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Lady of the Dance: The Choreographer Who Helped Michael Flatley Conquer the World
by Marie Duffy“Marie Duffy is one of the best choreographers in the world. She has been my dance master and right-hand person since 1996. She is like my twin sister. I will love her forever.” – Michael Flatley Marie Duffy is the undisputed queen of Irish dancing: she has trained more world champions than any other teacher, and has been Michael Flatley’s right-hand woman for twenty years. She works tirelessly to promote Irish dance and culture internationally. In this honest and entertaining book, Marie gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of professional Irish dance, and draws back the curtain on her own fascinating and inspiring life. Marie first gained recognition dancing on entertainment shows in the 1960s, and went on to become a hugely successful Irish dancing teacher. Watching the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in her living room, Marie was filled with pride as she’d taught many of the dancers in the famous Riverdance interval act. Two years later, Marie received a phone call that transformed her life when Michael Flatley offered her a job on a new show he had devised. Lord of the Dance would go on to become a worldwide hit, beginning years of fruitful collaboration between Marie and Flatley. Sadly however, Marie’s professional highs have been accompanied by many personal lows, including the loss of her mother (who didn’t live to see her daughter’s success) and first husband Ian, and being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. Marie had a mastectomy, but in the showbiz tradition of ‘the show must go on’ she went back to her work rehearsing the dance troupe.
Lady Unknown: The Life of Angela Burdett-Coutts
by Edna HealeyIn 1837, at the age of twenty-three, Angela Burdett-Coutts inherited a vast fortune from her banker grandfather, making her one of the richest and thus potentially powerful women in Victorian England. She moved in the highest social circles: entertaining the rising stars of the political scene, Disraeli and Gladstone; attending scientific lectures with Faraday; pursuing her philanthropic work with Dickens; and falling in love with the aged Duke of Wellington. Her acts of charity were enormous and wide-ranging-establishing a home for 'fallen women', pioneering model housing, battling for sanitary reform, supporting the NSPCC and the RSPCA, and promoting technical education and domestic science. A devout Anglican, she built churches, founded colonial bishoprics and encouraged the missionary work of Livingstone and others. Despite all this activity, Angela remained throughout her life a shy and supremely private person. The full range of her charity will probably never be known, for she often acted through intermediaries such as Dickens, describing herself only as 'lady unknown'. And a 'lady unknown' she has largely remained, her role in Victorian England strangely overlooked or forgotten. Edna Healey has uncovered much new material, including unpublished correspondence from Dickens, Livingstone, Gladstone, Wellington, Faraday and Henry Irving, to provide a fascinating insight into this most remarkable lady.
A Ladybird Book About Donald Trump
by Jason Hazeley Joel MorrisA charming introduction to the President of the United States, the important jobs he has to do, and the friends he's made all over the world.'Anyone can grow up to become the President. Or they can become President first and think about growing up later' This delightful book is the latest in the series of Ladybird books which have been specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them - something the President himself could do with. The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. Featuring original Ladybird artwork alongside brilliantly funny, brand new text.Praise for The Story of Brexit:'One of the Best Comedy Books of 2018' The List'The latest offering in the hilarious Ladybird for Grown Ups series is a funny mickey-take of the Brexit debate (and boy, do we need some fun)' Sunday Post'Hilarious' Stylist
The Ladybird Book of the Hangover (Ladybirds for Grown-Ups #5)
by Joel Morris Jason HazeleyTHE PERFECT GIFT for anyone who likes a glass of red. And a double gin. And a vodka shot. And a flaming tequila. And a candy floss caipirinha . . . and a small Bahama Mama.__________________________________'A good hangover should be a total mystery to you. How did this happen? Why do you feel so ill?Pretend to yourself that you drank less than you did. Insist you stuck to beer, forgetting the champagne at the start of the evening and the round of jalapeno tequilas you did for a bet in that club next to the dual carriageway at 2am.'__________________________________'What a confusing world it can seem with a hangover. Sit as still as you can. Do not attempt to make any decisions.Look out of the window. Can you recognise simple shapes or colours? Is there a moon or a sun in the sky? What sort of a name might you have? Where might there be bacon?'