Ballet Books

Book SynopsisThis inspirational autobiography opens a window on the uniquely individual life of Vadim Muntagirov, one of the most celebrated dancers of our time. Vadim left home aged 10 to enter full time ballet training, arrived at The Royal Ballet School via the Prix de Lausanne aged 16 with no English, was cast as Albrecht in English National Ballet's Giselle aged 19 and danced Siegfried in Swan Lake at The Royal Albert Hall to considerable acclaim less than a year after graduating. Since then, with an expanded repertoire as a Principal with The Royal Ballet and in parallel demand as an international guest, Vadim's early promise has translated into a stellar career. Nicknamed Vadream, he is hugely admired and very much loved by audiences at home and abroad. Vadim's story affords a real insight into the intense work and level of commitment needed to rise to the top in ballet - and stay there. It enables readers to see the experiences which have shaped him, including the lasting effect of separation from his family, his rigorous early training, his discovery of a world beyond his homeland, and the unstinting support he has received in his adopted country as a student and during his years in the profession. This is a book which looks 'behind the scenes' and 'beyond the interviews' to reveal what is involved in becoming and being a Principal dancer, including the privilege of working with many ballet luminaries, the more informal moments, and the many etceteras which come with the job. But Vadim makes it about so much more than the daily 'ins and outs' as he shares his reactions, thoughts and emotions in a way which allows others to get to know him as a person.Table of ContentsPART ONE: STARTING POINTS [1990–2009] 1. A Child of the Urals 2. Six Years in Perm 3. An ‘Escape Route’ Emerges 4. The Leap to London PART TWO: FROM FIRST ARTIST TO LEAD PRINCIPAL [2009–2014] Repertoire with English National Ballet 5. In at the Deep End 6. Onwards and Upwards 7. All Change 8. An ENB Coda PART THREE: ROYAL BALLET MOMENTUM [2014–2022] Repertoire with The Royal Ballet 9. More Than Another Postcode 10. Diverse Debuts 11. On the Day of a Show 12. A Career on Hold 13. Nine Years and Counting PART FOUR: IT GOES WITH THE TERRITORY 14. Here, There and Everywhere 15. Teaching Is Learning Too 16. Beyond the Stage Door

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Book SynopsisA charmingly illustrated exploration of The Nutcracker ballet, from the story to the characters to the music, for kids aged 8 - 12 to enjoy. The Nutcracker is one of the world''s most beloved and recognizable ballets. A holiday perennial, it is frequently the first ballet young people experience and remember for a lifetime. This wonderfully engaging book introduces children, ages 8 to 12, to the story of the ballet, its history, the music and choreography, as well as all of the characters from Clara and the Prince to the Mouse King and the Snow Queen. Special sections introduce children to some of the most famous dancers and companies that have brought the performance and the magic of the ballet to life. Including a fold-out poster that young readers can remove and hang on their walls, A Child''s Introduction to The Nutcracker is the perfect souvenir for the millions of young people who attend a holiday performance and have dreams of Sugarplum Fai

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Book SynopsisAs principal dancer with Montréal-based company La La La Human Steps, Louise Lecavalier was among the most iconic dancers of her generation: strong, muscled, androgynous, punk. Moving with spectacular speed, precision and an athletic physicality, her commitment to dancing would ultimately transform the potential of what bodies within Western concert dance could do. Drawing on extensive oral history accounts and archival material, the book follows Lecavalier's impact on the evolving aesthetic of La La La Human Steps, via the development of its early repertoire, and offers the first sustained account of her 1982 solo Non, Non, Non, je ne suis pas Mary Poppins. More, it tracks diverse influences and sources for the repertoire, complicating understandings of nationalism in Québec, while marking the significance of the collective in generating new aesthetics. What emerges is a portrait of the dancer as artist, icon, labourer and mover of cultural discourse. Featuring aTrade Review[Lecavalier's] extreme dance, filled with a fiery energy, caught the imagination of a whole generation. * New York Live Arts *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Letter from a Dancer Chapter 1: Off-Axis: Expressionist Legacies, Punk Realities Chapter 2: No No No: Re/Working Labour and Aesthetics Chapter 3: Icon/Street/City: From Dancer to Discourse Chapter 4: Black Aesthetics/White Dreadlocks: Love, Hate and Rehearsals of Culture Conclusion: Letter from A Dance Fan Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisJoy Womack made history in 2012 when she became the first American ballerina to sign a contract with the Bolshoi Ballet Theater in Moscow, Russia. It's a dream she left her home country for and spent years of training to achieve. But dancing in Moscow was not the Onion Dome and Tchaikovsky soundtrack fairy tale she'd hoped for. The Bolshoi and its school were filled with cutthroat competition, acts of violence, and coaches who encouraged obsessive devotion. They sent her on stage with broken bones, helped her forge immigration paperwork, and encouraged her to toe a dangerous political line - all for the privilege of dancing on one of the world''s most storied stages. As Joy's career took off and she made a name for herself in the Russian ballet world, she had to face a hard choice. Despite her love for her adopted homeland and its world-famous theaters, she was aware of the growing dangers of a professional lifestyle descending into corruption. Her concerns grew stronger with the awareness of a possible war with Russia''s neighbor, Ukraine. Joy spent three years dancing prima roles for the Kremlin Palace Theater and now lives in Paris with her husband, where she performs internationally and with the Paris Opera.

