title: Stripping in Time: A History of Erotic Dancing
author:  Lucinda Jarrett 
description: From Victorian London and Paris to modern Cairo, where Islamic fundamentalist puritanism threatens the belly dance, Jarrett explores erotic dance and its cultures. In so doing, she lends ecdysiasts and their fans a veneer of respectability without sacrificing a certain lush luridness. And certainly, the historical illustrations (oddly, the cover photo is the most revealing of them) offer possible titillation for the desperate sort who seek smut in the library (do they also shop for lumber at the deli?). But Jarrett's focus is on the interplay of society, censorship, and a form of dance as old as public entertainment itself. Particularly interesting is the fairly lengthy consideration of Anita Berber, dancer, morphine addict, and flamboyant bisexual, whose "naked dances" scandalized Berlin and Vienna in the 1920s. Hauntingly remindful of Nijinsky, Berber actually essayed outre realms of public sexuality at which Madonna only limply paws. The three photos of Berber and her paramour, Sebastian Droste, are nearly reason enough to acquire this satisfying and impressive popular cultural history. <i>Mike Tribby</i>
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  Still Dancing
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  A Memoir
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  by Katherine Davis
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  For Matthew, the man who fell in love with Cordelia
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Chapter 1
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  At the beginning, I am waiting for a comeuppance. I have a bottom deserving to
  be slapped. I am fourteen years old, an eighth grader in Catholic school, a
  dancer who just turned down being a whore onstage. The nuns wouldn't let me
  out of final exams to play a prostitute in a summer stock production of Sweet
  Charity, but I am ready to Fosse down the gold-lined hallways, bump and grind
  the flagpole, crawl on hands and knees down the pavement to where the crossing
  guard waits. In the meantime, I am waiting in line at graduation rehearsal,
  imaginary rosebuds in my hands. Left together, right together. We proceed
  about 20 yards from Blessed Trinity School to St. Alphonsus Church daily to
  practice our junior high school graduation. No one gets out of step without
  b