Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet (Dover Books on Dance)
by Gail Grant
from Dover Publications
The Ballet Companion: A Dancer's Guide to the Technique, Traditions, and Joys of Ballet
by Eliza Gaynor Minden
from Fireside
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.
The Pointe Book: Shoes, Training & Technique Second Edition
by Janice Barringer
from Princeton Book Company
This guide provides a thorough examination of the pointe technique and pointe shoes. Dancers tired of their pointe shoes wearing out too quickly benefit from research that illuminates the shoemaking process and tips that show how to best fit, care for, and custom order their shoes. Interviews with ballet stars Martine van Hamel and Darci Kistler reveal their highly evolved but proven methods of caring for pointe shoes. The basics of the pointe technique, different pointe methods, and the history of pointe are discussed. A handy reference on pointe-related injuries and their remedies is included. This new edition offers the latest information on contemporary designs, materials, products, and suppliers. A sampling of pointe technique schools around the country offers an authoritative syllabus for teachers and students alike.
In Classic Style: The Splendor of American Ballet Theatre
by Nancy Ellison
from Rizzoli
This oversized, deluxe volume celebrating the exquisite spectacle that embodies the excellence of American Ballet Theatre, recognized by Congress as "America’s national ballet company," presents the unfolding beauty, grace, agility, and sheer force of its most recent productions. Distinguished photographer Nancy Ellison depicts such enduring ballet classics as La Bayadère, Othello, The Sleeping Beauty, Manon, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, and Giselle, and captures the virtuosity of such unforgettable dancers as Angel Corella, Nina Ananiashvili, Alessandra Ferri, Julio Bocca, and Ethan Stiefel. ABT’s artistic director, Kevin McKenzie, has written an illuminating essay about this preeminent company. The combination of dynamic bravura dancing in dreamlike settings will be a sheer delight to ballet lovers everywhere.
Balanchine Variations
by NANCY GOLDNER
from University Press of Florida
In the Wings: Behind the Scenes at the New York City Ballet
by Kyle Froman
from Wiley
"Here is New York City Ballet as it really is- the good, the not so good, and the majestically beautiful. It's a true story, and it's told by someone who can honestly claim that he was there."
Nureyev: The Life
by Julie Kavanagh
from Pantheon
Rudolf Nureyev had it all: beauty, genius, charm, passion, and sex appeal. No other dancer of our time has generated the same excitement, for both men and women, on or off the stage. With Nureyev: The Life, Julie Kavanagh shows how his intense drive and passion for dance propelled him from a poor, Tatar-peasant background to the most sophisticated circles of London, Paris, and New York. His dramatic defection to the West in l961 created a Cold War crisis and made him an instant celebrity, but this was just the beginning. Nureyev spent the rest of his life breaking barriers: reinventing male technique, “crashing the gates” of modern dance, iconoclastically updating the most hallowed classics, and making dance history by partnering England’s prima ballerina assoluta, Margot Fonteyn--a woman twice his age. He danced for almost all the major choreographers--Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, Jerome Robbins, Maurice Béjart, Roland Petit--his main motive, he claimed, for having left the Kirov. But Nureyev also made it his mission to stage Russia’s full-length masterpieces in the West. His highly personal productions of Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Raymonda, Romeo and Juliet, and La Bayadère are the mainstays of the Paris Opéra Ballet repertory to this day. An inspirational director and teacher, Nureyev was a Diaghilev-like mentor to young protégés across the globe--from Karen Kain and Monica Mason (now directors themselves), to Sylvie Guillem, Elisabeth Platel, Laurent Hilaire and Kenneth Greve.
Sex, as much as dance, was a driving force for Nureyev. From his first secret liaison in Russia to his tempestuous relationship with the great Danish dancer Erik Bruhn, we see not only Nureyev’s notorious homosexual history unfold, but also learn of his profound effect on women--whether a Sixties wild child or Jackie Kennedy and Lee Radziwill or the aging Marlene Dietrich. Among the first victims of AIDS, Nureyev was diagnosed HIV positive in 1984 but defied the disease for nearly a decade, dancing, directing the Paris Opéra Ballet, choreographing, and even beginning a new career as a conductor. Still making plans for the future, Nureyev finally succumbed and died in January l993.
