Download or read book The Almost Dancer written by Jessica Ribera and published by . This book was released on 2019-10 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climbing canyon walls in Texas, young Jessica dreams of becoming a real ballerina. Hours, auditions, and bloody toes later, she finds herself dancing professionally as a trainee of the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Then one moment on stage sends her spinning. A memoir rich with vulnerability, humor, and an insider view of the ballet world, The Almost Dancer unpacks the effects of ambition, faith, education, and trauma on artistic life. Through spiritual insight and deep theological questions, Jessica recovers anidentity that was never truly lost. The Almost Dancer is for anyone who needs to know that dreams don't always come true but are always worth having.
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 Deer Dancer written by Mary Lyn Ray and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this mesmerizing picture book from the author of the New York Times bestselling Stars, a young ballerina finds dancing inspiration in the natural world. There’s a place I go that’s green and grass, a place I thought that no one knew— until the deer came. This gorgeous picture book from celebrated author Mary Lyn Ray features luminous and evocative art from Lauren Stringer and will capture the hearts of young dancers everywhere.
Download or read book The Water Dancer written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and published by One World. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • From the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom. “This potent book about America’s most disgraceful sin establishes [Ta-Nehisi Coates] as a first-rate novelist.”—San Francisco Chronicle IN DEVELOPMENT AS A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • Adapted by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Kamilah Forbes, directed by Nia DaCosta, and produced by MGM, Plan B, and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • NPR • The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • Vanity Fair • Esquire • Good Housekeeping • Paste • Town & Country • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Library Journal Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures. This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children—the violent and capricious separation of families—and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today’s most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen. Praise for The Water Dancer “Ta-Nehisi Coates is the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race with his 2015 memoir, Between the World and Me. So naturally his debut novel comes with slightly unrealistic expectations—and then proceeds to exceed them. The Water Dancer . . . is a work of both staggering imagination and rich historical significance. . . . What’s most powerful is the way Coates enlists his notions of the fantastic, as well as his fluid prose, to probe a wound that never seems to heal. . . . Timeless and instantly canon-worthy.”—Rolling Stone
Download or read book A Very Young Dancer written by Jill Krementz and published by Yearling Books. This book was released on 1986-08-01 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Photographs of a ten-year-old student in George Balanchine's School of American Ballet, supplemented by her descriptions of her feelings and experiences, provide insight to the excitement and hard work involved in auditioning and rehearsing for and playin
Download or read book Turning Pointe written by Chloe Angyal and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reckoning with one of our most beloved art forms, whose past and present are shaped by gender, racial, and class inequities—and a look inside the fight for its future Every day, in dance studios all across America, legions of little children line up at the barre to take ballet class. This time in the studio shapes their lives, instilling lessons about gender, power, bodies, and their place in the world both in and outside of dance. In Turning Pointe, journalist Chloe Angyal captures the intense love for ballet that so many dancers feel, while also grappling with its devastating shortcomings: the power imbalance of an art form performed mostly by women, but dominated by men; the impossible standards of beauty and thinness; and the racism that keeps so many people of color out of ballet. As the rigid traditions of ballet grow increasingly out of step with the modern world, a new generation of dancers is confronting these issues head on, in the studio and on stage. For ballet to survive the twenty-first century and forge a path into a more socially just future, this reckoning is essential.
Download or read book Dancer from the Dance written by Andrew Holleran and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2001-12-18 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most important works of gay literature, this haunting, brilliant novel is a seriocomic remembrance of things past -- and still poignantly present. It depicts the adventures of Malone, a beautiful young man searching for love amid New York's emerging gay scene. From Manhattan's Everard Baths and after-hours discos to Fire Island's deserted parks and lavish orgies, Malone looks high and low for meaningful companionship. The person he finds is Sutherland, a campy quintessential queen -- and one of the most memorable literary creations of contemporary fiction. Hilarious, witty, and ultimately heartbreaking, Dancer from the Dance is truthful, provocative, outrageous fiction told in a voice as close to laughter as to tears.
Download or read book Dancer written by Colum McCann and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2013-06-25 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Book Award–winning author’s biographical novel of Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev: “Exuberant and exhilarating . . . a brilliant leap of imagination” (San Francisco Chronicle). In Dancer, Colum McCann tells the ballet icon’s story through the myriad voices of those who knew him. There is Anna Vasileva, Rudi’s first ballet teacher, who rescues her protégé from the stunted life of his provincial town; Yulia, whose sexual and artistic ambitions are thwarted by her Soviet-sanctioned marriage; and Victor, the Venezuelan street hustler, who reveals the lurid underside of the gay celebrity set. Spanning four decades and many worlds, from the horrors of the Second World War to the wild abandon of New York in the ‘80s, Dancer is peopled by a large cast of characters, obscure and famous: doormen and shoemakers, nurses and translators, Margot Fonteyn, Eric Bruhn, and John Lennon. And at the heart of the spectacle stands the artist himself, willful, lustful, and driven by a never-to-be-met need for perfection.
Download or read book Tiny Dancer written by Siena Cherson Siegel and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 3 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Siena Cherson Siegel dreamed of being a ballerina. Her love of movement and dedication to the craft earned her a spot at the School of American Ballet.. Siena has worked hard her whole life to be a professional ballet dancer, then makes the difficult decision to quit dancing and tries to figure out what comes next. But what do you do when you have spent your entire life working toward a goal, having that shape your identity, and then decide it's time to move on? How do you figure out what to do with your life? And how do you figure out who you are?"--
Download or read book Nervous Dancer written by Carol Lee Lorenzo and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction."
