Download or read book The Last Dancer written by Daniel Keys Moran and published by Comicmix LLC. This book was released on 2016-02-28 with total page 814 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Manhattan-based Unification government controls the earth, but rebellion brews in Occupied America as the American Revolution's tricentennial approaches. Denice Castanaveras, one of only two genetically engineered telepaths to escape destruction by Unification forces (the other is her missing twin brother, David) enters political life by becoming a bodyguard of Unification Councilor Douglass Ripper, whose agenda involves preventing U.N. Secretary General Charles Eddore from grabbing long-term power in this unstable period. However, the Unification rulers do not suspect that a high-ranking rebel called Obodi is actually Gi'Suei'Obodi'Sedon, an alien religious heretic who was banished from his own world thousands of years ago.

Download or read book Mao s Last Dancer written by Li Cunxin and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2003-09-01 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a small, desperately poor village in north-east China, a young peasant boy sits at his rickety old school desk, interested more in the birds outside than in Chairman Mao's Red Book and the grand words it contains. But that day, some strange men come to his school – Madame Mao's cultural delegates. They are looking for young peasants to mould into faithful guards of Chairman Mao's great vision for China. This is the true story of how that one moment in time, by the thinnest thread of a chance, changed the course of a small boy's life in ways that are beyond description. One day he would dance with some of the greatest ballet companies of the world. One day he would be a friend to a president and first lady, movie stars and the most influential people in America. One day he would become a star: Mao's last dancer, and the darling of the West. Visit the official Mao's Laster Dancer Movie website maoslastdancermovie.com

Download or read book Mary s Last Dance written by Mary Li and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I can vividly remember the last steps of the last ballet, walking off the stage led by a mother and knowing the decision I had to make. That was my last dance. Mary Li (nee McKendry) is an international ballet star and a mother like no other. She became a household name when her husband Li Cunxin published his bestselling memoir, Mao's Last Dancer - but that book told only half the story. Growing up in a rambunctious family in Rockhampton, Mary discovered an extraordinary early passion for ballet. It saw her move to London at age sixteen, to study at the Royal Ballet School and dance at the London Festival Ballet with the likes of Nureyev, and later to Houston Ballet, where as Principal Dancer she fell in love with the acclaimed Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin. The couple became the darlings of the dance world, and were happier than they could have imagined at the arrival of their firstborn daughter, Sophie. Then right at the height of her international career, Mary seemingly disappeared from view, leaving the fans aghast. What could have happened to cause a woman so committed, so talented, to give it all away in a heartbeat? Now, almost twenty years on, fans finally get their answer about what happened next to this inspiring family, and learn why it is Mary's turn to tell a truly remarkable tale. This is a powerful and uplifting memoir about chasing an impossible dream, and sacrificing one's own ambition for the love of a child. It is a moving and unforgettable story of passion, dedication and devotion - and the highly anticipated sequel to one of the world's most beloved books.

Download or read book Dancing to Freedom written by Li Cunxin and published by Walker Childrens. This book was released on 2008-07-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a poor village in northern China, a small boy named Li Cunxin was given the chance of a lifetime. Selected by Chairman Mao's officials from among millions of children to become a dancer, Li's new life began as he left his family behind. At the Beijing Dance Academy, days were long and difficult. Li's hard work was rewarded when he was chosen yet again, this time to travel to America. From there his career took flight, and he danced in cities around the world—never forgetting his family, who urged him to follow his dreams.

Download or read book The Peasant Prince written by Li Cunxin and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2012-09-07 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'This is your one chance. You have your secret dreams. Follow them! Make them come true . . . ' In a poor village in northern China, a small boy is about to be taken away from everything he's ever known. He is so afraid, but his mother urges him to follow his dreams. For soon he will become a dancer, one of the finest dancers in the world . . . So begins The Peasant Prince, the true story of Li Cunxin's extraordinary life. Based upon his internationally best-selling memoir, Mao's Last Dancer, this remarkable picture book captures the essence of one of the most inspiring stories to come from China in many years. With hauntingly beautiful illustrations by award-winning artist Anne Spudvilas, Li's journey of courage and determination is simply told, and as powerful as any fairytale.

