Download or read book Winter Season written by Toni Bentley and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2003-03-20 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An irresistible inside look at one of the world's great dance companies, Winter Season is also a sensitive, intimate, and almost painfully honest account of the emotional and intellectual development of a young woman dedicated to one of the most demanding of all the arts. Bentley's association with the New York City Ballet began when she was accepted by the affiliated School of American Ballet at the age of eleven. Seven years later, she became a member of the company. In the fall of 1980, as the winter season opened, she found herself facing an emotional crisis: her dancing was not going well. At 22 she felt that her life had lost direction. To try to make something of her experience, on paper if not on stage, she began to keep a journal, describing her day-to-day activities and looking back on her past. The result is perhaps the closest that most of us will ever come to knowing what it feels like to be a dancer, on stage and off. It also offers memorable glimpses of some notable members of the City ballet, with, at the center, the man whose vision they all served--George Balanchine.

Download or read book Life in Motion written by Misty Copeland and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Profiles the life and career of the professional ballerina, covering from when she began dance classes at age thirteen in an after-school community center through becoming the only African American soloist dancing with the American Ballet Theatre.

Download or read book Put Your Best Foot Forward written by Suki Schorer and published by Workman Publishing. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents advice for young ballet students, including practicing etiquette and grooming, finding a balance between mind and body, maintaining focus, developing patience, and fostering an attitude of generosity in dancing for audiences.

Download or read book I Was a Dancer written by Jacques D'Amboise and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Who am I? I’m a man; an American, a father, a teacher, but most of all, I am a person who knows how the arts can change lives, because they transformed mine. I was a dancer.” In this rich, expansive, spirited memoir, Jacques d’Amboise, one of America’s most celebrated classical dancers, and former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for more than three decades, tells the extraordinary story of his life in dance, and of America’s most renowned and admired dance companies. He writes of his classical studies beginning at the age of eight at The School of American Ballet. At twelve he was asked to perform with Ballet Society; three years later he joined the New York City Ballet and made his European debut at London’s Covent Garden. As George Balanchine’s protégé, d’Amboise had more works choreographed on him by “the supreme Ballet Master” than any other dancer, among them Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux; Episodes; A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream; Jewels; Raymonda Variations. He writes of his boyhood—born Joseph Ahearn—in Dedham, Massachusetts; his mother (“the Boss”) moving the family to New York City’s Washington Heights; dragging her son and daughter to ballet class (paying the teacher $7.50 from hats she made and sold on street corners, and with chickens she cooked stuffed with chestnuts); his mother changing the family name from Ahearn to her maiden name, d’Amboise (“It’s aristocratic. It has the ‘d’ apostrophe. It sounds better for the ballet, and it’s a better name”). We see him. a neighborhood tough, in Catholic schools being taught by the nuns; on the streets, fighting with neighborhood gangs, and taking ten classes a week at the School of American Ballet . . . being taught professional class by Balanchine and by other teachers of great legend: Anatole Oboukhoff, premier danseur of the Maryinsky; and Pierre Vladimiroff, Pavlova’s partner. D’Amboise writes about Balanchine’s succession of ballerina muses who inspired him to near-obsessive passion and led him to create extraordinary ballets, dancers with whom d’Amboise partnered—Maria Tallchief; Tanaquil LeClercq, a stick-skinny teenager who blossomed into an exquisite, witty, sophisticated “angel” with her “long limbs and dramatic, mysterious elegance . . .”; the iridescent Allegra Kent; Melissa Hayden; Suzanne Farrell, who Balanchine called his “alabaster princess,” her every fiber, every movement imbued with passion and energy; Kay Mazzo; Kyra Nichols (“She’s perfect,” Balanchine said. “Uncomplicated—like fresh water”); and Karin von Aroldingen, to whom Balanchine left most of his ballets. D’Amboise writes about dancing with and courting one of the company’s members, who became his wife for fifty-three years, and the four children they had . . . On going to Hollywood to make Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and being offered a long-term contract at MGM (“If you’re not careful,” Balanchine warned, “you will have sold your soul for seven years”) . . . On Jerome Robbins (“Jerry could be charming and complimentary, and then, five minutes later, attack, and crush your spirit—all to see how it would influence the dance movements”). D’Amboise writes of the moment when he realizes his dancing career is over and he begins a new life and new dream teaching children all over the world about the arts through the magic of dance. A riveting, magical book, as transformative as dancing itself.

