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Adrienne

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Everything posted by Adrienne

  1. I know this thread is from July, but I just wanted to say, "Ooh! Ooh! That's an oxymoron!"
  2. I was just talking to a friend of mine last week, a nondancer, who went to see Orpheus. It was the first full-length ballet she'd ever seen, but she loved it. Of course, as she's not into ballet, she didn't really know how to tell me what she loved about it, but it's good to know she enjoyed it.
  3. I am dying to read this book. I might wait till it comes out in paperback; I might not.
  4. I'm reading The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald. She did a reading from it Friday night, and I went to it. It was fantastic. And I got my copy signed. Whee. I'm also in the middle of Life of Pi, although I've put that more or less on hold until I finish some other stuff. I'm reading Meridian by Alice Walker for school, and I'm rereading On Stage, Please by Veronica Tennant for about the twelve thousandth time. I also bought some computer books a few days ago-- Chapters had a "buy 2, get the 3rd one free" sale on Visual QuickStart Guides from Peachpit Press, so I bought the HTML, JavaScript, and XML ones.
  5. 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:
  6. Awww, thanks. I'm actually from Cape Breton, which is dear to my heart, but going to school in Halifax. I'm currently a student at Dalhousie University, which is where Lucy Maud Montgomery graduated from, and Redmond College from Anne of the Island is based on it. (Oh, yeah, and Anne was actually born in Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia. As far as I know it's a fictional town. I'm obviously a big Anne of Green Gables fan-- this happens when you are a strange, precocious red-haired girl-child, whether you want it to or not.)
  7. They performed Orpheus, which according to their site is John Alleyne's second full-length story ballet, in Halifax last night. I had wanted to see it, but I couldn't, 'cause I had to come home for Thanksgiving. Sigh.
  8. Okay, here's one that's actually still in print-- Come a Stranger by Cynthia Voight. It's about a black ballet dancer, Mina, who first experiences racism at a summer performing arts camp. I don't remember much about it, but I do remember that her first summer at camp, she and her friends do a Narnia-themed ballet, which I thought was amazingly cool. I think the book might be tangentially related to the Tillerman family saga. More out-of-print titles: Samantha on Stage, by Susan C. Farrar, about 11-year-old Samantha, who was always the best dancer in her class until the new Russian girl, Lizinka, joins. Sam is jealous when Lizinka gets the part of Clara in The Nutcracker, but they become friends. Awww. The Maggie Adams books by Karen Strickler Dean. I have the first two. I don't really like them much. She wrote some other ballet books, too, but I don't know much about them. Kate's Turn by Jeanne Betancourt. I read it years ago and just bought a used copy of it and reread it. Ah, once again I'll continue this later. Must dash.
  9. Nope, I think that although Jean Ure has written ballet stories, she's not the author of the trilogy you're thinking of. You're probably thinking of a trilogy by Jean Richardson about a girl nicknamed Moth going to the Royal Ballet School. The books are called The First Step, Dancer in the Wings, and One Foot on the Ground. I own the first two, but I've never read the third. Apparently the three books were also published in one volume, although that edition is out of print, too. I never heard of the Drina books until yesterday, on this board, but I think I'll try to track them down now.
  10. I'm 23, but I read LOTS of YA and middle-grade fiction, since 1) I love it; and 2) it's what I want to write. (Well, I do write it; I just don't get it published. Someday...) My favourite young adult ballet book is As the Waltz Was Ending by Emma Macalik Butterworth, but it's out of print and very difficult to get a hold of. It's not exactly a novel-- it's mostly autobiographical and only slightly fictionalized. Amazon.com describes it as: "An autobiographical account of a young girl whose ballet career with the Vienna State Opera was interrupted by the invasion of the Nazis and who later had to fight for her life during the Russian occupation." I also loved the Bad News Ballet books, a middle-grade 10-book series published in the late '80s. They're fairly easy to find in used bookstores, and also at least some of them were reissued a few years ago with new covers. Very funny books about a group of 5 misfit ballet students, pushed into taking classes by their mothers. They become friends and eventually get to like ballet. By the husband-and-wife writing team Jahnna N. Malcolm. I think the series was called Scrambled Legs in the UK. I think I am being called, so I'll finish this later, and maybe I can mention some books that are actually in PRINT!
  11. A few weeks ago, I was searching specifically for ballet-related message boards. I used to post at Danceart.com the last time I was taking ballet, in 1998, and I was glad to see it's still around, but not at all glad to see they were still not using any decent board software. I like the boards there, but some things about them drive me mad. I'm glad to have found this place.
  12. Well, this makes me feel boring. I'm Canadian, and currently living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Although the hurricane this week was anything but boring...
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