Description

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A full-color visual history of dance from the waltz to modern hip-hop, with 200+ illustrations from the British Library collections, including photographs, cartoons, step notation, magazines and musical scores. This title reveals the incredible impact of dance on society, rebalancing gender dynamics, shattering expectations of class and embracing cross-cultural influences.

Dance is at the heart of diverse cultures around the globe, from the increasing popularity of salsa clubs, to break dance battles that gather crowds in the street, to the constant stream of dance routines going viral on TikTok.

But behind the glitzy performances are amazing and unpredictable histories: the shocking debut of the waltz in eighteenth-century Vienna; the power of African-American influence on the jive and Lindy hop; and the early foundations of hip-hop in funk and disco styles. Tango, samba, Charleston, cha cha cha, rumba – each dance has distinct rhythms, quality of movement and complex rules to learn and follow. But they all shook up society and gave ordinary people the freedom of self-expression.

Choreographer Robert Hylton navigates an extraordinary array of photographs, periodicals and ephemera from the British Library collections, which reveal the true origins of the popular dance styles that have, at one point or another, swept the population off their feet.

About the Author

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Robert Hylton is a London-based international choreographer, director, performer and teacher. He works across multiple forms from hip-hop to ballet and contemporary dance, creative movement and abstract dance. He has worked with Netflix and Channel 4, and with institutions including The National Gallery and The Royal Opera House.

Oti Mabuse is a South African talent show judge, presenter, dancer and Latin dance champion currently based in the United Kingdom. She is best known for being a professional dancer on the British television series Strictly Come Dancing, which she won in 2019 and 2020, and its German equivalent, Let's Dance. She was a Dance Captain on The Greatest Dancer. Since 2021, she has been a panelist on The Masked Dancer and became a judge on Dancing on Ice in 2022.