Download or read book Black Ballerinas written by Misty Copeland and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author and American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland comes an illustrated nonfiction collection celebrating dancers of color who have influenced her on and off the stage. As a young girl living in a motel with her mother and her five siblings, Misty Copeland didn’t have a lot of exposure to ballet or prominent dancers. She was sixteen when she saw a black ballerina on a magazine cover for the first time. The experience emboldened Misty and told her that she wasn’t alone—and her dream wasn’t impossible. In the years since, Misty has only learned more about the trailblazing women who made her own success possible by pushing back against repression and racism with their talent and tenacity. Misty brings these women’s stories to a new generation of readers and gives them the recognition they deserve. With an introduction from Misty about the legacy these women have had on dance and on her career itself, this book delves into the lives and careers of women of color who fundamentally changed the landscape of American ballet from the early 20th century to today.

Download or read book Dance Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 1110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Of Human Kindness written by Paula Marantz Cohen and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning scholar and teacher explores how Shakespeare's greatest characters were built on a learned sense of empathy While exploring Shakespeare's plays with her students, Paula Marantz Cohen discovered that teaching and discussing his plays unlocked a surprising sense of compassion in the classroom. In this short and illuminating book, she shows how Shakespeare's genius lay with his ability to arouse empathy, even when his characters exist in alien contexts and behave in reprehensible ways. Cohen takes her readers through a selection of Shakespeare's most famous plays, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and The Merchant of Venice, to demonstrate the ways in which Shakespeare thought deeply and clearly about how we treat "the other." Cohen argues that only through close reading of Shakespeare can we fully appreciate his empathetic response to race, class, gender, and age. Wise, eloquent, and thoughtful, this book is a forceful argument for literature's power to champion what is best in us.

Download or read book The Perfect Pointe Book written by Lisa A Howell B Phty and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2006-11-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique book gives you the extra help you need to get strong enough for pointe work. It includes lots of exercises, divided into four simple stages to work on; the flexibility of your feet and ankles, the strength of your little foot muscles, your turnout and your core control. It also guides you through tests for each stage so that you can work out where you problem areas are! This book is essential for any student preparing for, or already on pointe, and any teacher wanting to learn more about safely preparing students for the most beautiful of dance forms!Stage 1 - Fabulous FlexibilityThe first stage includes tests and exercises to make sure that your feet into the best possible position for pointe work. Some people will find this stage easy, others will find it much harder. No matter where you start, the easy exercises and stretches in this section will help you get a great looking pointe. Stage 2 - Marvelous MusclesHere you learn about all the different muscles in your feet, and why it is important to get the right ones strong! Mastering the fine control of your toes helps prevent blisters on the toes, as well as overuse problems in the shins. This stage will transform how you work with your feet forever. Stage 3 - Terrific TurnoutGetting onto pointe is not all about your feet. Find out how to find your true turnout muscles and make them stringer so that you don

Download or read book Dance Fashion written by Valerie Steele and published by Fashion Institute of Technology (YAL). This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dress and adornment have long played an important role in the visual allure of dance, and fashion designers have often been inspired by the way dancers look. This book features essays by 10 fashion experts who explore various aspects of the reciprocal relationship between dance and fashion, from the liberating effects of the tango to the influence of ballet on Japanese girl culture.

Download or read book Pointe Shoes written by Angela Reinhardt and published by Dance Books Limited. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Graceful technique and perfect execution for a dancer are possible only with perfectly fitting pointe shoes. For the first time in print, ballerina Angela Reinhardt, formerly a principal dancer of the Komischer Opera Ballet of Berlin, has put together over 100 tips and tricks for personal pointe shoe tuning, for both beginners and professionals. Over 280 colour illustrations show how to modify shoes step by step, using scissors, needle and thread, hot water and elastic, to adapt pointe shoes perfectly for all types of foot and all types of floor surface. As well as tips on choosing, modification, and upkeep, the book contains information on the history and manufacture of pointe shoes and valuable suggestions for foot fitness.