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Book SynopsisEvery day, in dance studios all across America, millions of little girls line up at the barre and take ballet class. Their time in the studio shapes their lives, instilling lessons about gender, power, the value of their bodies and minds, and their place in the world both in and outside of dance.In Turning Pointe, journalist Chloe Angyal captures the intense love for ballet that so many dancers feel, while also grappling with its shortcomings: the power imbalance of an art form performed mostly by women, but dominated by male choreographers and ballet masters, the impossible standards of beauty and thinness, and the racism that pervades ballet.A new generation of dancers is confronting these issues head on. If ballet is going to survive the 21st century and forge a path into a more socially just future, this reckoning is essential.

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Book SynopsisA beautiful gift book packed with pictures from over twenty productions from the year 2018-19 at The Royal Ballet - a richly illustrated companion to The Royal Ballet company.Table of ContentsWelcome to the Royal Ballet: A Season in Pictures 2018/19 The 2018/19 Season at a Glance Photographs Artists and Staff at the Royal Ballet 2018/19

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Book Synopsis"Captures the resilience of the company." – The i newspaper In March 2020, Liam Scarlett's production of Swan Lake opened at the Royal Opera House, beginning its anticipated 3-month run. That same month, the UK government ordered theatres and arts centres across the country to close immediately as the COVID-19 pandemic starting its fast and destructive spread around the world. At the Royal Opera House, The Royal Ballet Company were furloughed and training programmes quickly set up virtually. Audiences who previously crowded into the venue were confined to their homes, with many switching their engagement to streamed digital performances live from the venue. This changed the audience experience significantly - not only because of the nature of the performance dramatically, but because it brought in new international audiences almost overnight. This book of photographs captures a period unlike any other, a journey that starts with the Company in "normal" times and develops into plans being made for a gradual in-person return to the Royal Opera House under strict COVID safety measures, such as mask-wearing, extensive COVID testing and artists working in "bubbles". Through a selection of striking photographs, the book showcases the remarkable resilience of The Royal Ballet throughout this year, a resilience that's shared by so many arts organisations affected equally dramatically by the pandemic. This Season in Pictures volume contains photographs of classic Royal Ballet productions, including Swan Lake, Coppélia and The Nutcracker, dancers engaged in community projects, socially distanced performances on The Royal Ballet stage, performances with totally empty auditoria and dancers in rehearsal wearing face masks.Trade ReviewCaptures the resilience of the company during this extraordinary period [when theatres were forced to close], with gorgeous photographs of classic productions – ‘Swan Lake’, ‘Coppélia’ and ‘The Nutcracker’ – along with shots of socially distanced performances and dancers rehearsing in masks. * The i newspaper *

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Book SynopsisAs the founding father of the radical dance form that he called Butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1986) is a legendary figure in the history of art and contemporary dance. Though influenced by Western artists and writersthe expressionist dance of Mary Wigman, the writings of Artaud, de Sade, Bataille, and Genet, and the drawings and paintings of Goya, Picasso, Toyen, Beardsley, and othershe was dedicated to the particular experience of the marginalized, Japanese suffering body after World War II. In the mid-1970s, Hijikata became concerned with developing notation for his Butoh, and some of these Butoh-fu notations remain, largely in the form of notebooks transcribed by his disciples. Costume en Face is the first publication of one of Hijikata's notebook notations in either English or Japanese. In it we can see, for the first time, the profound interconnectedness of language and body in Hijikata's process of composition.

