New book: "Mime in Ballet"

[Alexandra]

I haven't seen the book, but I got an announcement for:

"Mime in Ballet," by Beryl Morina

with 328 photographs

Demonstrated by artists of The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet

Forward by Sir Anthony Dowell

Introduction by Richard Glasstone

The brochure calls this "The Indispensable Guide to the art of Mime in Ballet" and I don't think it's an exaggeration. I don't know of another work that goes through the mime vocabulary gesture by gesture.

The dancers demonstrating the gestures are Muriel Valtat (Royal Ballet) and Michael Raynaud (English National Ballet). From the photos, the gestures are Very Clear -- not the kind of thing one would get if the demonstration was done by, say, Niels Kehlet and Annemarie Vessel, senior mimes of the Royal Danish Ballet, but still, you can see what they're saying.

For Londoners, it's on sale at the Royal Opera House Shop

For the rest of us, it can be ordered from the author (there's a website, but so far it's just a "parked" site, no content). It's $62.99 in dollars, but they need an international money order or check, or credit card, and there's shipping. The brochure lists the author's address as: berylmorina@aol.com and says you may contact her to order.

[grace]

alexandra - just curious - could you amplify on what you mean when you say this?:

"From the photos, the gestures are Very Clear -- not the kind of thing one would get if the demonstration was done by, say, Niels Kehlet and Annemarie Vessel, senior mimes of the Royal Danish Ballet, but still, you can see what they're saying."

thanks!

[Alexandra]

I meant that the gestures look very thin, not as rich as someone brought up in a mime tradition would look (I just added a photo to the Sylphide thread of Gerda Karstens as Madge.) They don't look very alive too me, more like a lecture demonstration.

I don't mean that this makes the book not valuable, just that it gives a rather dry account of mime. But it's still wonderful to have a codification of the gestures.