The best books about dancing

What is my book about?

Echo is an outcast in her village because of the scars on her face. Her only solace is her books and the warmth of her father’s love. So when her father goes missing and she finds him half-frozen at the feet of a mysterious white wolf, she’ll do anything to save him—even promise to live with the wolf for one year.

The wolf’s house is magical and ever-changing. If its many wondrous and perilous rooms aren’t routinely cared for, they unravel and are lost forever. The wolf teaches Echo how to tend the house, and when she discovers an enchanted library filled with book mirrors—and the dashing reader Hal inside of them—she determines to help however she can. But time is running out, and if Echo doesn’t unravel the mystery of the wolf’s enchantment before the year is up, she’ll lose the wolf—and Hal—forever. A retelling of “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”, set in a Russian-inspired world.

What is my book about?

From the Kingdom of Kongo to Congo Square presents a new interpretation of the Mardi Gras Indians, one of New Orleans’ most enigmatic cultural traditions. By interpreting this performance in an Atlantic context and using historical sources in multiple languages, I traced the “Black Indians” back to the ancient Kingdom of Kongo in Africa and its war dance known as “sangamento.” The book shows that talented warriors in the Kongo kingdom were by definition also good dancers, masters of a technique of dodging, spinning, and leaping that was crucial in local warfare. Furthermore, it demonstrates how this performance tradition accompanied enslaved Kongolese communities to the African island of São Tomé and, subsequently, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Louisiana.

What is my book about?

After a lifetime of writing about primal forces of American modernism in culture and industry I had an epiphany ten years ago to seize upon this legendary dancer and choreographer who propelled the art form into the modern age. Time magazine called Martha Graham “the Dancer of the Century.” Her technique became the first alternative to the idiom of classical ballet. Her pioneering movements—powerful, dynamic, jagged, edgy, forthright—combined with her distinctive system of training, were the epitome of American modernism, performance as art. 

At the heart of Graham’s work: movement that could express inner feelings. And at the heart of my long obsession with her – seeing through the looking glass into the fiery orbit of an irrepressible, indefatigable meteor whose imagery still lights up the stage three decades after her death. 

What is my book about?

This book captures elements of my half-century studying gender from an ethnographic perspective. I have re-analyzed my own gender research, focusing in this book on the varying masculinities I have observed. Specifically, the book looks at men’s lives in the Olympic Peninsula logging community of Bushler Bay in the 1970s (and again in 2017); the multi-ethnic (Javanese, Sundanese, and Minangkabau) transmigration communities of Sitiung in West Sumatra in the 1980s; the Kenyah Dayak communities of Long Segar and Long Anai in East Kalimantan between 1979 and the early 2000s (and again in 2019); and the world of international forestry research between 1995 and 2010. The book describes the variations in gender relations and in habitat from place to place and from time to time.

What is my book about?

A More Graceful Shaboom is a children’s book about a nonbinary protagonist named Harmon Jitney who finds joy and purpose in a magical satchel, leading to an extraordinary, previously undiscovered universe. This book features LGBTQ characters seamlessly woven into a delightful, imagination-sparking story, without overtly being a lesson book about gender identity.

Follow Harmon as they unlock the key to their own inner happiness and sense of community. You may even meet a Muffin Monster along the way! It’s a dash of Narnia, The Little Prince, and the town of Woodstock all rolled into one, plus there are disco balls. I always prefer if people buy books directly from my website. This is the best way to most straightforwardly support me as an author.

What is my book about?

What is my book about?

On June 19, 1865—more than two years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation— enslaved Texans finally learned they were free. That day became a day of remembrance and celebration that changed and grew from year to year. With colorful illustrations and a timeline, The Juneteenth Story is an introductory history of Juneteenth for kids that details the evolution of the holiday commemorating the date the enslaved people of Texas first learned of their freedom.

Learn about the events that led to emancipation and why it took so long for enslaved people in Texas to hear the news. Hear about the first Juneteenth celebrations, and how Juneteenth continued to grow, develop, and endure through the centuries to become an official holiday in the United States in 2021.

What is my book about?

European communal dance developed around farming beliefs about fertility and health, when farming spread to Europe 8,000 years ago. Food crops depended on soil and rain: the ancestors, buried below, could push up the sprouts, but who managed rain? Perhaps the spirits of girls who died before bearing children (many by drowning) and hadn’t used their natural allotment of fertility. Dance rituals appeased spirit-maidens when angry, and told them when it was time to leave their watery homes and shed fertility by dancing across the fields. My book traces traditional seasonal rituals, folklore of the dancing spirit-maidens, wedding customs around those most potent maidens, Brides, plus the matching archaeological evidence, concluding with insights from cognitive science on “Why do we humans just love to dance?”

What is my book about?

When Little Red Barn wakes one morning, he finds his animal friends have gone. He's empty and alone. And then big noisy machines lift him up and put him on a truck. As Little Red is transported across the countryside, down a major river, and through city streets, he feels anxious and a little afraid. Where is he going? Who will be there when he reaches his destination? When Little Red does finally reach his new home in a surprising location, he finds things are even better than before.

While entertaining children, the story of the little barn's relocation and adjustment to a new place will reassure and comfort young readers facing changes in their own lives.

What is my book about?

Can she break the curse in time to save her sisters? She may conquer more than the Midnight King; she may learn to conquer herself.

In this retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Cinderella, Faye must sacrifice herself to save her sisters, or risk them being trapped in the Underworld forever, suffering from the curse she helped create. After being separated for three years from her sisters except when she dances with Pathos, the Midnight King, at midnight on a full moon, Faye finally sees a chance to rescue them all. But things are not as easy as they appear. Pathos, the midnight king, is determined to keep her in the Underworld with him.