New Dance Books in 2022
By Jill Randall

I always love compiling a book list! Please find below the wonderful and exciting titles of the year – great for your own reading or for adding into a college/graduate course. If I have missed a title, please add a comment below, thank you.

The list focuses primarily on modern dance and somatics related books, sprinkled in with a few other forms. In particular, I want to spotlight Misty Copeland's latest book about her mentor, Raven Wilkinson (The Wind at My Back: Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts from My Mentor Raven Wilkinson) and also an incredible series of essays about jazz dance, Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century.

In alphabetical order:

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance – by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen

The Choreography of Everyday Life – by Annie-B Parson

Critique Is Creative: The Critical Response Process® in Theory and Action – by Liz Lerman and John Borstel

Dance and Belonging: Implicit Bias and Inclusion in Dance Education – by Crystal U. Davis

Dance Vision: Dance Through the Eyes of Today’s Artists – by Joshua Teal

Democracy Moving: Bill T. Jones, Contemporary American Performance, and the Racial Past – by Ariel Nereson

Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Speculative Performance Encounters – by Petra Kuppers

Faux Queen: A Life in Drag – by Monique Jenkinson

A Guide to a Somatic Movement Practice: The Anatomy of Center – by Nancy Topf, with Hetty King

Handle the Horrible: Change. Triage. Joy – by Chasta Hamilton

Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern – by Neil Baldwin

Moving Between Worlds: A Guide to Embodied Living and Communicating – by Andrea Olsen

On Site: Methods for Site-Specific Performance Creation – by Stephan Koplowitz

Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century – edited by Lindsay Guarino, Carols R.A. Jones, and Wendy Oliver

The Wind at My Back: Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts from My Mentor Raven Wilkinson – by Misty Copeland with Susan Fales-Hill

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Plus, a few other related books of note about rest, imagination, and creativity:

Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto – by Tricia Hersey

Imagine If…Creating a Future for Us All – by Sir Ken Robinson and Kate Robinson

Inspired: Understanding Creativity: A Journey Through Art, Science, and the Soul – by Matt Richtel

 

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Related articles:
New Dance Books in 2021
New Dance Books in 2020
New Dance Books in 2019