Download or read book The Ballet Companion written by Eliza Gaynor Minden and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New Classic for Today's Dancer The Ballet Companion is a fresh, comprehensive, and thoroughly up-to-date reference book for the dancer. With 150 stunning photographs of ballet stars Maria Riccetto and Benjamin Millepied demonstrating perfect execution of positions and steps, this elegant volume brims with everything today's dance student needs, including: Practical advice for getting started, such as selecting a school, making the most of class, and studio etiquette Explanations of ballet fundamentals and major training systems An illustrated guide through ballet class -- warm-up, barre, and center floor Guidelines for safe, healthy dancing through a sensible diet, injury prevention, and cross-training with yoga and Pilates Descriptions of must-see ballets and glossaries of dance, music, and theater terms Along the way you'll find technique secrets from stars of American Ballet Theatre, lavishly illustrated sidebars on ballet history, and tips on everything from styling a ballet bun to stage makeup to performing the perfect pirouette. Whether a budding ballerina, serious student, or adult returning to ballet, dancers will find a lively mix of ballet's time-honored traditions and essential new information.
Download or read book Through the Eyes of a Dancer written by Wendy Perron and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the Eyes of a Dancer compiles the writings of noted dance critic and editor Wendy Perron. In pieces for The SoHo Weekly News, Village Voice, The New York Times, and Dance Magazine, Perron limns the larger aesthetic and theoretical shifts in the dance world since the 1960s. She surveys a wide range of styles and genres, from downtown experimental performance to ballets at the Metropolitan Opera House. In opinion pieces, interviews, reviews, brief memoirs, blog posts, and contemplations on the choreographic process, she gives readers an up-close, personalized look at dancing as an art form. Dancers, choreographers, teachers, college dance students—and anyone interested in the intersection between dance and journalism—will find Perron's probing and insightful writings inspiring. Through the Eyes of a Dancer is a nuanced microcosm of dance's recent globalization and modernization that also provides an opportunity for new dancers to look back on the traditions and styles that preceded their own.
Download or read book For a Dancer written by Emma J. Stephens and published by Saint Columba Press. This book was released on 2011-08 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brought up in an environment riddled with substance abuse and neglect, Emma has big dreams and little chance of ever reaching them. By the age of fourteen she is on her own, determined to escape the mentality that has crippled her family, but to succeed would mean leaving behind her sister and betraying the only life she's ever known. From the Virginia countryside to the streets of Paris, through teenage motherhood and higher education, share Emma's tears and triumphs as she searches for acceptance in an exclusive world and finds love in the most unlikely of places.
Download or read book Dancer Off Her Feet written by Julie Sheldon and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DANCER OFF HER FEET is an incredible true story that stands as an irrefutable witness to God's power to heal people both physically and spiritually. It has inspired and encouraged many thousands of people since its first publication in 1991. This edition contains a foreword written twelve years on, which brings Julie's story up to date and details the highs and lows she has since experienced.For three years, former ballet dancer Julie Sheldon was stricken with the neurological disease Dystonia, and her life hung in the balance. Crippled, enduring fierce muscle spasms, she was in intensive care when Canon Jim Glennon prayed for her. 'A corner was turned after that visit in June 1989, and by July I was out of hospital. In August I was out of the wheelchair and off crutches for good, and in September off all drugs. All the time there was this conviction of total healing, not just of the body but of the mind and spirit as well.'The news hit press headlines and amazed doctors: 'Julie has made a miraculous recovery,' said a professor of neurology. Julie herself would say, along with family and friends, that God has done a great deal more even than that.
Download or read book Dancer written by Shelley Peterson and published by The Porcupine's Quill. This book was released on 1996-11 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hilary James (`Mousie') is sixteen when she wins The Fuller Trophy jumping with her horse Dancer at the Royal Winter Fair. Her triumph is rewarded with an invitation to perform in England for Queen Elizabeth, but she has also attracted the unwanted attention of the evil Samuel Owens who plots to acquire Dancer for his niece, Sara. Thwarted in his initial attempt to purchase the horse, Owens has his hired man, Chad Smith, try to steal it. Mousie has a dream in which a beautiful blond horsewoman warns her of impending danger. She wakes to discover Chad Smith, syringe in hand, in Dancer's stall. Chad Smith is killed in the ensuing scuffle and his employer comes under suspicion. Dancer is flown to Highgrove, the country home of Prince Charles, and Mousie arrives with her mother Christine at `Clusters' -- an English manor, once the home of Arabella, the second wife of the Duke of Dewbury, now both long dead. Mousie finds an antique lady's hunting whip which she feels certain must have belonged to Arabella, and later discovers a portrait of her riding side-saddle. It is the same woman who appeared in Mousie's dreams.
Download or read book Faggots written by Larry Kramer and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirty-nine-year-old Fred Lemish had always hoped that love would find him by the age of forty, and with four days to go, he begins a compulsive, yet humorous, search for that love and commitment, in a classic novel of gay life. Reprint.
Download or read book Cambodian Dancer written by Daryn Reicherter and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-10 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Dance is a means to tell stories across cultures and in The Cambodian Dancer: Sophany's Gift of Hope, we discover how it can also be used as a way to overcome immense pain and loss. Daryn Reicherter's moving story and Christy Hale's beautiful illustrations introduce us to Sophany Bay and show us how central dance was to her life. When she was forced to leave Cambodia, dance became the means for her to heal and help others connect with the culture. This is an important book that reminds us all that no matter what happens, we need to live. We need to dance. --award-winning author, John Coy"
