17 replies to this topic

[Alexandra]

Please continue to post on Paquita's Dance Books thread -- what books about ballet you particularly enjoy -- here. (Ballet books, of course!) The first thread is v-e-r-y long.

Thanks,

alexandra

[Paul W]

A great coffee table style book (lots of wonderful historical photos) that I have fun just opening to any page to look at the photos first and then read something about the dancers is: "The Great Russian Dancers" by Gennady Smakov, A.A.Knopf NY 1984. If you want a beautiful introduction to what I'm sure are universally considered some of the greatest dancers of the late 19th and 20th centuries, this is a wonderful book!! It covers 33 different dancers, both male and female. I found the text interesting but can't comment on its historical accuracy. Photos are spectacular!

[pasdechat]

my favorites are the Kay Ambrose "Pocketbook series, the Talia Mara series 1st steps etc., Coffee Table book "The Magic of Dance" by Dame Margot Fonteyn, I guess I'm telling on myself, most of these I've had for many years =)

[Alexandra]

Lugo, I also like "Striking a Balance" very much. I kept thinking about it during our Swan Lake period, because one of the things I remember about that book was the British ballerinas talking about "Swan Lake" and how difficult it was. I read it wwhen I first discovered ballet, and before I had seen "Swan Lake," so it was odd, indeed! (Barbara Newman also wrote a biography of Antoinette Sibley, but good luck finding it.)

Ruby, it is old, from the mid-'70s, but she did an update a few years ago, with a few new interviews, that was available in paperback.

Have you tried the search engine at Barnes and Noble? The books I have listed on the site is rather minimal. The search engine is helpful for research (you don't have to buy anything to use it!), because if you, say, searched for the Taper biography, it will give you other "suggested" searches, like biographies, dance; or Balanchine; or biographies, ballet, etc.

Alexandra

p.s. They also have a rare books section now, which I found fascinating for browsing. We have a link to that, too.

[pasdechat]

I also liked "Dancer to Dancer " by Melissa Hadyn

[dirac]

I too enjoyed the Taper and Buckle biographies of Balanchine, but it seemed to me that both books were unsatisfactory in some respects. Taper's chapters dealing with the last stages of Balanchine's career seemed pretty skimpy to me, and Buckle tends to bounce around from topic to topic without giving his material much shape. I read somewhere (maybe here) that Arlene Croce was working on a biography, and if that's true there's no reason why it shouldn't be definitive. I read Tallchief's autobiography with much interest. Her account of Balanchine's proposal is worth the price of the book. Has anyone mentioned Karsavina's Theatre Street? I liked that very much. There's another book called The Pointe Book, now in its second edition, that has some useful information.

[This message has been edited by dirac (edited May 14, 1999).]

[Leigh Witchel]

The last (highly unreliable) rumor I had heard about Croce's book was that it was in limbo. However, that's from a really bad source.

I don't have the Buckle biography, like the Taper and find that Francis Mason's compendium, "I Remember Balanchine" reminds us invaluably just how complex the man was. I did an informal cross-check of the 83 interviews within it to determine which facts seemed consistent. Of the handful I found: Concerto Barocco was once an allegro ballet, where it is now an adagio ballet. The Figure in the Carpet ought to be revived (but is lost). Balanchine and Villella had a problem getting along.

Most everything else was up for grabs, depending upon how he appeared to the interviewer. Whenever I write about Balanchine, I recognize that I have an idealized Balanchine in my mind, symbolic of the choreographic ideal. It tangentially relates to the real man, I suppose! I think recognizing his elusiveness is one way to understand him.

[atm711]

I find myself, from time to time re-reading Francis Mason's "I Remember Balanchine". These are recollections of dozens of people who knew him and worked with him. Not all of the remembrances are flattering--I find the one by Barbara Walczak particularly poignant. I remember Barbara as a student at SAB and as a dancer with the Company.

[cargill]

Ballet Shoes is by Noel Streatfield, and it is a very good book. I remember reading that Streatfield got interested in children performers and dancers when she saw Ninette de Valois when she was a child performer dance Dying Swan at some music hall.