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$18.95
41. Merce Cunningham: Dancing in Space
42. Merce Cunningham
$20.57
43. The Ballets of Antony Tudor: Studies
$4.95
44. Shadowplay: The Life of Antony
$85.98
45. Dancing With Principle: Hanya
$2.85
46. Portrait Gallery: Artists, Impresarios,
$3.98
47. Daniel Nagrin: A Chronicle of
 
$31.64
48. Balanchine's Mozartiana: Making
$295.00
49. Trisha Brown: Dance and Art in
$31.50
50. Goddess - Martha Graham's Dancers
$13.12
51. Bob Fosse's Broadway
 
$9.95
52. Punk in motion: Steven Hoggett's
 
$9.95
53. Choreography S.O.S.: onscreen
$23.13
54. Secret Muses: The Life of Frederick
$22.49
55. Fernando Bujones: An Autobiography
$17.00
56. Merce Cunningham
 
$9.95
57. Truth in movement: Ohad Naharin
 
$5.95
58. Moving and seeing: photographing
 
$5.95
59. On Broadway: can Fosse's Sweet
 
$9.95
60. All the right moves: creating

41. Merce Cunningham: Dancing in Space and Time
 Paperback: 280 Pages (1998-08-21)
list price: US$17.95 -- used & new: US$18.95
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Asin: 0306808773
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For nearly sixty years choreographer Merce Cunningham has challenged and provoked audiences by stripping theatrical dance of its traditional narrative and by refusing to unify movement with sound and decor. After initial objections to his style, however, this controversial figure—who has collaborated with avant-garde musicians John Cage, Earle Brown, and David Tudor and artists Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and Marcel Duchamp—is now revered as one of the most visionary artists of the century. Merce Cunningham gathers together the most important writings by and about the choreographer, including three classic essays by Cunningham, as well as articles and reviews by Cage; dancers Remy Charlip, Violet Farber, and Carolyn Brown; company archivist David Vaughan; and leading critics Arlene Croce, Jack Anderson, Marcia Siegel, and Edwin Denby. Tracing the development of Cunningham's career from 1944 to 1992, this valuable anthology showcases the tremendous and ever-evolving means of expression that this revolutionary choreographer created.
... Read more

42. Merce Cunningham
Paperback: 218 Pages (1987-01)
list price: US$19.95
Isbn: 0879100559
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43. The Ballets of Antony Tudor: Studies in Psyche and Satire
by Judith Chazin-Bennahum
Hardcover: 336 Pages (1994-03-24)
list price: US$35.00 -- used & new: US$20.57
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Asin: 0195071867
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One of the leading choreographers in ballet over the last half century, Antony Tudor is considered the most lyrical and emotionally powerful of modern ballet masters, acclaimed for his imaginative use of music and his commitment to dramatic pplot. Comparable in achievement to George Balanchine and Frederick Ashton, Tudor created over sixty ballets, including his masterpieces Jardin aux Lilas, Dark Elegies, Romeo and Juliet and the incomparable Pillar of Fire. He was instrumental in the establishment of the American Ballet Theater and its rise to prominence as one of the world's great ballet companies.

Now Judith Chazin-Bennahum, an accomplished author and a former ballerina and student of Tudor's steps forward to deliver the first comprehensie, ballet by ballet examination of Tudor's choreography. Meticulously researched, lively and insightful, The Ballets of Antony Tudor: Studies in Psyche and Satire opens the way for dance aficionados to better appreciate and preserve the artistic legacy of one of this century's major innovators. Long ago performances come thrillingly to life, from Tudor's fledgling efforts with Marie Rambert's Ballet Club in London, to his tenure as a founding member and principal choreographer of ABT to his subsequent career as a contributor to the New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and as a celebrated teacher at Juilliard. Chazin-Bennahum draws extensively from her interviews with TUudor before his death in 1987, and her own experience in his famous classes and rehearsals. Her superbly documented research uncovers program notes, reviews, rare photographs and stills of original productions, and interviews with scores of men and women who played a part in Tudor's achievement. Choreographers and dancers from Agnes de Mille and Nora Kaye to Jerome Robbins and Gelsey Kirkland discuss their debt to Tudor, and his role in the evolution of dance.

