Book Description
Balanchine, Celebrating a Life in Dance is a tribute to twentieth-century ballet's most influential choreographer. Even before founding the New York City Ballet with Lincoln Kirstein, George Balanchine ha achieved international recognition as a dance innovator. Creating dances for his own company, Balanchine's insights reinvigorated ballet by combining new forms with the traditional while dancing to contemporary musical scores. The works that emerged from this synthesis of styles brought new audiences to dance, as well as new meaning and relevance to the art of dance.
To commemorate the centenary of Balanchine's birth, Balanchine explores fifty of the choreographer's greatest works. A host of the most recognized names in dance have come together in this book to pay tribute to George Balanchine in essays that recall their personal experiences with "Mr. B." and offer analysis of his masterpieces.
Clive Barnes, Suzanne Farrell, Peter Martins, Kay Mazzo, Maria Tallchief, Helgi Tomasson, Edward Villella, and Karin von Aroldingen are among the many Balanchine proteges and notables in the dance industry who provide commentary on the ballets. Full-color and black-and-white photos from Costas accompany each essay.
Customer Reviews:
Balanchine: Celebrating a Life in Dance........2007-04-12
The book was all that I hoped for, a copy in excellent condition.
It will make a wonderful gift for a talented ballerina on her fourteenth birthday. The book also arrived quickly.
Thank you. Dale Allan Pelton.
A fitting tribute to Balanchine and Costas.......2004-04-03
This lavishly illustrated and handsomely designed book is as much a tribute to choreographer George Balanchine as it is to the photographer Costas. True, it is Balanchine who gets centre stage, commemorated for the centenary of his birth with no less than 50 of his ballets, covered by quite an impressive host of authors. Dancers like Maria Tallchief, Suzanne Farrell, Sara Leland, Karin von Aroldingen, Violette Verdy, and Peter Martins, who have been instrumental in bringing Balanchine's work to life or proved an inspiration to "Mr. B." at various moments in his cornucopian career, are joined by the fine fleur of Anglo-saxon dance writers of today - Clive Barnes, Robert Greskovic, Robert Gottlieb, George Jackson, among others - to pay homage to his creative genius.
Yet, it is the photographic legacy of Costas - born Costas Cacaroukas in Chios, Greece and a dance photographer for more than 35 years - which turns "Balanchine, Celebrating a Life in Dance" into an irresistible reference work. With more than 370 photographs (color and black and white) showing Balanchine at work or illustrating his ballets as performed by various leading ballet troupes and artists, past and present (New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera, Kirov-Mariinsky, Bolshoi), this book will prove indispensable to any ballet lover.
A most fitting tribute.
Book Description
During her twelve years with Ballet Society and the New York City Ballet, Barbara Milberg worked under the direction of George Balanchine. She rose from corps de ballet to soloist, danced leading roles in Swan Lake and Illuminations, and performed in celebrated world premieres. In this observant and poignant memoir, she shares her recollections of Balanchine, his craft and his values, and lends insight into surprising aspects of his personality. Fisher gives readers a rare glimpse inside Balanchine's artistry, including vivid accounts of the makings of such important ballets as Schoenberg's Opus 34, AGON, and the world-famous Nutcracker. Told through the eyes of a young dancer in what seemed a truly magical place and time, In Balanchine's Company is ideal for ballet fans young and old. Rich in anecdote, insight, and humor, it offers a unique perspective on one of the twentieth century's cultural giants.
Customer Reviews:
Dancer's memoir is a joy to read.......2007-08-13
Barbara Fisher is obviously a remarkable person who has a lot to tell us about the rigors of a life in dance as well as delightful stories about her interactions with Balanchine and many other key figures in the dance world, including Stravinsky. The book is a perfect gift for anyone who cares about the art of dance.
Book Description
Part of the Eminent Lives Series, this biography, written by the gifted author Robert Gottlieb, will describe the life of the dynamic George Balanchine, the foremost contemporary choreographer in ballet. Timed to coincide with the 2004 centenary of the artist's birth.
The life and achievement of the great choreographer who both summed up everything that proceeded him in ballet, and extended the art form into radical yet inevitable new paths. Leaving Revolutionary Russia in 1924 (he was 20), he joined Serge Diaghilev's famous Ballets Russes, where he created his first enduring masterpiece, Apollo, cementing his lifelong collaboration with Stravinsky.
In 1933 he arrived in America to found a school and a company, but the company as we know it – The New York City Ballet – didn't emerge until 1948. Meanwhile, he made ballets wherever opportunity allowed, while choreographing Broadway shows (four for Rodgers and Hart), movies (The Goldwyn Follies), even the circus – a ballet for elephants with a score by Stravinsky. By the time of his death, in 1983, he had been recognized as a member of the triad of the greatest modern masters, alongside Picasso and Stravinsky.
