Commercial Dance: An Essential Guide

This is an exploration of the vital and rapidly evolving world of Commercial Dance, tracing the evolution and merging of Hip-Hop, Club and Jazz dance styles from the music videos of the early 1980s, to today's huge influence on pop music and dance in a multi-media culture.

Chapters including ‘Iconic Moments’ and ‘Main Movers’ contextualise and analyse culturally significant works and choreographers. With direct contributions from an international array of industry leading dancers, choreographers and creatives - including JaQuel Knight (Beyonce’s choreographer), Rich + Tone Talauega (Madonna & Michael Jackson collaborators), Rebbi Rosie (Rihanna’s dancer), Dean Lee (Janet Jackson’s choreographer) and Kiel Tutin (BLACKPINK’s choreographer) - this book shines a light on the creatives in the Commercial Dance industry who have made significant impacts, not just on the world of dance but on popular culture itself. Chapters discussing dance history, copyright law, inclusivity and dance class culture as well as additional contributions from dance scholars enable this book to give credence to Commercial Dance as a legitimate academic area of study.

This is a complete and comprehensive textbook for all dance students at any level of study on college, university or conservatory courses.

Anthony R. Trahearn is currently Head of Dance and the programme leader for the BA (Hons) Commercial Dance course at the Institute of the Arts Barcelona, Spain. He trained at London Studio Centre and subsequently worked as a Commercial dancer and associate choreographer for 17 years, working internationally with some of the industry’s most established creatives.