Dance

Publishers Weekly

Cooper (Ballpark; Country Fair) again simply and effectively zeroes in on a pastime to which youngsters are likely to be favorably disposed. Here he ushers readers into the studio of a dance company, where a choreographer teaches a new dance to the troupe members. They diligently "rehearse until their arms and legs remember the steps." As Cooper chronicles the painstaking process of preparing for a performance, the spontaneous, lyrical narrative makes each scene easy to visualize (e.g., "The dancers play with the music, reaching out as if to catch the notes as they rise and fall around the studio"). He portrays the dancers, constantly in motion, as diminutive, abstract shapes in spare yet energetic watercolor and pencil art. The book's inventive design features cleverly configured type that intermittently mimics the dancers' movements as it gracefully winds and bends across the pages. The tale ends just as the curtain goes up on opening night, emphasizing the meticulous rehearsal process rather than the performance. Cooper's illuminating depiction of the many steps leading up to the grand event are deserving of enthusiastic applause. Ages 4-up. (Aug.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-From rehearsals and choreography to opening-night preparations, Cooper presents a no-frills treatment of dance. His spare pencil-and-watercolor illustrations amid lots of white space suggest the hastily rendered sketches of an unobtrusive observer. These minimalist images are strewn with tiny scribbled notes, such as "hands on hips" and "sweat," that draw attention to the poses of the featureless figures. The text wanders through these illustrations, sometimes requiring readers to turn the book around, which doesn't always work. It suits the subject for readers to stand on their heads periodically to follow the story, but it might not suit the readers themselves. Contortions notwithstanding, Dance successfully provides inquisitive children with a believable vicarious experience. Virginia Schomp's If You Were a Ballet Dancer (Benchmark, 1997) informs while Bill T. Jones and Susan Kuklin's Dance (Hyperion, 1998) inspires, but Cooper's book simply shows the process from his presumed vantage point as a layman. Readers looking for step-by-step instruction or education in either the text or graphics will be disappointed, but fans of Cooper's art and narration won't be.-Catherine Threadgill, DeKalb County Public Library, Atlanta, GA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The essence of dance is the movement and the music, both difficult to capture in writing, especially so in a work for young children. Cooper ("Henry", not reviewed, etc.) describes all the players and the hard work required to prepare a modern dance piece for performance, from the company dancers entering the rehearsal studio to the curtain going up on opening night. His text adequately describes each step of the complex rehearsal timeline in a spare, often humorous style, although he sometimes gets carried away with flights of fancy that simply don't work: dancers floating above the piano as symbolic musical notes and the dancers' shadows taking on a life of their own will leave many children puzzled. Cooper's watercolor-and-pencil illustrations are in a muted palette, with loose, stylized dancers usually shown in miniature, without faces. He includes extremely tiny, handwritten labels in many of the illustrations that are nearly impossible to read, and several pages have the text set in nonconventional ways (wrapping around in swirls, a circle, or a square), which convey motion but also make the reader work harder. Children who are seriously studying dance might be interested in learning about the professional rehearsal process (which mirrors their own), but this is unlikely to find a wide audience. "(Picture book. 5-9)"