Download or read book MASTERS MOVEMENT written by Eichenbaum R and published by Smithsonian Books (DC). This book was released on 2004-11-17 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A collection of photographic portraits and vignettes based on intimate conversations, Masters of Movement takes us on a journey into the world of dance, from the concert stage and Broadway to feature films and music videos. We meet the principal disciples of such giants as Martha Graham, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Alvin Ailey - unguarded and uncensored - in their living rooms, backstage, or sometimes in unexpected places. We are present as Eichenbaum photographs David Parsons, in a business suit, standing on the branch of a Central Park tree, or Anna Halprin lying naked at the base of a giant California redwood. Whether through her lens or through the revelations emanating from her masterful interviews, Eichenbaum has succeeded in capturing the essential character of her subjects, who have confided experiences and emotions that have driven their creativity and defined their styles."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Download or read book The Turnout written by Megan Abbott and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-05-03 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best Book of the Year NPR • Wall Street Journal • Boston Globe • Library Journal • CrimeReads • LitReactor • Air Mail Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize A TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick An Instant New York Times Bestseller New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Megan Abbott's exquisite new novel, “dark and juicy and tinged with horror” (The New York Times Books Review), set against the hothouse of a family-run ballet studio. With their long necks, sheer tights, and taut buns, Dara and Marie Durant have only known the course of a well-bred dancer. Not much changes when their parents face death in a tragic accident. As Dara and Marie take over their mother's duty of running the Durant School of Dance, along with Charlie, Dara's husband and once their mother's prized student, the sisters perfect a fine dance, circling around one another, six days a week, keeping the studio thriving. But when another eerily suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school's annual performance of The Nutcracker—a season of tense competition, provoked anxiety, and wild exhilaration—an interloper arrives and threatens the sisters' delicate balance. With its uncanny insight and writing that haunts, The Turnout is Megan Abbott at the height of her game—a sharp and strange dissection of family ties and sexuality, femininity, and power, and a sinister tale that is both alarming and irresistible.

Download or read book Edgar Degas written by Richard Thomson and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edgar Degas was one of the great pioneers of modern art, and the J. Paul Getty and Norton Simon museums are fortunate to own jointly one of his finest pastels, Waiting (L'Attente), which he made sometime between 1880 and 1882, about midway in his career. In this fascinating monograph, author Richard Thomson explores this brilliant work in detail, revealing both the intricacies of its composition and the source of the emotional pull it immediately exerts upon the viewer. For Waiting is, indeed, an extraordinary object both in its craftsmanship and color and, perhaps most especially, in its aura of ambiguity and even mystery.

Download or read book Interview with the Vampire written by Anne Rice and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 1991-09-13 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The spellbinding classic that started it all, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author—the inspiration for the hit television series “A magnificent, compulsively readable thriller . . . Rice begins where Bram Stoker and the Hollywood versions leave off and penetrates directly to the true fascination of the myth—the education of the vampire.”—Chicago Tribune Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly sensual, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force—a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.

Download or read book Painted Love written by Hollis Clayson and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 2003-10-30 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this engrossing book, Hollis Clayson provides the first description and analysis of French artistic interest in women prostitutes, examining how the subject was treated in the art of the 1870s and 1880s by such avant-garde painters as Cézanne, Degas, Manet, and Renoir, as well as by the academic and low-brow painters who were their contemporaries. Clayson not only illuminates the imagery of prostitution-with its contradictory connotations of disgust and fascination-but also tackles the issues and problems relevant to women and men in a patriarchal society. She discusses the conspicuous sexual commerce during this era and the resulting public panic about the deterioration of social life and civilized mores. She describes the system that evolved out of regulating prostitutes and the subsequent rise of clandestine prostitutes who escaped police regulation and who were condemned both for blurring social boundaries and for spreading sexual licentiousness among their moral and social superiors. Clayson argues that the subject of covert prostitution was especially attractive to vanguard painters because it exemplified the commercialization and the ambiguity of modern life.

Download or read book Ballerina Project written by and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With over one million followers on Instagram, Ballerina Project has the largest network of followers in the world for ballet and has become an online phenomenon. Created by New York City-based photographer Dane Shitagi over the span of eighteen years, Ballerina Project showcases over fifty renowned ballerinas in unexpected urban and natural settings in cities across the globe including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, London, Rome, and Paris. Ballerinas from the world's premiere companies are featured here. This book is bound in ballet pointe shoe-like satin pink cloth with gold foil stamping and a pink satin ribbon marker, with over 170 ballerina photographs in both black-and-white and full color. Introductions by renowned principal ballerinas Isabella Boylston and Francesca Hayward are included.

Download or read book The Making of Markova written by Tina Sutton and published by Pegasus Books. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In pre-World War I England, a frail Jewish girl is diagnosed with flat feet, knock knees, and weak legs. In short order, Lilian Alicia Marks would become a dance prodigy, the cherished baby ballerina of Sergei Diaghilev, and the youngest ever soloist at his famed Ballets Russes. It was there that George Balanchine choreographed his first ballet for her, Henri Matisse designed her costumes, and Igor Stravinsky taught her music—all when the re-christened Alicia Markova was just 14. Given unprecedented access to Dame Markova’s intimate journals and correspondence, Tina Sutton paints a full picture of the dancer’s astonishing life and times in 1920s Paris and Monte Carlo, 1930s London, and wartime in New York and Hollywood. Ballet lovers and readers everywhere will be fascinated by the story of one of the twentieth century’s great artists.