The Dancing Class

The reissue of a classic first storybook to celebrate Helen Oxenbury's work. A little girl is taken to her first dance class. Her mum buys her some ballet shoes and a pair of baggy tights, and ties her hair into a bun. The girl bounces about with all the other girls and boys and just as things get exciting, her laces come undone and everyone falls down. A warm and funny depiction of a girl’s first experience of a dance class and her delight in galloping about with her classmates. Helen Oxenbury’s First Storybooks perfectly describe the small but memorable events of childhood. The words are a delight and are perfect for reading aloud, while the pictures offer warm, affectionate visions of a child’s world, which parents and children will instantly recognize and love.

Polly Go Lightly practices her ballet positions and dreams of dancing on the big stage.

Surveying the state of American ballet in a 1913 issue of McClure's Magazine, author Willa Cather reported that few girls expressed any interest in taking ballet class and that those who did were hard-pressed to find anything other than dingy studios and imperious teachers. One hundred years later, ballet is everywhere. There are ballet companies large and small across the United States; ballet is commonly featured in film, television, literature, and on social media; professional ballet dancers are spokespeople for all kinds of products; nail polish companies market colors like "Ballet Slippers" and "Prima Ballerina;" and, most importantly, millions of American children have taken ballet class. Beginning with the arrival of Russian dancers like Anna Pavlova, who first toured the United States on the eve of World War I, Ballet Class: An American History explores the growth of ballet from an ancillary part of nineteenth-century musical theater, opera, and vaudeville to the quintessential extracurricular activity it is today, pursued by countless children nationwide and an integral part of twentieth-century American childhood across borders of gender, class, race, and sexuality. A social history, Ballet Class takes a new approach to the very popular subject of ballet and helps ground an art form often perceived to be elite in the experiences of regular, everyday people who spent time in barre-lined studios across the United States. Drawing on a wide variety of materials, including children's books, memoirs by professional dancers and choreographers, pedagogy manuals, and dance periodicals, in addition to archival collections and oral histories, this pathbreaking study provides a deeply-researched national perspective on the history and significance of recreational ballet class in the United States and its influence on many facets of children's lives, including gender norms, consumerism, body image, children's literature, extracurricular activities, and popular culture.

A small child's first ballet class is nearly a disaster.

This look at Progressive-era women and innovative cultural practices “blazes a new trail in dance scholarship” (Choice, Outstanding Academic Book of the Year). From salons to dance halls to settlement houses, new dance practices at the turn of the twentieth century became a vehicle for expressing cultural issues and negotiating matters of gender. By examining master narratives of modern dance history, this provocative and insightful book demonstrates the cultural agency of Progressive-era dance practices. “Tomko blazes a new trail in dance scholarship by interconnecting U.S. History and dance studies . . . the first to argue successfully that middle-class U.S. women promoted a new dance practice to manage industrial changes, crowded urban living, massive immigration, and interchange and repositioning among different classes.” —Choice

A highly illustrated reference to all aspects of jazz dance by one of the art's most respected teachers.

Young readers can learn all about what happens at gymnastics class in this Pre-level 1 Ready-to-Read featuring simple text and photographs.

Forty-two clear, accurate drawings (all in proper sequence) depict everything that goes on in a beginner's class, from lacing up the ballet shoe to executing the perfect arabesque. Illustrated instructions as well for proper posture, warm-up exercises, arm movements and much more. Inspirational, encouraging and instructive advice.