What is "moondance"

Moondance is the third studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. After recording his commercially unsuccessful 1968 album Astral Weeks, Morrison moved with his wife to an artistic hamlet in upstate New York and began writing songs for Moondance. There, he met the musicians he would record the album with at New York City's A & R Studios in 1969.

Morrison abandoned the abstract folk compositions of Astral Weeks in favor of more formally composed songs on Moondance, which he wrote and produced himself. Its lively rhythm and blues music was the style he would become most known for in his career. The music incorporated soul, jazz, pop, and Irish folk sounds into ballads and songs about finding spiritual renewal and redemption in worldly matters such as nature, music, and romantic love.

After Moondance was released in 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, it became both a critical and commercial success, helping establish Morrison as a major artist in popular music. It has since been cited by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2013, the album's remastered deluxe edition was released to similar acclaim.

Moondance is an online international women's literary, culture and art journal. The magazine began in 1996.

Said Editor-in-Chief Loretta Kemsley, "My background in newspaper design was a good start for our fledgling ezine but so very different from the demands and opportunities of Internet publishing. With little experience to guide us, that first edition was an adventure unto itself. Some of our volunteers doubted we could accomplish this feat, even as we worked hard to meet our self imposed deadline: September, 1996. Moondance was coded for Internet browsers while reading a book on simplified HTML,"

Journalist Loretta Kemsley of Los Angeles, creator and publisher for the magazine, began her media career in the mid-1950s as a young horsewoman and stunt rider for cowboy star Gene Autry through Flying A Productions studios in Hollywood. In June 1954, Kemsley rode as a stunt double, at the age of eight, for Nancy Gilbert who played the young Calamity in The Buffalo Bill Jr. NBC series directed by George Archainbaud, starring Dick Jones as Buffalo Bill Jr., the Marshall of Wileyville, Texas. Forty more episodes were later co-produced by Autry for the children's western from 1954-1956.

"Moondance" is a popular song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and is the title song on his 1970 album Moondance.

Morrison did not release the song as a single until November 1977, seven and a half years after the album was released. It reached the Billboard Hot 100, charting at #92. The single's B-side, "Cold Wind in August", had been released in the same year, on his latest album at the time, A Period of Transition.

"Moondance" is the most frequently played song by Van Morrison in concert, as it is the only song known to have been played over a thousand times.

Moondance may refer to:

• Moondance, an album by Van Morrison
• " Moondance (Van Morrison song)", from the album of same name
• An instrumental by Nightwish (from Oceanborn)
• "Moon Dance", song on the 1986 new age album Down to the Moon by Andreas Vollenweider

• Moondance International Film Festival, an annual film competition in Boulder, Colorado
• Moondance Jam, a classic rock festival in Minnesota

• Moondance, a 1995 Irish drama film
• Moondance magazine, a women's literature and arts journal
• Moondance Diner, a New York landmark
• MS Moondance, a ferry
• "Moon Dance" (Frasier), an episode in the third season of the sitcom Frasier
• Moon Dance, common name of the cultivated plant Buddleja crispa 'Huimoon' = Moon Dance
• A dance performed on or for the moon, particularly as a folk dance tradition or custom

Moondance is a 1995 Irish drama film based on the 1936 novel The White Hare by Francis Stuart. It was directed by Dagmar Hirtz and stars Rúaidhrí Conroy, in his second feature film following Into the West. It also features Ian Shaw, Julia Brendler and Marianne Faithfull, who also provided the vocals for the song "Madam George" written by Van Morrison, who wrote the lyrics for the songs included in the soundtrack.