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Book SynopsisEleonora Abbagnato is the prima ballerina at the Opéra de Paris. This original volume reveals her artistic versatility through the photographs of four celebrated ballets. The book opens with an original interview by Valeria Crippa, journalist and ballet critic. Comprehensible to all, the ballerina’s answers outline the technical aspects of choreography, the difficulty of interpreting the score and the way in which she studies her role in each case and prepares to offer a unique and unrepeatable performance. This is the ideal gift for aspiring dancers and those who always dreamed of taking up this career.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Almost every page offers provocative commentary on the aesthetics and politics of modern dance." —Signs "[An] important step . . . in the ineluctable dance by postmodern historians across a bridge that spans the gaps among disciplines, between theory and practice, and between present and past." —Theatre Journal "This complex and important book needs to be read by anyone interested in dance history or the cultural politics of dance." —Dance Theatre Journal "Mark Franko's Dancing Modernism / Performing Politics is challenging, groundbreaking, insightful, and . . . an important contribution to the field of dance scholarship." —Dance Research JournalTable of ContentsForeword: Geneaology and Event in the Work of Mark Franko, by Juan Ignacio VallejosPrefaceIntroduction: The Politics of Expression1. The Invention of Modern Dance2. Bodies of Radical Will3. Emotivist Movement and Histories of Modernism: The Case of Martha Graham4. Expressivism and Chance Procedure: The Future of an Emotion5. Some Notes on Yvonne Rainer, Modernism, Politics, Emotion, Performance, and the AftermathAppendix: Left-Wing Dance Theory: Articles on Dance from New Theatre, New Masses, and Daily WorkerNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIgor Stravinsky was a towering composer of the twentieth century and closely linked to dance. His early commissions for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes - "The Firebird", "Petrouchka", and "The Rite of Spring" - put him on the international map. This survey analyses each of Stravinsky's ballet pieces.Trade Review"This excellent source offers a unique approach to analysis of ballet, recording its history—as seen through the life and work of Stravinsky—and reflecting the impact of Russian culture on ballet and music of the 20th century. With its 33 pages of endnotes and 4-page bibliography of primary sources, this book is a scholarly delight."—C.T. Bond, Choice -- C.T. Bond * Choice *

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Book SynopsisOutlines four models for representation in dance which are illustrated through an analysis of the works of contemporary choreographers and through historical examples beginning with court ballets of the Renaissance.Trade Review"Susan Foster is a new breed of dancer and choreographer." * New York Times *"Foster proposes a context from which the reader might make, see, or write about dance." * CHOICE *"No other dance book had posited an alternative aesthetic and historical framework beyond its own disciplinary content. In advance of the turn to the body in social theory, dance therefore became a major contributor to the rethinking of history advanced by new historicists, and an art form that could be "read" within the context of history and politics. . . . Although dance studies is a growing field for undergraduate studies, its critical status depends on texts such as Reading Dancing that can be debated more widely." * Times Higher Education *Table of Contents Illustrations Preface CHAPTER ONE Reading Dance: Composing the Choreographer, the Dancer, and the Viewer Deborah Hay George Balanchine Martha Graham Merce Cunningham Four Bodies and Subjects CHAPTER TWO Reading Choreography: Composing Dances Frames Modes of Representation Styles Vocabularies Syntaxes Reading the Performance CHAPTER THREE Readings in Dance's History: Historical Approaches to Dance Composition Allegorical Dance in the Late Renaissance Neoclassical Dance in the Eighteenth Century Expressionist Dance in the Early Twentieth Century Objectivist Dance from 1950 to the Present CHAPTER FOUR Writing Dancing: The Viewer as Choreographer in Contemporary Dance The Grand Union Meredith Monk Twyla Tharp Writing Bodies and Subjects Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBelle époque Paris adored dance. Whether at the music hall or in more refined theaters, audiences flocked to see the spectacles offered to them by the likes of Isadora Duncan, Diaghilev's flashy company, and an embarrassment of Salomés. After languishing in the shadow of opera for much of the nineteenth century, ballet found itself part of this lively kinetic constellation. In Kinetic Cultures, Rachana Vajjhala argues that far from being mere delectation, ballet was implicated in the larger republican project of national rehabilitation through a rehabilitation of its citizens. By tracing the various gestural complexes of the periodbodybuilding routines, appropriate physical comportment for women, choreographic vocabularies, and moreVajjhala presents a new way of understanding histories of dance and music, one that she locates in gesture and movement.

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Book SynopsisA memoir that looks at the artists Rudolf Nureyev's and Rudi van Dantzig's relationship.

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Book SynopsisIn this memoir of a roller coaster career on the New York stage, former actor and dancer Bettijane Sills offers a highly personal look at the art and practice of George Balanchine, one of ballet's greatest choreographers, and the inner workings of his world-renowned company during its golden years.

