Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #74958 in Books
• Published on: 1997-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 232 pages

Synopsis
A technical manual for sequence dancers enlivened by cartoons. The first section sets out the basic principles of reading dance scripts and explains the abbreviations and technical terms involved. Full scripts of more than 30 dances are provided, with notes on their performance on the facing pages. Many other scripts are included in abbreviated form. The final section takes a light-hearted look at sequence dancing.

Customer Reviews

A good collection of sequence dance scripts.
This book contains general information about sequence dances, instructions for some specific sequence dances and comical cartoons illustrating a few of the dangers.

The first section, introducing and explaining the various aspects of sequence dancing, is very well written and quite a good match to my own observations of reality. My main criticism is that the table of abbreviations should be immediately inside the front or rear cover for easier access.

The second section, consisting largely of the scripts, is divided into types of sequence dance with some general notes on each. A script may be merely a list of dance figures with the individual steps for these (usually just the man's as the lady's will be the opposite). There are more detailed explanations of some scripts. I found approximately a third of the sequences to be relevant to the dance sessions I had attended - most of these being of the full script type. This is actually an impressively high proportion given that new dances are being added all the time while older ones go out of fashion.

The third section, containing most of the humorous drawings and commentary, is a return to more general information about dancing. Although it was undoubtedly accurate at one time and may still be so in some places, I believe that the dress code and rules of etiquette have changed a little. However, all the points made here are valid - if somewhat exaggerated for comic effect.

Overall, this book is a very good guide to sequence dancing and quite a useful summary of the principles of general ballroom dancing. I'm pleased I chose to buy this one out of the many possible dance books presented by a search.

Learning the essential sequence dances

As beginners we found this book very helpful, the instructions for each dance were easy to follow and the etiquette for sequence dancing useful.

An amatuer's veiw
Having danced sequence for many years I wanted to get the 'low down' on all the technical terms for the individual dance movements. This book explains them well but when it comes to explaining all the abbreviations in dance scripts, I found the list to be less than exhaustive.
Never the less, the book is well worth buying for anyone who wants to increase their knowledge of the more intricate aspects of modern sequence. It also contains scripts of a good selection of the older sequence dances, and a nice section on dance etiquette.