Download or read book Last Dance written by Lurlene McDaniel and published by Millbrook Press. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Audisee® eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and sentence highlighting to engage reluctant readers! Rachel Deering has her eyes on her toes: she wants to become a world-class ballerina. As a 14-year-old, she is already one of the best dancers in the country. Just as she prepares for an audition for an opening with a prestigious dance troupe, Rachel starts having some very disturbing symptoms. After collapsing at school, she has many tests and her doctor tells her the news: She has diabetes. Now her world consists of blood tests, insulin shots, a controlled diet, and constant fear that she will have a reaction and end up unable to dance—or worse.

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 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 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 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 The Last Ghost Dancer written by Tony Bender and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-07-14 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is a remarkable coming-of-age story and spiritual journey with as much between the lines as in them. Sometimes wry, always thoughtful, the characters seem to live and breathe, and you won't soon forget them."—Senator Byron Dorgan The Last Ghost Dancer is more than a coming-of-age fable, more than the wry memoirs of a spiritual search. It is the story of a remarkable summer in a remarkable west river town. It is a commentary on the depth and breadth of friendships forged, of lovers lost, and the realization that it is the journey that is of importance, and not so much the destination. Looking back, as old men do, it's hard to imagine it really happened. But it did. One wise teacher, one perfect girl, one harrowing summer, can set the course of a lifetime. Meet Bones, the wry, funny, ever-observant, thoughtful and hapless narrator, a grease monkey at the only gas station in Pale Butte, whose most recent claim to fame is dropping an Edsel off the hoist. Now, some sixty years later, Bones, a dreamer of apocalyptic dreams, reflects on miracles small and large and his spiritual discovery that marked the summer of 1977.

Download or read book The Slave Dancer written by Paula Fox and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-06-28 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newbery Medal Winner: A young Louisiana boy faces the horrors of slavery when he is kidnapped and forced to work on a slave ship in this iconic novel. Thirteen-year-old Jessie Bollier earns a few pennies playing his fife on the docks of New Orleans. One night, on his way home, a canvas is thrown over his head and he’s knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, Jessie finds himself aboard a slave ship, bound for Africa. There, the Moonlight picks up ninety-eight black prisoners, and the men, women, and children, chained hand and foot, are methodically crammed into the ship’s hold. Jessie’s job is to provide music for the slaves to dance to on the ship’s deck—not for amusement but for exercise, as a way to to keep their muscles strong and their bodies profitable. Over the course of the long voyage, Jessie grows more and more sickened by the greed of the sailors and the cruelty with which the slaves are treated. But it’s one final horror, when the Moonlight nears her destination, that will change Jessie forever. Set during the middle of the nineteenth century, when the illegal slave trade was at its height, The Slave Dancer not only tells a vivid and shocking story of adventure and survival, but depicts the brutality of slavery with unflinching historical accuracy.

Download or read book The Court Dancer written by Kyung-Sook Shin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a novice French diplomat arrives for an audience with the Emperor, he is enraptured by the Joseon Dynasty’s magnificent culture, then at its zenith. But all fades away when he sees Yi Jin perform the traditional Dance of the Spring Oriole. Though well aware that women of the court belong to the palace, the young diplomat confesses his love to the Emperor, and gains permission for Yi Jin to accompany him back to France.A world away in Belle Epoque Paris, Yi Jin lives a free, independent life, away from the gilded cage of the court, and begins translating and publishing Joseon literature into French with another Korean student. But even in this new world, great sorrow awaits her. Betrayal, jealousy, and intrigue abound, culminating with the tragic assassination of the last Joseon empress—and the poisoned pages of a book.Rich with historic detail and filled with luminous characters, Korea’s most beloved novelist brings a lost era to life in a story that will resonate long after the final page.

