DANCE BOOKS.

Virtually nothing of the dance of Rudolf-Laban remains, having been thoroughly destroyed by the Nazis. It is ironic, then, that dancers and scholars are familiar with the name of Rudolf Laban mostly through Labanotation, the system of dance writing that is taught in many universities and colleges. It is also ironic that Laban's pioneering work in movement studies came to revolutionize the assembly line for greatest efficiency--something that Laban would have disavowed, I think, now that I've read Valerie Preston-Dunlop's somewhat plodding account of Laban's life (Rudolf Laban: An Extraordinary Life, by Valerie Preston-Dunlop. London: Dance Books, 1998. $39.95.360 pages, with 48 pages of photographs. Distributed in the United States by Princeton Book Company, Publishers; ISBN: 1-85273-060-9).

Rudolf Jean Baptiste Attila Laban was a tree Bohemian with an unconventional life to prove it. Born in 1879 to a military family, he nonetheless pursued painting as his life-work, but eventually turned to movement as his artistic outlet. Despite marriage, he often had a girlfriend or two. He was usually broke in his younger years, though success and work with prestigious theaters in Germany (he eventually took German citizenship, though he later tried to reclaim his Hungarian status) suggested eventual prosperity. He became known for his "movement choirs," masses of amateurs (not necessarily even dancers) who portrayed great themes. He seemed ready-made for Hitler's 1936 Olympics and the National Socialist (Nazi) propaganda machine.

Indeed, he was working on a major opus for the games with apparent approval of the Nazi regime when Goebbels stepped in after a major rehearsal and canceled it all. If Laban had not had an international following for his work, he very likely would have been eliminated. The Nazis did the next-best thing; they denied him any work outlets. Laban left Germany thanks to an invitation to address a symposium in Paris, which also paid his way.

In a new country Laban faced the prospect of rebuilding nearly his entire professional life. An invitation from former student Kurt Jooss took him to Great Britain, where his theories of movement caught on in educational circles. He was, evidently, a man possessed of great leadership skill. Students often discovered their life-work through his guidance.

While Laban had published an autobiography (Life for Dance, translated and annotated by Lisa Ullmann. London. 1975), Preston-Dunlop's account fills in many blank spots. She admits that this has not been an easy task, and, that said, we must be grateful that she was willing to do the work. She has chronicled Laban's life almost year by year. She also supplies a helpful glossary of German modern dance terms, a bibliography of books and articles by Laban, and a lengthy bibliography Of books consulted for her biography.

For people who are essentially voiceless onstage, and choreographers are a talkative bunch!

This second edition of The Vision of Modern Dance: In the Words of Its Creators (Edited by Jean Morrison Brown, Naomi Mindlin, and Charles H. Woodford. Princeton Book Company, Publishers. 1998. $18.95 paper. 230 pages, illustrated. ISBN: 0-87127-205-9) groups the century-old idea of modern dance into Forerunners (Duncan et al.); The Four Pioneers (Graham, Humphrey, Weidman, Holm); The Second Generation; The New Rebels; and The New Vision. Each is made up of personal statements from dance creators ranging from Alvin Ailey at the beginning of the alphabet to [Jawole] Willa Jo Zollar at the end. Before each major statement, there is a photograph of the artist--it's almost worth the price of the book to see Paul Taylor in a suit and tie! But the fact is, this is wonderful reading and a must for the collection of any dance student.

There are so few good dance books for the really young reader, but this one is a delight (Dance, Hyperion Books for Children. 1998. $14.95, 32 pages; ISBN: 0-7868-0362-2). The text, devised by Bill T. Jones and Susan Kuklin, is spare, simple, and direct: "When I am dancing, I can fly high and soar through the air..." Kuklin's photographs of Jones illustrate the text with fine insight and powerful images. As said, it's a delight.

Photographs don't always tell exactly what either its subject or the photographer intends. In his preface to his Dance (Dance by Jeanloup Sieff. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999. $24.95, 60 pages, 46 pages of photographs. ISBN: 1-56098-862-2) photographer Jeanloup Sieff relates his own obsession with dance. Sieff tells an anecdote in which Maurice Bejart asked about the quality of being photogenic. "I told him, in answer to his question, that being photogenic and being beautiful do not necessarily go together. For me, photogenic persons are inhabited, whereas those who are not are empty. He replied, `I agree with you, but you forget one essential point: the desire to give. On some evenings, when the audience was not good, we danced less well, whereas we went beyond ourselves if we felt rapport and comprehension. Being photogenic is similar. One becomes more photogenic when one has the desire to give.'"

Sieff's images in this book span the years 1953 to 1994. Of particular interest are two of the late Rudolf Nureyev, and several of Claire Motte. Most pictures were shot at the Paris Opera, but a stunning exception shows a class of rapt pupils at the Shanghai School of Dance in China.

Glenn Giffin, dance critic for the Denver Post for twenty-eight years, is also curator of the Carson-Brierly Dance Library at the University of Denver in Colorado.