Skip to Main Content
Syracuse University Libraries

Drama and Theater Resources: Acting, Dance, and Movement

Musical Theater

Acting and The Voice

Your Body Knows: A Movement Guide for actors

by Jana Tift, Meade Andrews

Your Body Knows  provides the foundation actors need to move with ease and power. It is a practical guide to movement starting at the very beginning: knowing your body and experiencing how it works. 

Your Body Knows  image of a blue book

Drama Online

Playtexts, audio plays, video productions, photos, and ebooks related to practice and criticism, including works from Arden Shakespeare, Nick Hern Books, TCG Books, Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, BBC, L.A. Theater Works, and more.

Performing Story on the Contemporary Stage

This book explores the way in which the contemporary proliferation of forms of storytelling practice in international theatre has created a distinctive set of performance practices. 

Human Kinetics Library

Books and videos for both practitioners and scholarly study in dance, exercise, fitness, health, motor behavior, nutrition, physical activity, and sport management. Includes Human Kinetics Dance Technique module.

Human Kinetics Library Logo

The Oxford Dictionary of Dance

Covers all aspects of the diverse dance world from classical ballet to modern, from flamenco to hip-hop, from tap to South Asian dance forms and includes detailed entries on technical terms, steps, styles, works, and countries, in addition to many biographies of dancers, choreographers, and companies

The Physical Actor: Contact Improvisation from Studio to Stage

by Annie Loui

The Physical Actor is a comprehensive book of exercises for actors. It is carefully designed for the development of a strong and flexible physical body able to move with ease through space and interact instinctively on-stage.

Cover of The Physical Actor

The SAGE Handbook of Performance Studies

The SAGE Handbook of Performance Studies brings together, in a single volume,  discussions of the major research in performance studies and identifies directions for further investigation. It is the only comprehensive collection on the theories, methods, politics, and practices of performance relating to life and culture. 

International Encyclopedia of Dance

Covers all types of dance around the world and throughout history, including theatrical, ritual dance-drama, folk, traditional, ethnic, and social dance. Features historical and cultural overview articles on countries as well as articles on specific dance forms, music and costumes, performances, and biographies of dancers and choreographers.

Staging Words, Performing Worlds

Staging Words presents new perspectives on Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela and their theater, by postulating that nation can be imagined and reconstructed through the deliberate performance of intertexts. The book shows how past artistic texts - other plays, stories, newspaper articles, songs, or paintings - can be manipulated and translated to create a new theatrical script, and that this new script can expose an innovative space for interpreting the nation.

Exercises for Embodied Actors: Tools for Physical Actioning

by Scott Illingworth

This book builds on the vocabulary of simple action verbs to generate an entire set of practical tools from first read to performance that harnesses modern knowledge about the integration of the mind and the rest of the body. Includes over 50 innovative exercises.

Book Cover of Exercises for Embodied Actors

Movement Resources

Acting Resources