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This is a USED book, it is subject to external and interior wear including, underlining, highlighting, annotations, water damage, minor scuffs and tears. This is a donated book accepted as is. Stickers and sticker residue on the cover should be expected, as well as spine wear from use. There are NO codes or disc(s) included. All items ship Monday - Friday within 2-3 business days. Thank you for supporting Goodwill of OC This is a USED book, it is subject to external and interior wear including, underlining, highlighting, annotations, water damage, minor scuffs and tears. This is a donated book accepted as is. Stickers and sticker residue on the cover should be expected, as well as spine wear from use. There are NO codes or disc(s) included. All items ship Monday - Friday within 2-3 business days. Thank you for supporting Goodwill of OC See less

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Glamour Addiction: Inside the American Ballroom Dance Industry Hardcover – November 17, 2006

by Juliet E McMains (Author)

3.7 28 ratings

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Behind the scenes of DanceSport.

In the wake of the blockbuster television success of "Dancing with the Stars," competitive ballroom dance has become a subject of new fascination―and renewed scrutiny. Known by its practitioners as DanceSport, ballroom is a significant dance form and a fascinating cultural phenomenon. In this first in-depth study of the sport, dancer and dance historian Juliet McMains explores the "Glamour Machine" that drives the thriving industry, delving into both the pleasures and perils of its seductions. She further explores the broader social issues invoked in American DanceSport: representation of "Latin," economics that often foster inequality, and issues of identity, including gender, race, class, and sexuality.

Putting ballroom dance in the larger contexts of culture and history, Glamour Addiction makes an important contribution to dance studies, while giving new and veteran enthusiasts a unique and unprecedented glimpse behind the scenes.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The only book I know that explores the contemporary practice of ballroom dancing and its professional manifestation, DanceSport. It is a significant contribution to the literature in dance studies and gender and sexuality studies."―Ann Dils, associate professor, Department of Dance, University of North CarolinaGreensboro

"The only book I know that explores the contemporary practice of ballroom dancing and its professional manifestation, DanceSport. It is a significant contribution to the literature in dance studies and gender and sexuality studies."―Ann Dils, associate professor, Department of Dance, University of North Carolina, Greensboro

"The world of competitive ballroom dance is a significant dance and cultural phenomenon that no one has yet explored in depth. This book is important to our continued understanding of popular and social dance forms."―Julie Malnig, author of Dancing Till Dawn: A Century of Exhibition Ballroom Dance

About the Author

JULIET MCMAINS is the director of Dance Addiction, an independent ballroom dance studio in Orlando. She is associate faculty at the University of Central Florida, and has taught at Florida State University. As a DanceSport competitor, she has twice been a U.S. National Rising Star finalist and has won professional competitions in the U.S. and Canada.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wesleyan University Press; Illustrated edition (November 17, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 245 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0819567744
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0819567741
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.57 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.25 x 1 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,463,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #134 in Ballroom Dance (Books)
- #8,892 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences

Customer Reviews:
3.7 28 ratings

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Juliet E. McMains

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Juliet McMains, Ph.D. is a dance scholar and artist whose work centers on social dance practices and their theatrical expression on competition and theatrical stages. Juliet has published articles and books on salsa, ballroom, rumba, swing, and tango, all genres in which she has choreographed, performed, and danced socially for many years. Before checking into Glamour rehab, she was a professional ballroom dancer who traveled the country armed with a case of rhinestones and tanning creams. Although tango has recently overtaken her other dance addictions, Juliet still enjoys dancing salsa, swing, ballet, modern, and contact improv. Juliet a Professor in the Department of Dance at the University of Washington where she teaches studio and academic dance classes. She has a Ph.D. in Dance History and Theory from the University of California at Riverside and a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Harvard University.

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John Jones

Private lessons vs. Instructional Videos

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2011

Verified Purchase

I am a beginning dancer, and I just started taking group classes at an independent studio. The author of this book is right on the money when she talks about the high pressure tactics, and the somewhat less pressure tactics that the dance studios use to hook you into paying for private lessons. Many of the students I have talked to stated that they came for Arthur Murray and some of the chain studios because they REQUIRED you to take private lesson. This studio does not-thank God. However, they make it clear that they would like for you to do so. At the beginning or the end of the group class, they always mention to us: don't forget to take advantage of our special offer. That offer is that you get a free private one hour lesson. Obviously, they then state, and of course you are under no obligation to sign up for further private lessons-sure! What I have found very helpful-and it is sure a lot less expensive than paying for private lessons is this. When I take a group class for example on the waltz-I make sure before taking the class to purchase an instructional video for the waltz or whatever class I am taking. This is because I either don't remember what the instructor said or doing the week-I forget the steps and can look them up on the video. I would like to know what other dancers think of this-as an alternative to private lessons. I note that the author makes no mention of this in her extremely well written-and in my judgment accurate book-certainly in the way the studios market their product.

