The Ballet Lover's Companion

The Ballet Lover's Companion
Author: Zoë Anderson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2015-01-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0300154283

Each chapter introduces a period of ballet history and provides an overview of innovations and advancement in the art form. In the individual entries that follow, Anderson includes essential facts about each ballet's themes, plot, composers, choreographers, dance style, and music. The author also addresses the circumstances of each ballet's creation and its effect in the theater, and she recounts anecdotes that illuminate performance history and reception.

The Ballet Companion

The Ballet Companion
Author: Eliza Gaynor Minden
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2007-11-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1416595716

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.

The Ballet Lover's Companion

The Ballet Lover's Companion
Author: Zoe Anderson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2015-05-29
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0300154291

This engaging book is a welcome guide to the most successful and loved ballets seen on the stage today. Dance writer and critic Zoe Anderson focuses on 140 ballets, a core international repertory that encompasses works from the ethereal world of romantic ballet to the edgy, muscular works of modern choreographers. She provides a wealth of facts and insights, including information familiar only to dance world insiders, and considers such recent works as Alexei Ramansky's Shostakovich Trilogy and Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale as well as older ballets once forgotten but now returned to the repertory, such as Sylvia. To enhance enjoyment of each ballet, Anderson also offers tips on what to look for during a performance. Each chapter introduces a period of ballet history and provides an overview of innovations and advancement in the art form. In the individual entries that follow, Anderson includes essential facts about each ballet’s themes, plot, composers, choreographers, dance style, and music. The author also addresses the circumstances of each ballet’s creation and its effect in the theater, and she recounts anecdotes that illuminate performance history and reception. Reliable, accessible, and fully up to date, this book will delight anyone who attends the ballet, participates in ballet, or simply loves ballet and wants to know much more about it.

The Classical Music Lover's Companion to Orchestral Music

The Classical Music Lover's Companion to Orchestral Music
Author: Robert Philip
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 969
Release: 2018-12-04
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0300242727

An invaluable guide for lovers of classical music designed to enhance their enjoyment of the core orchestral repertoire from 1700 to 1950 Robert Philip, scholar, broadcaster, and musician, has compiled an essential handbook for lovers of classical music, designed to enhance their listening experience to the full. Covering four hundred works by sixty-eight composers from Corelli to Shostakovich, this engaging companion explores and unpacks the most frequently performed works, including symphonies, concertos, overtures, suites, and ballet scores. It offers intriguing details about each piece while avoiding technical terminology that might frustrate the non-specialist reader. Philip identifies key features in each work, as well as subtleties and surprises that await the attentive listener, and he includes enough background and biographical information to illuminate the composer’s intentions. Organized alphabetically from Bach to Webern, this compendium will be indispensable for classical music enthusiasts, whether in the concert hall or enjoying recordings at home.

Soldiers of Beauty

Soldiers of Beauty
Author: David Ira Rottenberg
Publisher:
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2005-10
Genre: Ballerinas
ISBN: 9780910291026

Soldiers of Beauty celebrates ballet in a unique combination of poetry and art. The book contains 36 poems and 36 black and white drawings and 8 color drawings all on glossy paper all dedicated to the ballet. The poetry is funny, sad and beautiful. The artwork is simple, sensitive and vivid. Every page is exciting. It is a great book for any lover of ballet of any age.

Christensen Brothers

Christensen Brothers
Author: Debra Hickenlooper Sowell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 600
Release: 2014-04-08
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1134422547

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Nutcracker Nation

Nutcracker Nation
Author: Jennifer Fisher
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2008-10-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 030013343X

The Nutcracker is the most popular ballet in the world, adopted and adapted by hundreds of communities across the United States and Canada every Christmas season. In this entertainingly informative book, Jennifer Fisher offers new insights into the Nutcracker phenomenon, examining it as a dance scholar and critic, a former participant, an observer of popular culture, and an interviewer of those who dance, present, and watch the beloved ballet. Fisher traces The Nutcracker’s history from its St. Petersburg premiere in 1892 through its emigration to North America in the mid-twentieth century to the many productions of recent years. She notes that after it was choreographed by another Russian immigrant to the New World, George Balanchine, the ballet began to thrive and variegate: Hawaiians added hula, Canadians added hockey, Mark Morris set it in the swinging sixties, and Donald Byrd placed it in Harlem. The dance world underestimates The Nutcracker at its peril, Fisher suggests, because the ballet is one of its most powerfully resonant traditions. After starting life as a Russian ballet based on a German tale about a little girl’s imagination, The Nutcracker has become a way for Americans to tell a story about their communal values and themselves.

Composing while Dancing

Composing while Dancing
Author: Melinda Buckwalter
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2010-12-16
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0299248135

Composing while Dancing: An Improviser’s Companion examines the world of improvisational dance and the varied approaches to this art form. By introducing the improvisational strategies of twenty-six top contemporary artists of movement improvisation, Melinda Buckwalter offers a practical primer to the dance form. Each chapter focuses on an important aspect of improvisation including spatial relations, the eyes, and the dancing image. Included are sample practices from the artists profiled, exercises for further research, and a glossary of terms. Buckwalter gathers history, methods, interviews, and biographies in one book to showcase the many facets of improvisational dance and create an invaluable reference for dancers and dance educators.