While not a biography in the traditional sense, the book does shed fascinating light on the private life of Antony Tudor. He was born William Cook, the son of a butcher in London's East End, in 1908, and Chazin-Bennahum's analysis reveals how deeply his life informed his art. "I never do a ballet that does not concern the bourgeoisie," Tudor once said. Of course, Tudor's experience was shaped by more than class. Like Picasso, writes the author, Tudor was a child of our century, reacting to its wars, its destruction and its persecution of women and children in the language he knew best. Original and engaging, The Ballets of Antony Tudor brilliantly explicates the hidden desire, brutality, violence towards women, isolation, and unrequired love that are common themes in Tudor's ballets, illuminating the rich psychological nuance and intimacy of gesture with which he transformed his art. ... Read more


44. Shadowplay: The Life of Antony Tudor (Limelight)
by Donna Perlmutter
Paperback: 420 Pages (2004-08-01)
list price: US$18.95 -- used & new: US$4.95
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Asin: 087910189X
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Antony Tudor was the creator of the psychological ballet: his haunting and dramatic dances, among them "Dark Elegies", "Pillar of Fire", "Jardin aux Lilas" and "Shadowplay" helped break the mould of classical ballet. Born to a poor East End family, Tudor turned away from the fables and abstractions of other choreographers to plumb his own ambivalence about himself and his often turbulent personal relationships. In this biography, the author illuminates Tudor's struggles with the greatest figures in 20th-century dance - DeMille, Robbins, Nureyev, Balanchine, Ashton, Kirkland and others - and his longtime romance with dancer Hugh Laning and their menage-a-trois with ballerina Diane Adams. She also explores and explains the dances themselves. ... Read more


45. Dancing With Principle: Hanya Holm in Colorado, 1941-1983
by Claudia Gitelman
Hardcover: 190 Pages (2002-01)
list price: US$45.00 -- used & new: US$85.98
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Asin: 0870816446
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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In 1941, Hanya Holm, a German-American dancer and educator who would later become a celebrated Broadway choreographer, created a sanctuary for dance in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains at Colorado College. In Dancing With Principle, Claudia Gitelman details Holm’s work during an amazing span of forty-three years. The Hanya Holm/Colorado College Summer School of the Dance in Colorado Springs educated many thousands on both sides of the footlights in the art of modern dance.

With exhortations to understand what they were doing and stick with their principles, Holm helped thousands of students with their craft. As Gitelman notes, many of her students went on to work in regional and national dance companies, and some even achieved international status as choreographers and company directors.

Fascinated by her own work with Hanya Holm in Colorado, both as a student and as one of Holm’s assistants, Gitelman examined archives held by the Holm family and interviewed more than fifty of Holm’s students, associates, and observers of the program. Describing the birth, constant renewal, and lasting legacy of an institution that has been overlooked in studies of American dance culture, Dancing With Principle will appeal to dance lovers and dance specialists, regional historians, and students of American culture and Colorado history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

5-0 out of 5 stars FROM THE PUBLISHER
Dancing With Principle Hanya Holm in Colorado
240 pages, December 2001, Univ Press of Colorado; ISBN:0870816446
by Claudia Gitelman
Fascinated by her own work with Hanya Holm in Colorado, both as a student and as one of Holm's assistants, Gitelman examined archives held by the Holm family and interviewed more than fifty of Holm's students, associates, and observers of the program. Describing the birth, constant renewal, and lasting legacy of an institution that has been overlooked in studies of American dance culture, Dancing With Principle will appeal to dance lovers, dance specialists, historians, and students. ... Read more


46. Portrait Gallery: Artists, Impresarios, Intimates
by Agnes De Mille
Hardcover: 314 Pages (1990-08-23)
list price: US$19.95 -- used & new: US$2.85
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Asin: 0395528097
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47. Daniel Nagrin: A Chronicle of His Professional Career (University of California Publications Catalogs and Bibliographies)
by Christena L. Schlundt
Hardcover: 236 Pages (1997-08-01)
list price: US$50.00 -- used & new: US$3.98
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Asin: 0520098137
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This volume summarizes the career from 1940 to 1982 of the American modern dancer and choreographer Daniel Nagrin. Until 1956, he performed in musical theater on Broadway, and from 1948 to 1982 he toured as a solo artist and itinerant teacher. Nagrin's remarkable stage and studio activities catalogued here reveal his unusual contribution to American dance history. ... Read more