__________________________________This delightful book is the latest in the series of Ladybird books which have been specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them. The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. Featuring original Ladybird artwork alongside brilliantly funny, brand new text. 'Hilarious' StylistOther new titles for Autumn 2017:How it Works: The BrotherHow it Works: The SisterThe Ladybird Book of the ExThe Ladybird Book of the NerdThe Ladybird Book of the New YouThe Ladybird Book of BallsThe Ladybird Book of the Big Night OutThe Ladybird Book of the Quiet Night InPeople at Work: The Rock Star Previous titles in the Ladybirds for Grown Ups series: How it Works: The HusbandHow it Works: The WifeHow it Works: The MumHow it Works: The DadThe Ladybird Book of the Mid-Life CrisisThe Ladybird Book of the HangoverThe Ladybird Book of MindfulnessThe Ladybird Book of the ShedThe Ladybird Book of DatingThe Ladybird Book of the HipsterHow it Works: The StudentHow it Works: The CatHow it Works: The DogHow it Works: The Grandparent The Ladybird Book of Red TapeThe Ladybird Book of the People Next DoorThe Ladybird Book of the SickieThe Ladybird Book of the Zombie ApocalypseThe Ladybird Book of the Do-Gooder
Ladybird Class Let's Play Music: Read It Yourself - Level 1 Early Reader (Read It Yourself)
by LadybirdJoin Ladybird Class on another imaginative learning adventure! The class are learning all about musical instruments, and soon find themselves watching an amazing orchestra. But when disaster happens, can Ali Lion step in and save the day?Let's Play Music is from Early Reader Level 1 and is perfect for children aged from 4+ who are taking their first steps beyond phonics.Each book has been carefully checked by educational and subject consultants and includes comprehension puzzles, book band information, and tips for helping children with their reading.With five levels to take children from first phonics to fluent reading and a wide range of different stories and topics for every interest, Read It Yourself helps children build their confidence and begin reading for pleasure.
Ladybird Readers Level 3 - The Talent Show (Ladybird Readers)
by LadybirdThe A-Stars played music and the Zigzags danced. They both wanted to win the Harmony School Talent Show!Ladybird Readers is a graded reading series of traditional tales, popular characters, modern stories, and non-fiction, written for young learners of English as a foreign or second language.Beautifully illustrated and carefully written, the series combines the best of Ladybird content with the structured language progression that will help children develop their reading, writing, speaking, listening and critical thinking skills.The five levels of Readers and Activity Books follow the CEFR framework and include language activities that provide preparation for the Cambridge English: Young Learners (YLE) Starters, Movers and Flyers exams. The Talent Show, a Level 3 Reader, is A1+ in the CEFR framework and supports YLE Movers exams. The longer text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, some expression of future meaning, comparisons, contractions and relative clauses.
L'Âge d'or (BFI Film Classics)
by Paul HammondOne of the greatest collaborations of cinema history, L'Âge d'Or(1930) united the geniuses of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali in the making of a Surrealist masterpiece - a uniquely savage blend of visual poetry and social criticism. The film was banned and vilified for many years in many countries, becoming justly legendary for its subversive eroticism and its furious dissection of 'civilised' values.In a remarkable, intuitive reading of L'Âge d'Or, Paul Hammond interweaves a detailed account of the extraordinary circumstances of its production with a dazzling interpretation of its aesthetic and political nuances. At once authoritative and polemical, this is a study entirely in tune with its subject, a fitting celebration of a major landmark in world cinema.
L'Âge d'or (BFI Film Classics)
by Paul HammondOne of the greatest collaborations of cinema history, L'Âge d'Or(1930) united the geniuses of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali in the making of a Surrealist masterpiece - a uniquely savage blend of visual poetry and social criticism. The film was banned and vilified for many years in many countries, becoming justly legendary for its subversive eroticism and its furious dissection of 'civilised' values.In a remarkable, intuitive reading of L'Âge d'Or, Paul Hammond interweaves a detailed account of the extraordinary circumstances of its production with a dazzling interpretation of its aesthetic and political nuances. At once authoritative and polemical, this is a study entirely in tune with its subject, a fitting celebration of a major landmark in world cinema.