Download or read book Goodness and the Literary Imagination written by Toni Morrison and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What exactly is goodness? Where is it found in the literary imagination? Toni Morrison, one of American letters’ greatest voices, pondered these perplexing questions in her celebrated Ingersoll Lecture, delivered at Harvard University in 2012 and published now for the first time in book form. Perhaps because it is overshadowed by the more easily defined evil, goodness often escapes our attention. Recalling many literary examples, from Ahab to Coetzee’s Michael K, Morrison seeks the essence of goodness and ponders its significant place in her writing. She considers the concept in relation to unforgettable characters from her own works of fiction and arrives at conclusions that are both eloquent and edifying. In a lively interview conducted for this book, Morrison further elaborates on her lecture’s ideas, discussing goodness not only in literature but in society and history—particularly black history, which has responded to centuries of brutality with profound creativity. Morrison’s essay is followed by a series of responses by scholars in the fields of religion, ethics, history, and literature to her thoughts on goodness and evil, mercy and love, racism and self-destruction, language and liberation, together with close examination of literary and theoretical expressions from her works. Each of these contributions, written by a scholar of religion, considers the legacy of slavery and how it continues to shape our memories, our complicities, our outcries, our lives, our communities, our literature, and our faith. In addition, the contributors engage the religious orientation in Morrison’s novels so that readers who encounter her many memorable characters such as Sula, Beloved, or Frank Money will learn and appreciate how Morrison’s notions of goodness and mercy also reflect her understanding of the sacred and the human spirit.

Download or read book Last Mountain Dancer written by Chuck Kinder and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A colorful memoir recalls the author's journey of discovery back to his West Virginia roots, detailing his midlife odyssey to the region of his birth to recount the family stories, local legends and lore, colorful celebrations, oddball characters, and rich history of the region.

Download or read book Shanghai Tango written by Xing Jin and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jin Xing is a former prima ballerina, one of the brightest stars of the Shanghai Ballet. But her journey to international fame was fraught with difficulty, because Jin Xing was in fact born a man. From an early age she was intensely uncomfortable with her gender - a young boy dreaming of becoming a ballerina and a princess. Unable to understand or put words to these feelings, she immersed herself in ballet dancing, her first love. Before long, her precocious talent was noted and at the age of nine, in spite of her parents' concerns, she joined the People's Liberation Army Dance Corps. There, she received both dance and military training and attained the rank of Colonel. The curtains opened on a new act in her life when, at the age of 19, she received an arts scholarship to study modern dance in New York. While there she discovered for the first time that it was possible to change sex. She took the singularly courageous decision to return to China to undergo one of the first full sex-change operations the country had ever witnessed. The dream she had nutured from youth - of becoming a woman - finally became a reality. As dramatic, graceful and deeply felt as a pas de deux, Shanghai Tango is a deeply personal and inspiring account of growing up in a body that feels alien and of braving pioneering surgery in communist China.

Download or read book Josephine Baker s Last Dance written by Sherry Jones and published by Thorndike Press Large Print. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of The Jewel of Medina, a moving and insightful novel based on the life of legendary performer and activist Josephine Baker, perfect for fans of The Paris Wife and Hidden Figures. Discover the fascinating and singular life story of Josephine Baker--actress, singer, dancer, Civil Rights activist, member of the French Resistance during WWII, and a woman dedicated to erasing prejudice and creating a more equitable world--in Josephine Baker's Last Dance. In this illuminating biographical novel, Sherry Jones brings to life Josephine's early years in servitude and poverty in America, her rise to fame as a showgirl in her famous banana skirt, her activism against discrimination, and her many loves and losses. From 1920s Paris to 1960s Washington, to her final, triumphant performance, one of the most extraordinary lives of the twentieth century comes to stunning life on the page. With intimate prose and comprehensive research, Sherry Jones brings this remarkable and compelling public figure into focus for the first time in a joyous celebration of a life lived in technicolor, a powerful woman who continues to inspire today.