Dancer In The Dark

Author of the books that inspired True Blood on HBO and Midnight, Texas on NBC Trying to outrun her troubled past and outwit the dangerous ex-boyfriend who nearly killed her, Layla LaRue LeMay has been laying low, quietly rebuilding her life as Rue, and hoping to stay anonymous. When she takes a job as a dancer and is partnered with Sean, a three-hundred-year-old vampire, she soon discovers how hard it will be to conceal her secrets...and her passion. Sean has learned to spend eternity on the sidelines, never getting too close to anyone. Isolation has been the only way to protect himself from the pain of his past and his often uncontrollable passion. Yet the beautiful and mysterious Rue has captivated him and his fiery attraction to her is unstoppable. As the intensity of their connection grows stronger, they find themselves enraptured, losing themselves to the dance, and to each other. After Rue’s stalker returns with revenge on his mind, Sean turns into much more than Rue’s immortal dance partner; he becomes her guardian. Rue must find a way to hide in plain sight and to protect her future with Sean from the terrible life she left behind. From Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author and multiple winner of the Anthony, Sapphire and Romantic Times Awards, comes a compelling story of suspense, romance and unforgettable passion. The novella Dancers in the Dark originally appeared in the anthology Night’s Edge.

He tossed her into the air as if she were weightless, and just for a moment she seemed suspended there, defying gravity. I couldn't take my eyes off her. I knew what she was feeling. It was in every movement of every limb. Here was a power I had never seen before, a kind of haunting loveliness I had never imagined. Seeing it made me long for something, I didn't know what . . . Ditty was born to dance, but she was also born Jewish. When her strictly religious parents won't let her take ballet lessons, Ditty starts to dance in secret. But for how long can she keep her two worlds apart? And at what cost? A dramatic and moving story about a girl who follows her dream, and finds herself questioning everything she believes in.

'The funniest man I ever saw, and the saddest man I ever knew.' This is how W.C. Fields described Bert Williams, the highest-paid entertainer in America in his heyday and someone who counted the King of England and Buster Keaton among his fans. Born in the Bahamas, he moved to California with his family. Too poor to attend Stanford University, he took to life on the stage with his friend George Walker. Together they played lumber camps and mining towns until they eventually made the agonising decision to 'play the coon'. Off-stage, Williams was a tall, light-skinned man with marked poise and dignity; on-stage he now became a shuffling, inept 'nigger' who wore blackface make-up. As the new century dawned they were headlining on Broadway. But the mask was beginning to overwhelm Williams and he sank into bouts of melancholia and heavy drinking, unable to escape the blackface his public demanded.

The authors offer an insightful analysis of the symbiotic relationship between the popular entertainment industry and America's youth, suggest principles for evaluating popular art and entertainment, and propose strategies for rebuilding strong local cultures in the face of global media giants.

Things haven't been easy for Jessie since her brother James - sports star and popular kid - died. Her mum and dad are lost in grief and she's feeling isolated at school; when the popular girls on her dance team give her a hard time, she just can't seem to remember the routines ... ... and Jessie can still see James. Talk to him, or quarrel with him, more like! They always bickered when James was alive, so why change now? But James might turn out to be her unlikely saviour. Along with Alan, the dorky new boy, can he give Jessie the confidence to show the rest of the dance team what she's got ... and help her and her parents on the road towards healing? Funny, sharp and poignant, a story about living with a ghost, and the pain of letting go.

The best of America's best writer on dance "Theoretically, I am ready to go to anything-once. If it moves, I'm interested; if it moves to music, I'm in love." From 1973 until 1996 Arlene Croce was The New Yorker's dance critic, a post created for her. Her entertaining, forthright, passionate reviews and essays have revealed the logic and history of ballet, modern dance, and their postmodern variants to a generation of theatergoers. This volume contains her most significant and provocative pieces-over a fourth have never appeared in book form-writings that reverberate with consequence and controversy for the state of the art today.

Dancers After Dark is an amazing celebration of the human body and the human spirit, as dancers, photographed nude and at night, strike poses of fearless beauty. Without a permit or a plan, Jordan Matter led hundreds of the most exciting dancers in the world out of their comfort zones—not to mention their clothes—to explore the most compelling reaches of beauty and the human form. After all the risk and daring, the result is extraordinary: 300 dancers, 400 locations, more than 150 stunning photographs. And no clothes, no arrests, no regrets. Each image highlights the amazing abilities of these artists—and presents a core message to the reader: Say yes rather than no, and embrace the risks and opportunities that life presents.