Laid Bare: My story of love, fame and survival
by Gail PorterGail Porter burst on to our TV screens in the late 90s presenting The Movie Chart Show, Alive and Kicking and Top of the Pops. Bright, sparky and beautiful she soon attracted an entirely different audience, posing for a number of men's magazines and rapidly becoming the pin-up of the lad-mag generation. FHM, in a now famous stunt, even projected her naked form on to the Houses of Parliament. But beneath her cheery public façade, Gail was struggling with anorexia and bi-polar disorder. After nine years of extreme dieting, she collapsed and through sheer determination forced herself to begin eating properly again. Having been told she would never be able to conceive, her new healthier lifestyle led to a much desired pregnancy by her then husband, Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave. But the intense pressures of juggling motherhood with her career, led to crippling post-natal depression and precipitated the breakdown of her marriage. Overwhelmed by single motherhood, one day after dropping her daughter Honey off at nursery, she took an overdose and her world very publicly began to unravel.But Gail's ability to stay afloat as her life crumbled in the public spotlight made her an icon all over again for a new audience of ordinary women who recognised her pain. She refused to hide-away as stress-induced alopecia caused her to loose her hair, famously appearing at a charity event sporting a startling pink Mohican. Her stunning features and her unwillingness to wear a wig to hide her bald head have made her a contemporary icon.But despite all her troubles, Gail remains upbeat and positive. She has become a role model for coming through it all as a good mother and a working woman unbowed. As iconic as Jordan, smart as Billie and as wild as Kerry, Gail Porter has written her autobiography herself - a raw, honest account of her own troubled life and the world of celebrity we now live in.
LAMDA Acting Anthology: Volume 5
by Lamda ExamsThis anthology presents the set selection of solo and duologue scenes for Learners entering LAMDA Graded Examinations in Performance: Acting from Grade 1 to Grade 5. The 100 speeches and scenes in this collection include excerpts from published plays and adapted novels, as well as new, original material written specifically for this anthology. There are monologues for solo performance and duologue scenes for two performers, all carefully curated to offer a broad range of material written by a variety of acclaimed playwrights, from Euripides, Shakespeare and Ibsen to Caryl Churchill, Chinonyerem Odimba and Jack Thorne. Also included is a foreword by actor and LAMDA graduate Ruth Wilson. For Learners taking LAMDA Examinations, this anthology offers a wide choice of characters and worlds to explore. There is material for younger candidates who are just entering the world of performance, as well as material for older, more experienced actors. For the general reader, this anthology is an ideal starting point for discovering the work of contemporary playwrights, as well as reconnecting with celebrated writers of the past.
LAMDA Verse and Prose Anthology: Volume 20
by Lamda ExamsThis anthology presents the set selection of verse and prose pieces for Learners entering LAMDA Graded Examinations in Communication: Speaking Verse and Prose from Entry Level to Grade 8, and LAMDA Introductory Graded Examinations from Stage 1 to Stage 3 (Solo and Group). The collection includes 155 pieces in total: a range of celebrated poems alongside prose extracts from bestselling classic and contemporary novels. It also features original material written specifically for this anthology, including the winner and runners-up of LAMDA Learners' Poetry Prize 2023. Also included is a foreword by Joseph Coelho, Waterstones Children's Laureate 2022–24. For Learners taking LAMDA Examinations, this anthology offers a wide choice of themes, topics and worlds to explore. With many performance possibilities, it is a perfect resource to help Learners practise and develop their communication skills. For the general reader, it is the ideal starting point for discovering contemporary poets and novelists, such as Maya Angelou, Malorie Blackman, Sally Rooney and Michael Rosen, as well as reconnecting with celebrated writers of the past, including Jane Austen, T. S. Eliot and William Wordsworth.
