by Katherine Beard | Aug 30, 2024 | News, The Latest
Many stars of the dance world have shared their journeys through books, chronicling their glamorous or fairytale-like rise from student to premier ballet dancer. Rarely, if ever, do we read stories from the corps de ballet, despite the fact that the majority of ballet...
by Martha Anne Toll | Apr 17, 2024 | News, The Latest
Ballet-book lovers are in for a treat this spring with the release of Karen Valby’s The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History (Penguin Random House, $29). Valby’s book, out April 30,...
by Emma Love Suddarth | Nov 9, 2023 | News, The Latest
Miriam Landis has worn a lot of hats: Dancer at Miami City Ballet. Stanford graduate with a BA in English. Assistant editor in New York City. Ballet teacher in Seattle. And now, three-time author. Following her two previous books—Girl in Motion and Girl on Pointe,...
by Sophie Bress | May 11, 2023 | News, The Latest
Writer Nicole Cuffy has always felt connected to ballet. She’s danced since childhood and is a regular at the theater. But when she first began reading fiction about the art form, she couldn’t find a story with the nuances and characters she longed...
by Martha Anne Toll | Feb 27, 2023 | News, The Latest
Alice Robb’s Don’t Think, Dear: On Loving and Leaving Ballet (Mariner Books, $29.99) opens a window into ballet’s behind-the-scenes mysteries. Part memoir, part reportage, the book explores George Balanchine’s artistic legacy, as well as the physical and technical...
by Martha Anne Toll | Aug 4, 2022 | News
The art of ballet depends on teachers conferring hard-earned, painstakingly detailed knowledge from student to student, across generations. As with other artforms, reaching the pinnacle of performance does not necessarily translate to an ability to teach. No wonder,...
by Martha Anne Toll | Apr 12, 2022 | News, The Latest
Toni Bentley reached ballet’s heights as part of the last group of New York City Ballet dancers to work with George Balanchine. Even before a hip injury forced her into early retirement, she had penned Winter Season: A Dancer’s Journal, a beautiful take on daily life...
by April Deocariza | Dec 21, 2021 | The Latest
As Royal Ballet principal Yasmine Naghdi was going through pre-professional training at The Royal Ballet School, her mother, Sabine, recalls people saying to her, “Oh, it must be such a hard journey.” To which Sabine would jokingly reply, “Oh, I could write a book...