memories.
I grew up loving animation and was captivated by how putting drawings together could create an illusion of life.
This wordless picture book somehow captures that awe with its interactive tabs. By flipping the tabs throughout the book, the characters move and feel like they are being animated.
I love that the story is a dance between Flora and her flamingo friend, literally and figuratively, as they have a disagreement. Everything about this book is well thought out—the interactive mechanisms really enhance the story. Additionally, the drawings are just so beautiful. It’s simply fantastic!
In this innovative wordless picture book with interactive flaps, Flora and her graceful flamingo friend explore the trials and joys of friendship through an elaborate synchronized dance. With a twist, a turn, and even a flop, these unlikely friends learn at last how to dance together in perfect harmony. Full of humor and heart, this stunning performance (and splashy ending!) will have readers clapping for more of this fun flamingo story!
For more feathery fun with the flamingo girls, pick up more preschool wordless books like Flora and the Penguin, Flora and the Peacocks, Flora and the Chicks, Flora and…
I write to spread joy and truth. As a proud Black mother living in a country with school districts that see Black stories as threats worth banning, amplifying these stories is crucial to the fight to help humanize us and retain the privilege of celebration and joy. When I wrote The Juneteenth Story, it was rooted in a conscious effort to balance my own joyous summertime memories of celebrating the holiday with the hard truths that established and evolved this holiday. This list includes a small sample of books about some of the many ways Black folks celebrate - enjoy.
I don’t know if this book necessarily takes place in summer, but it’s centered around one of my favorite ‘African-American Joy Rituals’ - the Electric Slide! Kai agonizes over his failure to get a dance nickname from his very cool grandfather because of his two left feet. When his aunt gets married, he’s determined to conquer the Electric Slide at her reception.
Who doesn’t love a good, all-inclusive line dance? I still remember learning the Electric Slide when I was 6– to this day if I’m at a party and it’s playing, you’ll know where to find me (the dance floor!). Fun book.
Kai is the only member of his family who can't get the dance steps to the Electric Slide right. But Kai is determined to bust a move in this fun and sweet celebration of Black families.
Kai's aunt is getting married, and everyone in the Donovan family is excited about the wedding ... except Kai. The highlight of every Donovan occasion is dancing the electric slide--a groovy line dance with footwork that Kai can't quite figure out. More than anything, he wants to prove that he can boogie with the rest of his family and earn…
I think Mother Goose got it all wrong. I have been creating books and coloring books for LGBTQ families for over two decades. I believe we deserve stories about LGBTQ children that are jubilant and adventurous; that are about love, mystery, time travel, and all the things everyone else treasures in their favorite books without being lesson books about bullying or being “different.” I have closed many children's books as soon as I get to the part where they are beaten up and made fun of for being gender non-conforming. I am also a visual artist and I love well-written books that are beautiful to look at.
This is a perfectly charming story about a boy who is way into ballet and baseball, written in the 1970s, but which still holds up today. And no one ever makes fun of him. Max is not necessarily Queer, but I consider it in the canon of kid’s books that address gender identity.