Lame of Thrones: The Final Book in a Song of Hot and Cold
by The Harvard LampoonFrom Harvard's legendary humor publication comes an outrageous, uproariously funny parody of Game of Thrones, in the tradition of their previous bestselling parody book classics Bored of the Rings, Nightlight, and The Hunger Pains.An affectionate but take-no-prisoners send-up of the massive literary and television franchise, Lame of Thrones offers fans a way of reentering the fictional world they have come to love and merrily explodes all of its conventions -- as well as their expectations of the characters -- to hilarious ends. It may even leave you more satisfied than the actual TV ending of Game of Thrones. In fact, if it doesn't the Lampoon has really dropped the ball. Lame of Thrones will take you to Westopolis, where several extremely attractive egomaniacs are vying to be ruler of the realm and sit on the Pointy Chair. Our hero Jon Dough was a likely bet, but his untimely murder at the hands of his own men of the Night's Crotch has made that seem less likely. Will Dragon Queen Dennys Grandslam escape from her Clothkhaki captors and return to conquer the world? Or will she just get left in the desert counting grains of sand for the rest of the book? And what about Jon Dough's siblings? Will they be mentioned? Probably? Almost definitely, yes? It would be weird if they weren't prominent characters in the book, you say?To find out, read the book you wish George R.R. Martin would write but never will. The Lampoon -- the place where such comedy writers and performers as Conan O'Brien, Colin Jost, B.J. Novak, Patricia Marx, Alan Yang, Andy Borowitz and many more all got their start -- is ready to serve parody notice to the most entertaining, infuriating, and inescapable cultural phenomenon of the past decade.
Lance Comfort (British Film-Makers)
by Brian McFarlaneIn the years between 1941 and 1965, Lance Comfort made some of the most entertaining films in Britain. There was the striking success of his second feature as director, Hatter’s Castle (1941) and when he returned to this melodramatic vein in 1945 he made a series of highly proficient and enjoyable studies in obsession, including Bedelia (1946) with Margaret Lockwood as a murderess, and Temptation Harbour (1947) starring Robert Newton as a decent man in the grip of erotic attraction. Comfort’s career has never been charted in full – that is, from the apprenticeship in the 1930s, through the melodramas of the 1940s to the often rewarding co-features of the following two decades. His is in many ways a prototypical career in British cinema: his very attractive body of work has been marginalised by critical focus on a few giant figures. This is a book that will appeal to all students and researchers in British cinema, as well as to anyone with an interest in British films – and why they were the way they were – in their most productive period.
Landscape Allegory in Cinema: From Wilderness to Wasteland
by D. MelbyeThis study seeks to understand the form of cinematic space referred to as 'the landscape of the mind,' in which natural, outdoor settings serve as outward manifestations of characters' inner subjective states.
Landscape and Film (AFI Film Readers)
by Martin LefebvreFirst published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Landscape and Film (AFI Film Readers)
by Martin LefebvreFirst published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Landscape and the Environment in Hollywood Film: The Green Machine
by Ellen E. MooreThis book systematically explores how popular Hollywood film portrays environmental issues through various genres. In so doing, it reveals the influence exerted by media consolidation and the drive for profit on Hollywood’s portrayal of the natural landscape, which ultimately shapes how environmental problems and their solutions are presented to audiences. Analysis is framed by a consideration of how cultural studies can make more theoretical and practical room for environmental concern, thereby expanding its capacity for critical examination. The book begins by introducing the theoretical underpinning of the research as it relates to cultural studies, landscape, and genre. In the chapters that follow, each genre is taken in turn, starting with popular animated family films and progressing through spy thrillers, eco-thrillers, science fiction, Westerns, superhero films, and drama. This book is ideal for students and scholars in a variety of disciplines, including film, environmental studies, communication, political economy, and cultural studies.
Landscape and the Environment in Hollywood Film: The Green Machine
by Ellen E. MooreThis book systematically explores how popular Hollywood film portrays environmental issues through various genres. In so doing, it reveals the influence exerted by media consolidation and the drive for profit on Hollywood’s portrayal of the natural landscape, which ultimately shapes how environmental problems and their solutions are presented to audiences. Analysis is framed by a consideration of how cultural studies can make more theoretical and practical room for environmental concern, thereby expanding its capacity for critical examination. The book begins by introducing the theoretical underpinning of the research as it relates to cultural studies, landscape, and genre. In the chapters that follow, each genre is taken in turn, starting with popular animated family films and progressing through spy thrillers, eco-thrillers, science fiction, Westerns, superhero films, and drama. This book is ideal for students and scholars in a variety of disciplines, including film, environmental studies, communication, political economy, and cultural studies.