Drawing on previously undisclosed letters, diaries, home-movie footage, interviews with Nureyev’s inner circle, and her own dance background, Julie Kavanagh gives the most intimate, revealing, and dramatic picture we have ever had of this dazzling, complex figure.
Classical Ballet Technique
by Gretchen Ward Warren
from University Press of Florida
With this brilliantly imagined and beautifully achieved work, Gretchen Warren has created the fisrt comprehensive, photgraphicaly illustrated reference and teaching guie on classical ballet technique. In more than 2,600 photographs, Johan Renvall, Cynthia Harvey, Susan Jaffe, and an array o other dancers from such companies as the American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet demonstrate in sequence every movement in the classical repertoire, from the most basic to the most advanced.
The book's design matches each photograph with captions that details appropriate teaching techniques and describe the proper teaching techniques and describe the proper execution of each step. A glossary defines common dance terms, and a pronunciation guide provides phonetic transcriptions of French ballet terms.
Ballet for Dummies
by Scott Speck
from For Dummies
Whether you want to participate in ballet or just watch it, the ballet experience can excite and inspire you. Ballet is among the most beautiful forms of expression ever devised: an exquisite mix of sight and sound, stunning, aesthetics, and awesome technique.
Ballet For Dummies is for anyone who wants to enjoy all that the dance forms offers – as an onlooker who wants to get a leg up on the forms you're likely to see or as an exercise enthusiast who understands that the practice of ballet can help you gain
- More strength
- Greater flexibility
- Better body alignment
- Confidence in movement
- Comfort through stress reduction
- Infinite grace – for life
From covering the basics of classical ballet to sharing safe and sensible ways to try your hand (and toes) at moving through the actual dance steps, this expert reference shows you how to
- Build your appreciation for ballet from the ground up.
- Choose the best practice space and equipment.
- Warm up to your leap into the movements.
- Locate musical options for each exercise.
- Look for certain lifts in a stage performance.
- Tell a story with gestures.
- Picture a day in the life of a professional ballet dancer.
- Identify best-loved classic and contemporary ballets.
- Speak the language of ballet.
Today you can find a ballet company in almost every major city on earth. Many companies have their own ballet schools – some for training future professionals, and others for interested amateurs. As you fine-tune your classical ballet technique – or even if you just like to read about it – you'll become better equipped to fully appreciate the great choreography and many styles of the dance. Ballet For Dummies raises the curtain on a world of beauty, grace, poise, and possibility!
No Way Home: A Dancer's Journey from the Streets of Havana to the Stages of the World
by Carlos Acosta
from Scribner
Carlos Acosta, the Cuban dancer considered to be one of the world's greatest performers, fearlessly depicts his journey from adolescent troublemaker to international superstar in his captivating memoir, No Way Home.
Carlos was just another kid from the slums of Havana; the youngest son of a truck driver and a housewife, he ditched school with his friends and dreamed of becoming Cuba's best soccer player. Exasperated by his son's delinquent behavior, Carlos's father enrolled him in ballet school, subjecting him to grueling days that started at five thirty in the morning and ended long after sunset.
The path from student to star was not an easy one. Even as he won dance competitions and wowed critics around the world, Carlos was homesick for Cuba, crippled by loneliness and self-doubt. As he traveled the world, Carlos struggled to overcome popular stereotypes and misconceptions; to maintain a relationship with his family; and, most of all, to find a place he could call home.
This impassioned memoir is about more than Carlos's rise to stardom. It is about a young man forced to leave his homeland and loved ones for a life of self-discipline, displacement, and physical hardship. It is also about how the heart and soul of a country can touch the heart and soul of one of its citizens. With candor and humor, Carlos vividly depicts daily life in communist Cuba, his feelings about ballet -- an art form he both lovesand hates -- and his complex relationship with his father. Carlos Acosta makes dance look effortless, but the grace, strength, and charisma we see onstage have come at a cost. Here, in his own words, is the story of the price he paid.
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