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Book SynopsisIn this long-awaited memoir, dancer and choreographer John Clifford offers a highly personal look inside the day-to-day operations of the New York City Ballet and its creative mastermind, George Balanchine. Balanchine's Apprentice is the story of Clifford and the guiding inspiration for his life's work in dance.Trade Review"Even those not enraptured by ballet will find Clifford’s extraordinary career and bond with Balanchine, who died in 1983, affecting. For ballet devotees, this intimate account is required reading.”—Publishers Weekly“Though Balanchine's works and influence have been well documented, the male perspective has been somewhat lacking, and Clifford is to be commended for this sparkling read, an appreciative yet clear-eyed tribute to his mentor and a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of ballet.”—Library Journal“A close-up look by an astute and engaging observer, neither self-important nor falsely modest, at one of the supreme artists of the past century and a celebration of the astonishing work and the astonishing company he created.”—Wall Street Journal

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Book SynopsisThalia Mara's story spans the history of dance in the twentieth century and the rise of the arts in her adopted city of Jackson, Mississippi. To Dance, to Live: A Biography of Thalia Mara gives the first full account of a life devoted to the arts.

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Book SynopsisThis pioneering study of ballets staged in Parisian music halls brings to light a vibrant dance culture central to the renewal of French choreography at the fin de siècle. This pioneering study of Parisian music-hall ballet brings to light a vibrant dance culture that was central to the renewal of French ballet at the turn of the twentieth century. Long thought a lost period for ballet in France, the fin de siècle in fact saw a flourishing of choreographic activity. More than four hundred ballets were created to great acclaim, half of which were full-scale pantomime-ballets, with entertaining narratives, catchy music, titillating choreography, lavish sets and costumes, appealing corps girls, and star ballerinas. Most of these productions were staged not at the elite Paris Opéra but in the city's trendiest commercial venues: music halls. Between 1871 and 1913, the Folies-Bergère, the Olympia, and the Casino de Paris brought together the era's leading authors of light theater and comic opera to produce a flurry of imaginative ballets that combined the conventional structures of high art with the popular idioms of mass entertainment. They also drew unprecedented numbers of people who had never before attended ballet. Parisian Music-Hall Ballet, 1871-1913 rediscovers this repertoire and culture, supplying a missing chapter in the history of French dance. Sarah Gutsche-Miller is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Toronto.Trade Review[A] compelling contribution to French dance and music history. The author's new and important insights contribute much to our understanding of the dramatic achievements of the 'historical avant-garde' in the early decades of the twentienth century. * DANCE RESEARCH REVIEW *Gutsche-Miller's work not only illuminates the supposed 'Dark Ages' of French ballet, but also provides a vital corrective to conventional wisdom about the cultural context into which Diaghilev launched his troupe. A lucid and lively history that vividly reconstructs the art world of Parisian music-hall ballet at its three principal venues: the Folies-Bergères, the Olympia, and the Casino de Paris. Serves as a caution against focusing too narrowly on activities at only the most powerful and prestigious 'high art' institutions. The book's generous appendices...will prove an invaluable reference for scholars wishing to investigate thsi repertory further. MUSIC & LETTERS [Helena Kopchick Spencer] * . *Gutsche-Miller's meticulous research provides a glimpse of these now-lost ballets, created at the impressive rate of four to six new works per year. Points to canny ways that composers used music to evoke place, atmosphere, and character . . . Gutsche-Miller's greatest contribution lies in her insistence that this popular genre is worthy of serious scholarly inquiry. * NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH STUDIES *Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction The Venues and the Shows Music Halls for Tout-Paris Creative Artists: Authors, Composers, and Choreographers The Ballet-Divertissement Real Pantomime-Ballets: The Choreographic Conventions of 1890s Music-Hall Ballet Music as Storyteller: The Musical Conventions of 1890s Music-Hall Ballet As Pleasing to the Ear as to the Eye: A Popular Musical Style The Stories of Music-Hall Ballet: Romance, Flirtations, and Other Pleasures A Delight to Behold: Glitter, Glamour, and Girls Appendix A: Tables of Ballets Staged by the Folies-Bergere, the Olympia, and the Casino de Paris Appendix B: Synopses of Ballets Staged at the Folies-Bergere, the Olympia, and the Casino de Paris Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the crossroads between autobiographical narratives and musical composition in Alban Berg's Lulu, unveiling aspects of encoded social customs, gender identity, and personal experiences within musical structures. Exploring the crossroads between autobiographical narrative and musical composition, this book examines Berg's transformation of Frank