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Ballet fiction


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There are 12 in all. I'm missing No. 7.

No. 9 -- Chance to Love (Leah gets more interested in a guy than ballet)

No. 10 -- Rising Star (Leah gets caught up in dancing in two conflicting performances at the same time)

No. 11 -- Startng Over (Leah gets injured and has to fight her way back to restoring her technique)

No 12 -- Summer Dance (Leah gets into a renewed rivalry with her former nemesis from San Francisco when the two are at an SI in Vermont together)

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Guest kleighfer

Thanks to all of you for providing some books to rediscover or discover for the first time.

FF - thanks for the "Random House Book of Dance Stories"...I was unaware this was out there. Like most girls/young ladies and women, I love anything Louisa May Alcott wrote. :) Of course we can't leave out Kipling etc.

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I recently found a copy of Ballerina at a used bookstore and I read it a few weeks ago. Stewart's writing "style" is horribly ridiculous purple prose, very melodramatic, but I agree that the story is interesting and compelling. I really got to care about the characters, too. It's about 500 pages long but an easy read; I read it in two days.

I can't believe I forgot to mention this one before: On Stage, Please by Veronica Tennant. It's a favourite of mine, and it's in print. It's about a ten-year-old girl named Jennifer and her first term at the National Ballet School. It's hardly surprising that the details of the ballet world, and ballet school world, should ring true, considering its author. As an added bonus, Tennant is a talented writer. Great book. :)

Although I never read them when I was a kid, I'm now working on acquiring the Satin Slippers books. I've bought three of them so far-- #2, #3, and #6, and I know there are copies of five others in a used bookstore downtown, but I haven't purchased those yet. I haven't read any of them yet-- I've got plenty of reading to do for school, too! :shhh:

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I have to agree, no one is too old for Noel Streatfeild's books! I have 3 of them-Ballet Shoes, Dancing Shoes, and Theatre Shoes, but there are at least 10 more, Circus Shoes, Movie Shoes, etc., though out of print, they are still listed on Amazon, and some are available through Amazon sellers.

Another good biography is Suzanne Farrell's Holding on to the Air: An Autobiography.

The Ballet Family is listed as being by Mabel Esther Allen, at least in our library. B)

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Guest wiccabex

Here are the ones I know of

Satin Slippers: i have 1,2 3 and have the rest due from amazon. The uk amazon seems to have most fo them might be worth checking (e;ozabeth bernard)

Ballet Sotries: an anthology including excerpts from: Samantha on Stage

Scrambled legs

Lynn(autobiography of Lynn Seymour)

The sisters impossible

Come a Stranger

Margot Fonteyn autobiography

Listen to the nightingale

Ballet shoes

The scrabled leges books are available second hand on amazon, written by jahanna malcolm

im still working on my collection, any others i find, ill post here

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Of course, there's the very trashy "Mirrors" by James Lipton (yes, the same who interviews all the actors on the BRAVO channel). It was written in 1981 and made into a movie years ago. I have a copy with all kinds of kudos from dancers and others in the arts, such as Neil Simon, Clive Barnes, Joanne Woodward, Fernando Bujones, Cy Coleman, Ann Reinking, Pete Hamill, Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse.

I know, I know, if all these people think it's great stuff, who am I to quibble? But I'll hold my ground on this one. It's trash -- mildly entertaining trash, but trash all the same. If anyone else has read it, please chime in. I'd love to hear other views.

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Guest lil_dancer

I love to read espically ballet/dance books. I've alot of the ones have been already suggested and loved them. Some other ones I'll add are:

Ribbons, Angel Fish, The Amayh By: Lawerance Yep ( really good books )

Pink Slippers Bar Mitza Blues (I can't rember who wrote this but another really good book and Sorry but I think I spelt the title wrong)

A Time for Dancing, The Further you run By: Davida Hurwin ( REALLY, really good books, though not completly centered on dance.

Another way to Dance ( sorry Don't rember author but another really good book)

I'm drawing a blank form my memory right now, but I'll add more as I think of them

Oh...this book Isn't really about dance, but it's and awsome book that I read over and over again all the time, People who liked As the Waltz was Ending, will probally like thi book too: Torn Thread, it's an awsome book.

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The following are all adult fiction ballet books:

Still Point by Deborah Weisgall (set in New York)

The Body of Dancers by Candice Leigh Brown (set in San Francisco)

In the Company of Others by Anthony Howell

Carnival of Saints by George Herman (Not a book on ballet, but a novel of Renaissance Italy -- an excellent introduction to the theatrical form of commedia dell'arte).

I have others to add to this list at a later date once I find all my books that I have collected over the years.

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A Regina J. Woody book that I recently found is called Student Dancer published in 1951. It includes famous dance personalities (Lucia Chase, Katherine Dunham, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Sally Kamin, Igor Youskevitch, Nora Kaye, Walter Terry and others) into the novel.

Other ballet fiction novels that may be found in paperback at used bookstores are Ballet! by Tom Murphy (1978), Save the Last Dance for Me by Judi Miller (1981), and Encore by Monique Raphel High (1981).

One paperback that I thoroughly enjoyed is Six Curtains for Stroganova (1986), originally published in 1946 as Six Curtains for Natasha. Authors are Caryl Brahms and S.J.Simon. This was a series and I have been unable to find the companions: A Bullet in the Ballet and Murder a la Stroganoff (British title: Casino for Sale).

And for those who can read French: L'Amour au Miroir (1983) by Ludmila Tcherina.

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I have Tom Murphy's book. I bought it when it first came out in 1978 and haven't read it since, so I'll have to see what I think of it now. He steals a bit from real life in creating his characters. For instance, instead of the artistic director giving his favorite dancers a bottle of specially concocted perfume - a al Balanchine - the fictitious version signifies a female dancer has arrived by giving her a specially colored scarf. There's also a young defector named Dimitri, obviously modeled after Baryshnikov.

Another novel that came out the following year is "Ballerina," by Edward Stewart. The NY Times pronounced, "It is the right moment for the big ballet novel - and this one is it!"

Inside the front cover is a quote from Publishers Weekly: "Rumor has it that galleys of this book were being passed around backstage at the New York City Ballet just the other week, and no wonder. Stewart has put together the quintessential ballet novel, long overdue ... bound for as much success as a book as Turning Point achieved in films!"

Both of these books came out a year or two after the release of "The Turning Point" and the U.S. was on a ballet high. I still have the cover of the Time issue with Gelsey Kirkland on the cover -- above her picture it said 'U.S. Ballet Soars!"

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Guest Alice172

I skimmed over the titles mentioned so forgive me if it's already been posted, but I highly recommend White Swan, Black Swan by Adrienne Sharp. It's a short (about 220 pgs.) collection of short stories. It's soooooooo good! Very realistic and includes many historically accurate references to real dancer, ballets, etc. I found it at both Barnes and Noble and Borders plus I've seen in in the NY times book review so all y'all yankees should be able to find it easliy :lol: . No excuses!

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There is also The Ballet Twins by Jean Estorial (author of the Drina books)-not surprisingly it is about twins who audition for the Lingeraux School of Ballet (a fictitious school which is mentioned in the Drina books too, Drina meets Madama Lingeraux on one of her many holidays!)

I love children's books-still re-read them all now and I'm 24! xx

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