"Wendy Buonaventura describes for the first time the world of dance through women's eyes. She moves gracefully across a kaleidoscope of cultures, from the delicious tango of Buenos Aires... to Paris and the bawdy, leggy cancan dancers of the Moulin Rouge... to Chicago and New York, where African Americans cakewalked, Charlestoned, and shimmied into the public eye, creating "jazz" dance." "Along the way, the author pauses to consider Madonna and Princess Diana, ballet and anorexia, transvestism and cosmetic surgery. Here is a tale rich with anecdotes (such as the New Jersey girl picked up by police during the Roaring Twenties for dancing the Turkey Trot on her lunch hour) and often surprising facts ( the first geishas, for example, were men). This is a book for lovers of dance and lovers of history alike, an introduction to a little known side of a cultural legacy - a book for anyone intrigued by the sublime, sexy, and downright surreal ways we find to strut our stuff."--BOOK JACKET.