3 people found this helpful

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frankebe

Well-written, Interesting and insightful.

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2011

Verified Purchase

I have been involved in Dancesport as an amateur for DECADES and in my opinion, most of the author's insights to the American (and English) dance industry are spot-on.

In each chapter, her writing starts off a bit stiff with master's-thesis-speak ("I will then define...") but it loosens up during the chapter, and her sentence structure is not as contorted as her introductions portend. She only uses a few of them-there new-fangled words, and you'll probably guess their general meaning from the context ("reify", "conflation"). It's not difficult reading, really; if you start to feel bogged down, just read quickly and then slow down for those passages with information you want to think about. For every sentence that smacks of high-academia, she makes several observations that are so well-put (and need to be said) that I found myself constantly reaching for my pencil to underline or write a note about something I was reading. (Her short dissertation on the "black butt" was particularly entertaining.)

Her critiques on race and gender go on too long and I lost interest after a while (and started to skim). Nevertheless, as with her examinations of the dance industry and its clientele, and the differences between social and competitive partner-dancing, I think that her observations are correct, even if I don't agree with all her conclusions (you do not have to be defensive about your social class to suggest that dancers projecting straight lines and well-articulated footwork are more attractive than dancers who hunch over and shuffle).

My own interest in this book was initially piqued by her exposition on the history of Dancesport Latin. She has the best summary of how we all came to `break on 2' that I have read. Except for the last few pages of the Introduction, and toward the end of her race-and-gender sections, I was absorbed with the writing, and read the entire book over a few consecutive evenings. Even the "Notes" contain useful and interesting information: have you never wondered who exactly made up the Cha Cha and Chá? Or where the Jive syllabus came from? Or where to find a good history of Salsa? This is a pretty good place to start.

And my own unsolicited advice to aspiring dance students: just stay away from contracts, package deals and discount cards with expiration dates, and you'll be fine. And do finish college or plumbing school.

8 people found this helpful

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Galloway Kenneth Joe

Sour Grapes

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2009

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I am sorry, I totally disagree with the Author. I am almost 50, entered into my first dancesport competition last month, as an amateur, with an amateur partner, and I loved the entire experience. Learning to dance, acquiring a difficult skill, the hours of practice, slowly progressing, was wonderful growing experience. The competition itself was an amazing experience, competing on the floor with other dancers, it was a great, enriching journey. The dancers were of all backgrounds, White, Chinese, Japanese, African American, Filipino, everything. It was amazing.

Sure I take the point that ballroom dances originated from pure ethnic sources and are then changed as they travel through the main stream. But what part of our society is not made of of similar origins? Music, culture, literature, all started from ethnic beginnings and are adapted as they merge into the melting pot.

Isn't that a good thing? Does that not keep society fresh and ever changing? The adaptation allows us all to participate and enjoy the activity.

Dance needs to allow more to enroll, not less. And what I saw was it was doing that. It did for me. For a short time, I was something else, I was a dancer.

10 people found this helpful

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tamiii

Dancing at the Revolution: two books, two academics, one message

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2007

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Surprisingly, in 2006, two different writers, Juliet McMains and Caroline Picart, have independently written two remarkable books with very similar themes. Each unearths how British Imperialism assimilated African forms, stripped them of their roots and disciplined them into the 'universalist' cultural expression, practiced today in the white male dominated 'industry' known as Dancesport. Each hopes that art might triumph to express a more egalitarian norm, one where women and people of color might be permitted greater freedom though both locate the barriers in class, race, and gender--that is money. To those who would scoff at their hope, I would tell the story of yet another dancer, the venerated agitator Emma Goldman, who, though asked to stop dancing at a social gathering when she was told of a comrade's death, reportedly responded: "If I can't dance, it is not my revolution!" For her, it was all about life and joy, the one fountain from which both artistic and political change flowed. Here, McMains and Picart keep that spirit alive.

2 people found this helpful

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