Manuel

Manuel may refer to:

People

Places

Other

Manuel (horse)

Manuel (1896–1900) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that won the 1899 Kentucky Derby in what was deemed a very uneventful race. He was foaled in Kentucky and was a bay colt sired by Bob Miles out of the mare Espanita (by Alarm). He is related through his grandsire to 1907 Derby winner Pink Star. Manuel was bred by George James Long at his Louisville stud farm, Bashford Manor Stable.

Long retained ownership of Manuel throughout his two-year-old season, finally selling him in October 1898 to the Morris brothers for $15,000.^[3] A few days after the Derby at Churchill Downs, Manuel injured his leg by stepping in a hole in the track which prompted his withdraw from racing for the rest of the season.

Manuel was sold to Frank Morel (through his agent J. Baker) as a four-year-old in October 1900 for $500 at the Morris Park sale. Manuel only raced for two seasons and did not produce any registered offspring. A 1910 Daily Racing Form article states that he died shortly thereafter as a four-year-old.

Manuel (Fawlty Towers)

Manuel is a fictional character from the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers. Played by Andrew Sachs, he is an iconic character in British comedy history. He reappeared for a small sketch with John Cleese in We Are Most Amused in November 2008.

Manuel himself appeared on the audio adaptations of Fawlty Towers as a linking narrator, explaining things from his point of view, when the series was released on audio format. The first two episodes released did not feature him at all, as the dialogue was edited and short burst of piano music would indicate a change of scene. However, when the whole series was re-released, they were re-edited with Manuel's linking commentary.

Personality

Dance

Dance is a performance art form consisting of purposefully selected sequences of human movement. This movement has aesthetic and symbolic value, and is acknowledged as dance by performers and observers within a particular culture. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements, or by its historical period or place of origin.

An important distinction is to be drawn between the contexts of theatrical and participatory dance, although these two categories are not always completely separate; both may have special functions, whether social, ceremonial, competitive, erotic, martial, or sacred/liturgical. Others disciplines of human movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming and many other forms of athletics.

Performance and participation

Theatrical dance, also called performance or concert dance, is intended primarily as a spectacle, usually a performance upon a stage by virtuoso dancers. It often tells a story, perhaps using mime, costume and scenery, or else it may simply interpret the musical accompaniment, which is often specially composed. Examples are western ballet and modern dance, Classical Indian dance and Chinese and Japanese song and dance dramas. Most classical forms are centred upon dance alone, but performance dance may also appear in opera and other forms of musical theatre.

Dancer (novel)

Dancer is a novel based on the life of Rudolf Nureyev, written by Colum McCann and published in 2003.

Background

Nureyev was a Russian ballet dancer who achieved fame with the Kirov Ballet before defecting to the West in 1961 and subsequently became "one of the most written-about dancers in history". He died in 1992. McCann, born in Ireland, had previously written novels, short stories and newspaper reports while travelling and teaching in the United States and Japan; some of his work was set in Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 2001, already having "a growing reputation as an international writer", he moved to Russia where he researched his novel based on Nureyev while teaching English. A decade after the book's publication, McCann commented that he personally saw Nureyev as "a monster".

Plot and structure

The book begins on the Eastern Front during World War Two, with Nureyev performing for injured Soviet soldiers as a child. It covers his good fortune in gaining the chance to study ballet in his home country, his success there and then his life, work, loves and excesses as a celebrity after his defection to the West.

Hot Space

Hot Space is the tenth studio album by British rock band Queen, released in May 1982. Marking a notable shift in direction from their earlier work, they employed many elements of disco, funk, rhythm and blues, dance and pop music on the album. This made the album less popular with fans who preferred the traditional rock style they had come to associate with the band.

Queen's decision to record a dance-oriented album germinated with the massive success in the US of their 1980 hit "Another One Bites the Dust" (and to a lesser extent, the UK success of the song too).

"Under Pressure", Queen's collaboration with David Bowie, was released in 1981 and became the band's second #1 hit in the UK. Though included on Hot Space, the song was a separate project and recorded ahead of the album, before the controversy over Queen's new sound (disco-influenced rock music). The album's second single, "Body Language", peaked at #11 on the US charts.

In July 2004, Q magazine listed Hot Space as one of the top fifteen albums where great rock acts lost the plot. Most of the album was recorded in Munich during the most turbulent period in the band's history, and Roger Taylor and Brian May lamented the new sound, with both being very critical of the influence Freddie Mercury's manager Paul Prenter had on the singer. Estimated sales of the album currently stand at four million copies.