Balanchine was married many times, always to outstanding ballerinas, but his truest muse always remained Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance.
Customer Reviews:
"...there is a glow -- the space, the hands, everything is fantastically beautiful".......2005-08-04
This is one of several volumes in the HarperCollins Eminent Lives series. Each offers a concise rather than comprehensive, much less definitive biography. However, just as Al Hirschfeld's illustrations of various celebrities capture their defining physical characteristics, the authors of books in this series focus on the defining influences and developments during the lives and careers of their respective subjects. In this instance, George Balanchine.
Credit Gottlieb with attracting and then generously rewarding the interest of readers such as I who previously knew very little (if anything) about Balanchine. Even a summary of the key biographical details suggests that his life and career were extraordinary. The subtitle of this compact biography correctly but insufficiently describes him as "The Ballet Maker." True, Balanchine created a total of at least 425 ballets but it is much more important to note that according those best qualified to do so, during his lifetime and then since his death (on April 30, 1983), Balanchine is described as the greatest choreographer.
Because there is already an abundance of information about Balanchine readily available from The George Balanchine Foundation (http://balanchine.org/01/bio.html) and other excellent sources, Gottlieb wisely and brilliantly focuses on what seems to him to be most remarkable about a man for whom "teaching was the heart and soul of his enterprise -- he was frequently quoted as saying that he would be remembered first and foremost as a teacher, not as a choreographer, [his] school now firmly in place as the premier training ground for ballet dancers in America. It taught the basics the way he wanted them taught, and he was secure in the competence of his teachers, who through the years included important dancers from his Russian past." He taught by example, by demonstration, not be words.
But it is also true that Balanchine could "explain a step or role with a simple image that would uncannily convey his intentions." Here are two examples from one of his greatest creative achievements, The Prodigal:
When explaining to the Prodigal's drinking companions how they should run their fingers up and down his (the Prodigal's) exhausted, nearly naked body as if to strip it further of worldly goods: "Like mice."
When explaining to the Prodigal what to do when the Siren steps off of his legs as he lowers them to the floor: "You lower her like an elevator."
According to Nathan Milstein, Balanchine "left an inheritance that consists of more than his works. He left his moral example, a considerable legacy: the strength and wholeness of his character; his directness, adherence to principle, and lack of greed....his devotion to his art; his independence of fashion, fame, and trappings of success."
I am grateful to Gottlieb for so much. First, for helping me to understand and appreciate a man who "carried within him all of ballet, past and present, and was constantly redefining its future. Looking backward and forward were not separate matters for him; he summed up everything even as he was reinventing everything." I am also grateful to Gottlieb for obtaining permission to reprint an article written by Balanchine, "Mr. B Talks About Ballet," which appeared in the June 11, 1965, issue of Life magazine. As Gottlieb explains, it is one of Balanchine's very few by-lined articles. In it, he invites those who are interested in ballet to "come and see, come and discover."
When concluding this brief commentary, I presume to suggest that Gottlieb invites those who are interested in Balanchine to "come and see, come and discover."
Brief, but well-written and informative biography.......2005-01-20
How does one possibly compress the life of Balanchine into a small, thin mini-biography? For if anyone had a "packed life" it was George Balanchine: careers at the Mariinsky, Ballet Russes, and of course the NYCB, five wives, many more "muses," a long and fascinating collaboration with Igor Stravinsky, and endless critical acclaim as the most important ballet choreographer of the 20th century. Even Bernard Taper's biography (much longer) feels oddly thin.
Keeping this in mind, I think Robert Gottlieb's mini-biography is a success, much more so than Terry Teachout's simultaneous minibio "All in the Dances," which seems to be mostly rehashes of earlier published material. Gottlieb is a well-known editor and dance critic, and he was at the premieres of many of Balanchine's works. He also knew Mr. B and many of the NYCB's dancers, so the book has an insider/fan feel. Gottlieb also has a blunt and engaging manner of writing, which makes "The Ballet Maker" feel much less perfunctory than most minibios. Particularly his descriptions of Balanchine's ballets, of which Gottlieb is obviously a great and sincere admirer.
Mr. B was a frustratingly opaque man, who was fond of repeating simple truisms ("Just do the steps, dear" or "It's all in the dances") while leading a very complex and perhaps unhappy life. Wisely, Gottlieb does not attempt to dissect every Balanchine relationship, or cover every event and ballet. The book is neatly divided into chapters (Balanchine as Teacher, et al.) that focus on a particular aspect of Balanchine. Gottlieb also has some unorthodox and interesting views about the man. You know how Mr. B often went on about creating a ballet because he remembered doing this or that as a student in the Mariinsky? The tone is always deliberately nostalgic. Gottlieb has a much different view of Balanchine's childhood -- that it was extremely lonely and scarred Balanchine for life. He theorized that Balanchine felt abandoned by his family (remember the social upheaval in Russia at the time) and was never able to form lasting attachments to women as a result.
