Books About Dance

[kyriacarlisle]

I need to do some catching up on dance and dance history (the classic "librarian two books ahead of likely reference questions" approach). I'm especially interested in ballet and modern, though if there's a magnificent book about another dance form, I'm very glad to know about that, too.

Much though I loved them as a child, I'm not really looking for books like A Very Young Dancer or Life at the Royal Ballet School (although if you happen to be looking for a graphic novel about ballet, try Siena Cherson Siegel & Mark Siegel, To Dance). I'm also not so very interested in hagiography - in my usual field, I'd think of this as the ten zillion coffee table books about Maria Callas. On the other hand, if the photographs are simply too revelatory to pass up....

I'm reading Apollo's Angels now. I've already read Dance to the Piper, Winter Season, Off Balance, and Behind the Scenes at the Boston Ballet.

Comments

[themis]

Peter Ostwald's Nijinsky: A Leap Into Madness is, despite the title, a thorough and unsensational look at the dancer. His dance commentary is not quite as good as his biographical or psychological commentary, but if you're interested it's probably worth it.

There's also Dance, Sex, and Gender by Judith Lynne Hanna, an academic work - but it's about 20 years old so a lot of the thinking and terminology has developed. (I found it interesting but disappointing.)

And this isn't a book, but the documentary Ballets Russes from Zeitgeist is interesting and entertaining. There are a whole bunch of first person interviews in it.

[kyriacarlisle]

Ah, yes - that subtitle would probably have warned me off.

It does feel odd not to ask for film recommendations, doesn't it? I'll keep an eye out for the documentary; it sounds interesting.

Thank you!