Guest Post by Nichelle Strzepek: P Is for Pilobolus

I am very excited that Nichelle Strzepek from the extremely popular website Dance Advantage has written the first guest post for Picture Books & Pirouettes. Here she reviews the picture book Pilobolus: The Human Alphabet, created by the famous dance company Pilobolus and by photographer John Kane. Over at Dance Advantage, Nichelle has written another post about the history of this quirky modern dance company. You can read it here.

My three-year-old son has had his entire alphabet down cold since he was about 16 months old. His enthusiasm for identifying and playing with letters has led to both early reading and writing. So, when I finally picked up a copy of Pilobolus: The Human Alphabet a number of months ago, it was with the assumption that the purchase would probably be more for me (a dancer, writer, and picture book enthusiast).

To my surprise (honestly, I shouldn’t have been), the little guy was immediately enthralled by the colorful and nearly wordless hardcover. The book features over 50 photographs by John Kane of the world-famous dance company Pilobolus. Even if you’ve never seen the artistic work of this nearly 40-year-old ensemble, it’s likely you’ve caught at least one of their TV commercials, appearances on late night TV, or perhaps the 2007 Academy Awards. Magical, morphing silhouettes are a Pilobolus calling card.

Though not in shadow, The Human Alphabet artwork is similarly… well, illustrative, with the dancers creating imaginative and sometimes bizarre depictions of animals and objects with nothing but their bodies.

The book begins with a simple instruction: “Here are 26 letters of the alphabet and 26 pictures – all made of people! Can you guess what each picture shows?” I suppose you can predict what follows.

In the corner of each page is a human alphabetical character, which is accompanied by a corresponding picture: dancers, clad in vibrant unitards, render something that starts with the appropriate letter.

Some of my favorites are the four-person Tyrannosaurus Rex, complete with gnashing teeth and two-fingered talons that represent Dinosaur; a human Ladder climbed by an impish dancer dressed in cherry red; and the two-page layout of a particularly puerile Parade.

Not all of the photos are immediately obvious. However, the book’s final pages list the anthropomorphized ABCs with the upper and lower-case printed letter and the word represented by each photo.

Creating body sculptures is the natural next step when exploring this book with children. Right away my son wanted to collaborate to form letters of the alphabet and, though sometimes frustrated by our height difference, he was quite satisfied with the result.

Next steps might include the designing of objects, concepts, or animals, as well as further exploration of Pilobolus and their work, including their use of silhouette. Shadow play is fun and educational. As it happens, my dance studio growing up had quite an active creative movement program for ages 3 through high school (and sometimes beyond). Perhaps an industrious dad helped build the large wooden frame with white fabric we used to explore shape, shadow, and relationships. I recall endless fascination with the possibilities a floodlit screen presented for the telling of both existing and original stories. Parents, what kinds of discoveries might you and your children make with a white bed sheet and a few high-watt lamps?

Nichelle Strzepek is a dance artist, teacher, and writer in Houston, Texas. She's spent over 16 years as a dance instructor, striving to pass on the knowledge and legacy of the art of movement to her students. Since the birth of her son in 2007, she has funneled her enthusiasm for dance training and education into her role as creator, writer, and editor of DanceAdvantage.net. For and about dance students, teachers, and parents, Dance Advantage provides high quality information to supplement students’ in-class learning as well as inspire and support teachers in their work.

Wild About Nature is hosting Nonfiction Monday today. Find out about other educational books for kids there. And thanks again, Nichelle, for your wonderful post!

Two Dance Books Win Prestigious Honors

A few weeks ago, the American Library Association (ALA) announced the winners of the 2010 ALA Youth Media Awards, which include some of the most prestigious awards for children's literature. I was a little late in looking up all the winners, but when I finally did, I was overjoyed to see two nonfiction picture books about dance recognized. 

The ALA awards the Robert F. Sibert Medal each year for the "most distinguished informational book" for children. Only one book can win the actual award, but additional books can be recognized as "honor books" if warranted. (This is true for most if not all of the awards.) Although a nondance book won the actual Sibert Medal this year, Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring was named one of two Sibert Honor Books. 

The Pura Belpre Award is given each year to a Latino author and to a Latino illustrator of books that "best portray, affirm, and celebrate the Latino cultural experience." In the author category, George Ancona's Ole Flamenco, which I reviewed a few months ago, was named one of three Pura Belpre Honor Books.    

You can read more about all the 2010 ALA Youth Media Awards, including the famous Newbery and Caldecott Medals, on ALA's website here. You can also find an entertaining blog post focused on the book awards at A Fuse #8 Production. Go dance books!!

Symphony Brings 'Ballet for Martha' to Life

I blogged about the book Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring the other day, mentioning that the St. Louis Symphony was going to perform the score while images from the book were projected on a big screen. Well, today Lynn Andriani of Publishers Weekly reported on last weekend's performances. You can see her article, which is accompanied by several photos from the event, here. According to the article, the symphony is planning additional performances in November, and the concert (including projection of the images from the book) may be repeated at the Aspen Music Festival next summer. Totally awesome!

Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring

I meant to blog about Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring a while back, but I changed my mind because so many other people were writing about it. Well, they are still writing about, so I changed my mind again and decided to join in on the buzz that is swirling around this book.

I first found out about the book at the American Library Association (ALA) conference in June, in Washington, DC. I was browsing at the Roaring Brook Press booth and nearly jumped for joy when I saw the cover and realized that a book about modern dance (plus so much more) was about to be published.

I gathered up the courage to ask for an advance reader copy (which, for those of you who aren't familiar with that term, is basically a bound copy of galley proofs) and was delighted to be able to take one home with me. However, I'm still kicking myself that I didn't have illustrator Brian Floca, who was also attending the conference, sign it for me.

In brief, the book is about the amazing collaboration among choreographer Martha Graham, composer Aaron Copland, and artist Isamu Noguchi to create the masterpiece Appalachian Spring. I won't go into detail here because so many other bloggers have written such compelling reviews of the book already. Here are a few of my favorites:

• A Fuse #8 Production published a phenomenal review of the book, which includes images from the book and even a YouTube video showing Martha herself performing Appalachian Spring.

• Carol Rasco at Rasco from RIF blogged about the book a few weeks ago. She mentions the Fuse #8 review but adds her own comments and gives a nice summary of the book.

Janet Eilber, artistic director of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, says "The dancers all read the advance copy of Ballet for Martha and were charmed, thrilled, blown away, delighted, etc, etc. We all love it!" The center went through some difficult times a few years back but seems to be flourishing now. You can check out its website for more information about Martha Graham's legacy and the dance company that still bears her name.

One thing that helped convince me to blog about this book today is that I found out that the St. Louis Symphony is performing Appalachian Spring tonight and again on Sunday afternoon. Music Director David Robertson apparently had some input into the book, and authors Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, illustrator Brian Floca, and editor Neal Porter are all flying in for the performance. You can learn more about the connection between the book and the symphony in the St. Louis Dispatch.

The book's authors, illustrator, and editor are also appearing tomorrow morning at the St. Louis Public Library to talk about and sign copies of the book. For any of you who live in or near St. Louis, I hope you can make it. I know I wish I could be there!

Shapes + Dancers = Creative Fun

I stopped by the children's section of our local library a few days ago and found the picture book Shape Space, written and illustrated by Cathryn Falwell, prominently displayed there. I noticed what looked like a dancer on the cover and so picked up the book to probe further. To my delight, I found that the girl on the cover really was a dancer--and in fact was a choreographer as well.

The book begins with the young girl peeking under the lid of a large red box. Inside she finds a huge collection of rectangles, triangles, semicircles, circles, and squares in a variety of sizes and bright bold colors. The rest of the book is devoted to her creative process--thinking about what to do with the shapes and then using them to build sets, to make costumes, and to toss, hop, tilt, swing (plus a whole lot more) as she choreographs her own special dance. At times, I had trouble finding the rhythm of the book, as it seems to change from time to time and the text rhymes in some places but not in others. But then again, if you think about this book as a "dance" itself, what dance would be exciting if the music and choreography were the same the whole way through, right?

When I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area a few years ago, I once performed a playful modern dance piece called "Off Your Rocker" (photo to the right by Andy Mogg), as part of the Natasha Carlitz Dance Ensemble. With the vibrant colors of the costumes and props, and with choreography that was actually inspired by children, the piece immediately came to mind when I read Shape Space. Isn't it fun when you read a book and it reminds you so much of your own life experience? So I just had to share!

It's Simple: Just 'Dance'

For the last few days, I've been sifting through all of our picture books, pulling aside the ones I might want to feature in upcoming blogs. My three-year-old has been looking through the books, too, and she has been fascinated by one in particular--a book that is simply called DANCE.

Would you like to guess why my daughter is so fascinated by this book? It's not because the book is filled with beautiful photographs by author and photographer Susan Kuklin (rather than the kind of illustrations she is so used to seeing in her books). It's not because of the exquisite lines and curves of phenomenal dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones, whose body is the subject of all the photographs. And it's not because of the simple lyrical text she has heard so many times as we flip though the pages of the book together. 

My daughter is so fascinated by this book because...

Bill T. Jones is not wearing a shirt! 

He is shirtless on every page...sometimes more than once on a page. In fact, she even noticed that he is not wearing a shirt in his photo on the back flap. She was so proud of herself for figuring out that that shirtless person was the same shirtless person featured throughout the book. Oh, the simple pleasures of being three...

I actually bought this book long before I thought about writing children's books and long before I had children of my own. (It was published in 1998 and appears to be out of print now, although a few copies are still floating around out there.) I bought it because it portrays the same passion about dance that so many of us feel, and it does it in a very simple way. So goes the first line of the book...

I am a dancer. I want to dance.