The pictures are few but well-chosen. In particular, there are some wonderful photos of Balanchine's last wife, Tanaquiel LeClercq, whose career was cut short by polio. Balanchine spent years caring for her day-and-night, and then divorced her quickly in a (failed) attempt to romance Suzanne Farrell. The story of LeClercq illustrates to me the fascinating paradox of Mr. B. Gottlieb can't explain it either, but as a "primer" on Balanchine it's insightful and well-written.
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George Balanchine: American Ballet Master (Lerner Biographies)
Davida Krista
Manufacturer: Lerner Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0822549514 |
Book Description
Twenty years after his death, George Balanchine still dominates the world of ballet. Not only have his works been danced by the New York City Ballet continuously since 1948, but they also have been performed by more than two dozen other companies throughout the world. In clear and elegant writing, Terry Teachout brings to life the dramatic story of George Balanchine, a Russian émigré who fell in love with American culture, married four times and kept a mistress on the side, and transformed the art of ballet forever.
Customer Reviews:
"The Most Extraordinary Encounters and Events".......2005-03-05
Teachout's short biography of Balanchine has a lot more meat in it than I expected, considering that he makes a comment in the Preface that he wrote it for the casual ballet-goer or even someone who has never been to the ballet. He takes a casual but observant stroll through Balanchine's professional and personal lives and with telling incident and anecdote makes this giant of twentieth-century art come alive, warts and all. Further, his tone is one of kindliness and understanding, even when it comes to Balanchine's inveterate womanizing, without it becoming a work of hagiography. And he conveys in words how Balanchine filled his plotless ballets with "the most extraordinary encounters and events" and changed the face of modern ballet.
I came to this book not as a balletomane but as a lover of the music of Stravinsky whose music, of course, was the aural life blood of Balanchine's art. I was not disappointed in that there were many glimpses of Stravinsky along the way. But more important Teachout's easy style and consummate story-telling ability made this a compulsive read. Many biographers lack that quality.
Frankly I would recommend this book not only to the dance neophyte like me, but to any lover of ballet, or modern dance, or of twentieth century music. It certainly provides a beautifully written record of one of the high points of American culture of its era.
Scott Morrison
Combines Biography with Dance Criticism.......2004-11-30
I will make the inevitable comparison between this book and Robert Gottlieb's short biography of Balanchine. This book is my choice because Gottlieb's book, while businesslike, is a bit earthbound. Gottlieb's biography did not exude the spirit of dance for me. And the biographical facts, reported in brief by both Gottlieb and Teachout, have been given more scope in Bernard Taper's wonderful full length biography. In Teachout's favor, he is a dance critic, and he treats the dances themselves with more insight and depth. As a reader, I feel this added to the book's value. So the book I'll keep on my shelf is Terry Teachout's Balanchine.
Book Description
Written with wit, insight, and candor, Balanchine is a book that will delight lovers of biography as well as those with a special interest in dance. For this edition the author has added a thoughtful yet dramatic account of the working out of Balanchine's legacy, from the making of his controversial will to the present day. The author explores the intriguing legal, financial, and institutional subplots that unfolded after the death of the greatest choreographer of the century, but the central plot of his epilogue is the aesthetic issue: In the absence of their creator, can the ballets retain their wondrous vitality? Taper illuminates the fascinating transmission of Balanchine's masterworks from one generation to another, an unprecented legacy in the history of ballet, that most evanescent of the arts.
Customer Reviews:
Tough but Good Read.......2004-03-07
This is no easy, inspirational biography. It really goes in depth. But you finish thinking you understand this enigmatic man about as well as possible.
If you like or are curious about Balanchine, READ THIS BOOK!
The best Balanchine's biography!.......2001-04-24
I've so happy I bought this book, it's a pleasure to read. I'm a long time ballet fan, but I would stronly recommend this book for anyone who is interested about ballet, you can learn so much reading it!
One of my favorite books!!.......1997-05-14
Taper's Balanchine biography is one of the best books I have ever read! It combines the biographical information with personal accounts and stories that really give you the feeling of getting to know the amazing George Balanchine. Some may have read other books, like Gelsey Kirkland's "Dancing on my Grave", that give a bad impression of Mr. Balanchine, but I promise if you read this book, you will have a change of heart. Although no biography can be completely free of bias, this author describes Mr. Balanchine in a truly honest and real way. I really do feel like I know Mr. Balanchine and I promise that if you read this incredible book, you will too
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Choreography of George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works
George Balanchine
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0670220086 |
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