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Joan Brady's "Unmaking of a dancer"


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I'd recommend it too, although I disliked it intensely :flowers: There are so few books about the hard work involved in backstage life, and the disappointments. And very few written by dancers who didn't become stars. I found the bitterness hard to take -- it's the kind of book editors love. Ballet is bad. It hurts people. It hurts their feelings. I hope writing it got the bitterness out of her.

So I'd recommend it because it shows a side of dance people don't usually get to see.

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I read this earlier this year, and I loved it. Mostly the way the opening paragraph of each chapter following class progression mirrored the action of the chapter fascinated me. I like to take on others' feelings and emotions, to become familiar with different experiences, and this book certainly brought a new experience, though slightly familiar, to me.

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I just finished reading this book.

What I disliked most about her story is the way she spent all her time comparing herself to others.

I can't remember a single passage about her enjoyment of learning a role and dancing it on stage, topics which frequently form a large portion of dancer autobiographies.

What I think it did evoke well is all the "stuff" that comes with pre-professional training to be a dancer -- the competition, self-doubt, less than supportive teachers, anxiety about moving up to the next class, etc.

I think much of her rage stems from wanting to dance, but not having the emotional resources to deal with all that "stuff." She contrasts her experience with that of Suki Schorer, who navigated all this terrain much more successfully.

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Brady is highly intelligent and an excellent writer (she apparently has published a couple of novels now, out of print, of course) ; some of her observations about classes, schools, etc (Madame, the pianist, and pianists in general; the general desire to appear stupid; the lovely description of the young Patricia McBride) are acute. Although she certainly must take responsibility for her life , I would point out that she DID have the Mother From Hell (worse than Allegra Kent, which is saying something) and was obviously affected by this, just as bad upbringings affected Kent, Kirkland, and probably many other dancers.

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I enjoyed the book very much. I didn't think Brady was expressing bitterness or anger so much as a love-hate and abiding fascination with ballet. I enjoyed her novel "Theory of War," which is indeed out of print, I think.

Her new book is a thriller (unrelated to dance, apparently). Joan Brady and her son, Alexander Masters, who is mentioned in “The Unmaking of a Dancer,” by coincidence have their new books published on the same day:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/...1451977,00.html

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I enjoyed the book very much. I didn't think Brady was expressing bitterness or anger so much as a love-hate and abiding fascination with ballet. I enjoyed her novel "Theory of War," which is indeed out of print, I think.

Her new book is a thriller (unrelated to dance, apparently).  Joan Brady and her son, Alexander Masters, who is mentioned in “The Unmaking of a Dancer,”  by coincidence have their new books published on the same day:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/...1451977,00.html

I am not sure if this is the same book (sometimes books are given different titles in other countries--I am in England) but I read "Prologue" a few years ago and loved it. It is about her living in England and how she takes up dancing again.

I also very much enjoyed "Theory of War"--nothing to do with dancing but a wonderful novel.

Carol

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cubanmiamiboy posted the following comments on the book in the General Reading forum and I thought they would go well here:

I just finished reading "The Unmaking of a Dancer. An Unconventional life" by Joan Brady. It's a refreshing light book in where Ms. Brady, a former ballet student at the San Francisco Ballet School and later at the School of American Ballet in New York, describes her struggling truncated attempts at becoming a professional dancer within the Balanchine's company. It's worthy to note her interesting portrays of some of her former teachers, well known personalities within the ballet world, including Balanchine himself, Lew and Harold Christensen, Anatole Oboukhoff, Pierre Vladimiroff, Mme. Felia Doubrowska, Mme. Alexandra Danilova, Mme. Rosella Hightower and others. Without trying to be too pretentions, Ms. Brady manages to let the non expert reader feel that that the mantra "everything is beautiful in ballet" can be left open to discussion...
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cubanmiamiboy posted the following comments on the book in the General Reading forum and I thought they would go well here:
I just finished reading "The Unmaking of a Dancer. An Unconventional life" by Joan Brady. It's a refreshing light book in where Ms. Brady, a former ballet student at the San Francisco Ballet School and later at the School of American Ballet in New York, describes her struggling truncated attempts at becoming a professional dancer within the Balanchine's company. It's worthy to note her interesting portrays of some of her former teachers, well known personalities within the ballet world, including Balanchine himself, Lew and Harold Christensen, Anatole Oboukhoff, Pierre Vladimiroff, Mme. Felia Doubrowska, Mme. Alexandra Danilova, Mme. Rosella Hightower and others. Without trying to be too pretentions, Ms. Brady manages to let the non expert reader feel that that the mantra "everything is beautiful in ballet" can be left open to discussion...

Thank you dirac for placing my post in the right Forum ! I didn't know there was a thread already about this book, and i have to go thru it it to see people's reactions. As for me, i found it refreshing and easy to read...nothing major...

:tiphat:

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I am not sure if this is the same book (sometimes books are given different titles in other countries--I am in England) but I read "Prologue" a few years ago and loved it. It is about her living in England and how she takes up dancing again.

As far as I know, "Prologue" is simply another title for the same book.

What I find refreshing about this book is that it is a genuinely well-written autobiography. Yes, I agree with most of the comments, about her bitterness, her personal problems, etc. but it is an absorbing and grippingly written account for all that.

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I am not sure if this is the same book (sometimes books are given different titles in other countries--I am in England) but I read "Prologue" a few years ago and loved it. It is about her living in England and how she takes up dancing again.

As far as I know, "Prologue" is simply another title for the same book.

What I find refreshing about this book is that it is a genuinely well-written autobiography. Yes, I agree with most of the comments, about her bitterness, her personal problems, etc. but it is an absorbing and grippingly written account for all that.

It is indeed very well written.

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I just finished reading it---nowhere in the book did I get an inkling that she knew much about the history of her chosen profession. In her brief preface she states that "...with the exception of my family and certain prominent individuals, I have changed the names of and details about persons described in the book to protect their identities" and then goes on to skewer most of the professionals she came in contact with. What irritated me most about the book was her off handed way of dismissing the talents of the dancers around her. She was blessed with a beautiful body, but she didn't know what to do with it. I guess her final revenge was thumbing her nose at Liane Dayde.

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Thank you, atm :off topic: That was my take as well. She was so bitter, I almost felt sorry for her, but it seemed that her whole life, or her perception of it, had been to be validated -- twice she auditions to prove she can do it, and then spits on the chance she was given. This is the ballet story that publishers like, though -- this and "Dancing on My Grave." Ballet is bad for you. People are mean, not everyone can make it. They love that story.

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Thank you, atm :off topic: That was my take as well. She was so bitter, I almost felt sorry for her, but it seemed that her whole life, or her perception of it, had been to be validated -- twice she auditions to prove she can do it, and then spits on the chance she was given. This is the ballet story that publishers like, though -- this and "Dancing on My Grave." Ballet is bad for you. People are mean, not everyone can make it. They love that story.

While I agree that these books exploit the felt victimization of their authors, I would also assert that what non-dancers are interested in reading about are the ways that ballet stages the inequities of life in particularly harsh, explicit, and often highly personal manners. These books tell stories of a kind of naked exercise of power that few people experience unless they are incarcerated or in some kind of high-pressure profession (but even a doctor who kills a patient though negligence in many cases gets a fairer hearing than a dancer who gains weight or drops a partner!).

Still, I would agree that what is dissatisfying about Brody and especially Kirkland's writing is the low level of self-reflecting on the ways their own ambition fed into the messes that their lives became. I don't think they should've just "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps," yet I do think there's a far more complex interplay of external pressures and internal drives that I don't think they explored very deeply (Toni Bently does a better job in Winter Season).

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