Everyone with an interest in dance will have felt the need for a guide to the art’s rich history and complex present state. Susan Au’s text and a generous selection of illustrations cover the whole subject, vividly describing the great performers and performances of the past as well as exploring in detail the dance world of today. We are taken from the palaces of the Medici to the lofts of Manhattan, from the dancing of Louis XIV to the experimental choreography of Twyla Tharp and Pina Bausch.

A new chapter documents the work of the chief dancers and choreographers from the 1980s to the present, covering offshoots of modern dance such as Tanztheater and Butoh, recent developments in performance art and site-specific choreography, and the upsurge in popularity of dances of the past. In addition, the author records the uses dance and dancers have made of recent technological advances, including cinedance and videodance, CR-ROMs and the Internet.

143 Illustrations, 24 in colour