Landscape and the Environment in Hollywood Film: The Green Machine
by Ellen E. MooreThis book systematically explores how popular Hollywood film portrays environmental issues through various genres. In so doing, it reveals the influence exerted by media consolidation and the drive for profit on Hollywood’s portrayal of the natural landscape, which ultimately shapes how environmental problems and their solutions are presented to audiences. Analysis is framed by a consideration of how cultural studies can make more theoretical and practical room for environmental concern, thereby expanding its capacity for critical examination. The book begins by introducing the theoretical underpinning of the research as it relates to cultural studies, landscape, and genre. In the chapters that follow, each genre is taken in turn, starting with popular animated family films and progressing through spy thrillers, eco-thrillers, science fiction, Westerns, superhero films, and drama. This book is ideal for students and scholars in a variety of disciplines, including film, environmental studies, communication, political economy, and cultural studies.
Landscape of the Now: A Topography of Movement Improvisation
by Kent De SpainIn Landscape of the Now, author Kent De Spain takes readers on a deep journey into the underlying processes and structures of postmodern movement improvisation. Based on a series of interviews with master teachers who have developed unique approaches that are taught around the world - Steve Paxton, Simone Forti, Lisa Nelson, Deborah Hay, Nancy Stark Smith, Barbara Dilley, Anna Halprin, and Ruth Zaporah - this book offers the rare opportunity to find some clarity in what is often a complex and confusing experience. After more than 20 years of research, De Spain has created an extensive list of questions that explore issues that arise for the improviser in practice and performance as well as resources that influence movements and choices. Answers to these questions are placed side by side to create dialog and depth of understanding, and to see the range of possible approaches experienced improvisers might explore. In its nineteen chapters, Landscape of the Now delves into issues like the influence of an audience on an improviser's choices or how performers "track" and use their experience of the moment. The book also looks at the role of cognitive skills, memory, space, emotion, and the senses. One chapter offers a rare opportunity for an honest discussion of the role of various forms of spirituality in what is seen as a secular dance form. Whether read from cover to cover or pulled apart and explored a subject at a time, Landscape of the Now offers the reader a kind of map into the mysterious realm of human creativity, and the wisdom and experience of artists who have spent a lifetime exploring it.
Landscape of the Now: A Topography of Movement Improvisation
by Kent De SpainIn Landscape of the Now, author Kent De Spain takes readers on a deep journey into the underlying processes and structures of postmodern movement improvisation. Based on a series of interviews with master teachers who have developed unique approaches that are taught around the world - Steve Paxton, Simone Forti, Lisa Nelson, Deborah Hay, Nancy Stark Smith, Barbara Dilley, Anna Halprin, and Ruth Zaporah - this book offers the rare opportunity to find some clarity in what is often a complex and confusing experience. After more than 20 years of research, De Spain has created an extensive list of questions that explore issues that arise for the improviser in practice and performance as well as resources that influence movements and choices. Answers to these questions are placed side by side to create dialog and depth of understanding, and to see the range of possible approaches experienced improvisers might explore. In its nineteen chapters, Landscape of the Now delves into issues like the influence of an audience on an improviser's choices or how performers "track" and use their experience of the moment. The book also looks at the role of cognitive skills, memory, space, emotion, and the senses. One chapter offers a rare opportunity for an honest discussion of the role of various forms of spirituality in what is seen as a secular dance form. Whether read from cover to cover or pulled apart and explored a subject at a time, Landscape of the Now offers the reader a kind of map into the mysterious realm of human creativity, and the wisdom and experience of artists who have spent a lifetime exploring it.