Wedekind's Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora -- the plays used in the formationof the libretto for Lulu -- according to notions of gender identity, social customs, and the aesthetics of modernity in the Vienna of the 1920s and 1930s. While Berg modernized several aspects of the plays and incorporatedserial techniques of composition from Arnold Schoenberg, he never let go of the idealistic Wagnerian perspectives of his youth. In fact, he went as far as reconfiguring aspects of Richard Wagner's life as an ideal identity to beplayed out in the compositional process. In composing the opera, Berg also reflected on the most important cultural figures in fin-de-siècle Vienna that affected his worldview, including Karl Kraus, Emil Lucka, Otto Weininger, andothers. Combining analysis of Berg's correspondence, numerous sketches for Lulu, and the finished work with interpretive models drawn from cultural studies and philosophy, this book elucidates the ways in which Berg grappled at the end of his life with his self-image as an "incorrigible romantic," and explains aspects of his musical language that have been considered strange or anomalous in Berg scholarship. Silvio J. dos Santos isassistant professor of musicology at the University of Florida.Trade ReviewDr. dos Santos has not only contributed a uniquely compelling work to the existing body of literature on Berg's music, but he has also proved that fluency in multiple methodologies and fields of inquiry can give scholars access to analyses of unprecedented nuance and scope. Cultural historians will benefit from his work as much as theorists of early twelve-tone music. * GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW *Succeeds in demonstrating how very detailed and multifaceted the engagement is, in Berg's Lulu, with the presence of Wagner['s music] and with ideas related to that presence. We can hope that [Dos Santos's] monograph is the impetus for further new insights about Lulu and for Berg research generally. -- Kordula Knaus * DIE MUSIKFORSCHUNG *[Santos has] much to say about the dramatic representation of Lulu herself, and the role of a tonality-acknowledging 12-tone technique in that representation. Makes good use of the multiplicity of recent work on Berg's manuscripts and other archival materials to outline a response to Wagner, and to modern life, that was more psychological (not excluding a possible element of erotomania) than philosophical or spiritual. -- Arnold Whittall * MUSICAL TIMES *In Narratives of Identity in Alban Berg's 'Lulu,' Silvio dos Santos goes above and beyond prior Berg scholarship with inspired and admirably thorough research. This complex and significant volume, based on expert examination of Berg's score, is the most important study of Lulu's character to come across my path in many years. A compelling narrative, which promises to be of lasting importance to scholars, musicians, and the opera-loving public. -- Mark DeVoto, Tufts UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction Between Schoenberg and Wagner Berg as Wagner: In Pursuit of an Ideal Identity Refiguring Tristan The Bild Motif and Lulu's Idenity Marriage as Prostitution Masculine, Feminine, and "In-between": Geschwitz as neue Frau Conclusion: Berg's Wagnerism Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRoots and Wings recounts Virginia Tanner's remarkable career as a dance artist, educator, and founder of the University of Utah's Tanner Dance Program. From her early experiences assisting at Evelyn Davis's dance school in Washington, D.C., to the creation of the Tanner Dance Program at the University of Utah, her influence in the field was pervasive. She channelled children's energy, sharpened their senses, and encouraged youthful, authentic dance expression. Tanner's work endures, continuing to echo with sensitivity and spirit in the bodies of young dancers throughout the United States and abroad. By revealing both the broader and specific themes of Tanner's career and legacy, this narrative fills an important void. While exploring Tanner's story, it also recognizes the value of unique instructional methodologies for teaching dance to young children and the vital role the arts play in children's lives.Trade Review“This work is a significant contribution. Biographical information on people such as Virginia Tanner, who devoted their lives to the development of children through the arts, is almost nonexistent.”—Douglas C. Sonntag, emeritus Director of Dance, National Endowment for the ArtsTable of Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: A Gift of Dance Freely Given Chapter 1 Awakening: Born to a Place and Time Chapter 2 Distant Voices: In Search of a Calling Chapter 3 Inspiration: Summer Schools in the Rockies Chapter 4 Hop- Scotching Chapter 5 Uncharted Territory: Launching a Career Chapter 6 Birth of a Young Company Chapter 7 Balance: The Juggling Act Chapter 8 Springboards: The Buttermilk Tree Chapter 9 Children: Straight Out of Heaven Chapter 10 Imagination: The Beauty of Childhood Chapter 11 Liftoff: When Dreams Take Flight Chapter 12 Invitations: Westward Ho Chapter 13 Virginia: “The Breadwinner” Chapter 14 Sunshine and Sand: Hawaii Beckons Chapter 15 A Master Teacher: IMPACT Calls Chapter 16 Bright with Promise: The Golden Age for the Arts in Education Chapter 17 Bulldozers on the Horizon: A Search for Home Chapter 18 What Joy They Gave Unknowingly Chapter 19 Unstoppable Drive: A Brilliant Journey Coda You Taught My Soul to Dance Notes Bibliography

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