48. Balanchine's Mozartiana: Making of a Masterpiece
by Robert Maiorano, Valerie Brooks
 Hardcover: 188 Pages (1985-05)
list price: US$18.95 -- used & new: US$31.64
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Asin: 0881910139
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49. Trisha Brown: Dance and Art in Dialogue, 1961-2001
Paperback: 288 Pages (2002-11-15)
list price: US$38.00 -- used & new: US$295.00
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Asin: 0262201399
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In 1962, at the age of twenty-six, Trisha Brown became one of the original members of the experimental Judson Church Dance Theater in New York, and in 1970 she cofounded The Grand Union. The dancers of these radical groups, such as Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton, embraced improvisation and the use of everyday movements not usually associated with legitimate choreography. To bring her dance into the real world of objects and unpredictable events, Brown performed much of her early work outdoors. The book recalls the richness of those times, when poets, musicians, painters, and sculptors joined with dancers and choreographers in questioning the hierarchies and boundaries of their disciplines.By the late 1970s, Brown was looking for ways to expand and open up her dances. The desire to create large-scale, complex productions led her to incorporate stage design and music as simultaneous, independent elements in her work. Collaborating with such visual artists and musicians as Laurie Anderson, Robert Ashley, John Cage, Alvin Curran, Nancy Graves, Donald Judd, Fujiko Nakaya, Robert Rauschenberg, and, most recently, Terry Winters, she created visual and musical spectacles, or "movement-images."In this book, which accompanies a nationally touring exhibition co-organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art and the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, historians, critics, choreographers, dancers, and visual artists explore the dialogue between dance and the visual arts in Brown?s work. The contributors include Guillaume Bernardi, Trisha Brown, Simone Forti, Marianne Goldberg, Deborah Jowitt, Klaus Kertess, Laurence Louppe, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Charles Stainback, Hendel Teicher, and Adam D. Weinberg. ... Read more


50. Goddess - Martha Graham's Dancers Remember: Hardcover
by Robert Tracy
Hardcover: 320 Pages (1997-08-01)
list price: US$32.50 -- used & new: US$31.50
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Asin: 0879100869
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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In Goddess more than 30 Martha Graham dancers recall the complex experience of studying, working and performing with this small giant of a woman. They represent all the decades of the Graham era, from the twenties into the nineties, and their commentary illuminates the creation and performance of such now classic Graham works as Heretic, Primitive Mysteries, Letter to the World, Deaths and Entrances, Herodiade, Appalachian Spring, Dark Meadow, Cave of the Heart, Night Journey, Diversion of Angels and Clytemnestra. As the artists relive their time with Graham, their words and voices sound with stunning authenticity, while the incidents and the emotions they remember range from moments of exaltation and exhilaration to those of humiliation and fury. Throughout this remarkable oral history, legendary dancers show us Martha Graham as she has never been seen before - at work and in love, giving and demanding, inspiring and imperious, and as a presence that will always be with them.Amazon.com Review
Telling a story from one point of view is so much easier thanfrom two. Or five. Or, goddess forbid, 30. But there are some eventsand people that demand many points of view. Dancer/choreographerMartha Graham was utterly different to different people in differentcircumstances and at different times in her sweeping career. In RobertTracy's oral history, Goddess: Martha Graham's DancersRemember, Graham's passion and creativity are recalled by 30 ofher dancers from the 1920s to the 1990s, including many who becameinternational stars: Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Rudolf Nureyev,Anna Sokolow, and more. This Rashomon-style approachallows her many contradictions to stand out vividly, but all therespondents seek to analyze the spark that was the source of hercreativity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

5-0 out of 5 stars Very interesting reading, insight into dancer
I enjoyed reading this book very much. It shows many different sides of Martha Graham, and how she interacted with other dancers. If you're interested in her life, her autobiography is also great reading.

