Performing Arts and Music blog

International Dance Day takes place every year on 29th April. This annual celebration of dance was founded in 1982. and to mark this celebration, here are just five of the many books we have on dance in the University Library. 

• Burrows (2025) A choreographer’s handbook
• Butterworth (2021) Fifty contemporary choreographers
• Dreyer (2020) Dance and light: the partnership between choreography and lighting design
• Roche (2022) Choreography: the basics
• Shea (2023) Dancing indigenous worlds: choreographies of relation

These five books are all available online. Explore our Library Search to discover the wealth and breadth of books we have about dance. 

Piano Day takes place annually on the 88^th day of the year because of the number of keys on the instrument being celebrated, and is a worldwide event founded by a group of like-minded people. 

To celebrate Piano Day this year we are highlighting a selection of the books and music we have about the piano in our library collection.

• Beethoven and the piano: Philology, context and performance practice
• Max Richter piano works
• Miss Saigon – piano/vocal selections
• The Compleant Busoni, Volume 1 – Busoni and the piano: the workings, the writings and the recordings
• The Compleant Busoni, volume 2 – Busoni’s other music: a complete survey
• Twenty-four contemporary pieces for solo piano 
• Wicked: a musical (piano/vocal selections)

27th March is the annual World Theatre Day, celebrated by the international theatre community. Let us use this opportunity to explore the breadth of resources for our theatrical resources. Here are just a few of the resources we have ready for you to use when researching for your assignments:

• Contemporary black theatre and performance
• Insights into applied theatre
• Milestones in musical theatre
• Sensory theatre 
• The Routledge companion to musical theatre
• The Routledge companion to theatre and young people
• Theatre as human action: an introduction to theatre arts

Are you keen to get stuck into reading for your assignments? 

Check out the latest books bought for the School of Media and Creative Industries - books we have recently bought for programmes within the School are listed here. 

It is a rolling list so gets updated each time we buy new books, so there is always something exciting for you to discover!