Landscapes of Loss: The National Past in Postwar French Cinema
by Naomi GreeneIn Landscapes of Loss, Naomi Greene makes new sense of the rich variety of postwar French films by exploring the obsession with the national past that has characterized French cinema since the late 1960s. Observing that the sense of grandeur and destiny that once shaped French identity has eroded under the weight of recent history, Greene examines the ways in which French cinema has represented traumatic and defining moments of the nation's past: the political battles of the 1930s, the Vichy era, decolonization, the collapse of ideologies. Drawing upon a broad spectrum of films and directors, she shows how postwar films have reflected contemporary concerns even as they have created images and myths that have helped determine the contours of French memory. This study of the intricate links between French history, memory, and cinema begins by examining the long shadow cast by the Vichy past: the repressed memories and smothered unease that characterize the cinema of Alain Resnais are seen as a kind of prelude to a fierce battle for national memory that marked so-called rétro films of the 1970s and 1980s. The shifting political and historical perspectives toward the nation's more distant past, which also emerged in these years, are explored in the light of the films of one of France's leading directors, Bertrand Tavernier. Finally, the mood of nostalgia and melancholy that appears to haunt contemporary France is analyzed in the context of films about the nation's imperial past as well as those that hark back to a "golden age," a remembered paradis perdu, of French cinema itself.
Landscapes of Loss: The National Past in Postwar French Cinema
by Naomi GreeneIn Landscapes of Loss, Naomi Greene makes new sense of the rich variety of postwar French films by exploring the obsession with the national past that has characterized French cinema since the late 1960s. Observing that the sense of grandeur and destiny that once shaped French identity has eroded under the weight of recent history, Greene examines the ways in which French cinema has represented traumatic and defining moments of the nation's past: the political battles of the 1930s, the Vichy era, decolonization, the collapse of ideologies. Drawing upon a broad spectrum of films and directors, she shows how postwar films have reflected contemporary concerns even as they have created images and myths that have helped determine the contours of French memory. This study of the intricate links between French history, memory, and cinema begins by examining the long shadow cast by the Vichy past: the repressed memories and smothered unease that characterize the cinema of Alain Resnais are seen as a kind of prelude to a fierce battle for national memory that marked so-called rétro films of the 1970s and 1980s. The shifting political and historical perspectives toward the nation's more distant past, which also emerged in these years, are explored in the light of the films of one of France's leading directors, Bertrand Tavernier. Finally, the mood of nostalgia and melancholy that appears to haunt contemporary France is analyzed in the context of films about the nation's imperial past as well as those that hark back to a "golden age," a remembered paradis perdu, of French cinema itself.
Language and Manipulation in House of Cards: A Pragma-Stylistic Perspective
by Sandrine SorlinThis book is to date the first monograph-length study of the popular American political TV series House of Cards. It proposes an encompassing analysis of the first three seasons from the unusual angles of discourse and dialogue. The study of the stylistic idiosyncrasies of the ruthless main protagonist, Frank Underwood, is completed by a pragmatic and cognitive approach exposing the main characters’ manipulative strategies to win over the other. Taking into account the socio-cultural context and the specificities of the TV medium, the volume focuses on the workings of interaction as well as the impact of the direct address to the viewer. The book critically uses the latest theories in pragmatics and stylistics in its attempt at providing a pragma-rhetorical theory of manipulation.
Language and Metadrama in Major Barbara and Pygmalion: Shavian Sisters (Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries)
by Jean ReynoldsThis book focuses on two important topics in Shaw’s Major Barbara and Pygmalion that have received little attention from critics: language and metadrama. If we look beyond the social, political, and economic issues that Shaw explored in these two plays, we discover that the stories of the two “Shavian sisters”— Barbara Undershaft and Eliza Doolittle—are deeply concerned with performance and what Jacques Derrida calls “the problem of language.” Nearly every character in Major Barbara produces, directs, or acts in at least one miniature play. In Pygmalion, Henry Higgins is Eliza’s acting coach and phonetics teacher, as well as the star of an impromptu, open-air phonetics show. The language content in these two plays is just as intriguing. Did Eliza Doolittle have to learn Standard English to become a complete human being? Should we worry about the bad grammar we hear at Barbara Undershaft’s Salvation Army shelter? Is English losing its precision and purity? Meanwhile, in the background, Shaw keeps reminding us that language and theatre are always present in our everyday lives—sometimes serving as stabilizing forces, and sometimes working to undo them.