5-0 out of 5 stars It gives a very close idea of who Martha was...
If you know, who Martha Graham was, then it's time to find out what people who worked with her really think about her work, and their experience fortheir life. Names such as ,Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Pearl Lang, andmore, are in the book, and they are saying what they think . Robert Tracy,the Author, meet all of them, and through his writing, it's your turn tomeet them, have a good reading... ... Read more


51. Bob Fosse's Broadway
by Margery Beddow
Paperback: 76 Pages (1996-08-05)
list price: US$15.95 -- used & new: US$13.12
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Asin: 0435070029
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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A show-by-show analysis of one of Broadway's preeminent American choreographers, the angular and jazzy Bob Fosse.Amazon.com Review
Beddow, a dancer who appeared in numerous Fosse shows (shereplaced Gwen Verdon in one of his early shows) and recreated some ofhis choreography for national touring shows, checks in with ashow-by-show account of Fosse's career, from Pajama Game throughSweet Charityand Pippin to BigDeal -- all told from a dancer's point of view. The book is at itsbest when it vividly describes some of Fosse's "lost" dances forlesser-known shows like Frank Loesser's Pleasures and Palaces,which closed out of town. Included are many rare photos of Fosse'sdancers in action, and a heartbreaking account of his last rehearsalon the day he died. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

5-0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book
I am sad to say that the LOVELY MARGE BEDDOW..passed away this afternoon....read her wonderful book.

4-0 out of 5 stars Great source!
I purchased this book as a resource when I began choreographing a production of "Chicago". The perspective from one of his main dancers is very interesting, getting insights about how the various shows and specific dance numbers were created. Definitely a good book for a dancer's or choreographer's collection!

5-0 out of 5 stars A vital resource to theatre buffs & historians
Here for once is first hand musical theatre history written by someone who took part in the making of some extraordinary shows. A dancer who worked with Bob Fosse (as both a performer and an assistant) gives us her personalinsights in how the man worked.It is a very rare thing to get such anintimate view from inside the creative process.Ever wonder why"Fosse dancers" are a breed apart?This book is a great place tostart finding the answer.

4-0 out of 5 stars Excellent backstage stories from Broadway musicals.
Less comprehensive than most other books on Bob Fosse, this book focuses on Margery Beddow's experiences while working with the great master of dance. She recounts back stage happenings, and let's you in on little known facts about these great musicals. She takes a more personal look at Bob Fosse, but at times can get lost in a dreamy yearning for yester year.(But who wouldn't!)Irecommend this book to anyone who has a career in theatre or dance, as it is a truthful look at a successful gypsy's life. I have had the pleasure of working with the author in a touring show when she was writing this book, and have watched it's progress. Margery has done the theatre communtiy a tremendous favor by preserving this up-close and personal look at Bob Fosse, and his work. ... Read more


52. Punk in motion: Steven Hoggett's choreography for American idiot melds physical theater with green day's edge.(on broadway): An article from: Dance Magazine
by Sylbiane Gold
 Digital: 3 Pages (2010-04-01)
list price: US$9.95 -- used & new: US$9.95
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Asin: B003U5S2NY
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This digital document is an article from Dance Magazine, published by Dance Magazine, Inc. on April 1, 2010. The length of the article is 792 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Punk in motion: Steven Hoggett's choreography for American idiot melds physical theater with green day's edge.(on broadway)
Author: Sylbiane Gold
Publication: Dance Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2010
Publisher: Dance Magazine, Inc.
Volume: 84Issue: 4Page: 60(2)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more


53. Choreography S.O.S.: onscreen dancemaking help.(UP FRONT)(Dance Designer software)(Brief article): An article from: Dance Magazine
by Jennifer Stahl
 Digital: 2 Pages (2010-08-01)
list price: US$9.95 -- used & new: US$9.95
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Asin: B003ZJ8YCO
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Editorial Review

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Dance Magazine, published by Dance Magazine, Inc. on August 1, 2010. The length of the article is 314 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Choreography S.O.S.: onscreen dancemaking help.(UP FRONT)(Dance Designer software)(Brief article)
Author: Jennifer Stahl
Publication: Dance Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2010
Publisher: Dance Magazine, Inc.
Volume: 84Issue: 8Page: S4(1)

Article Type: Brief article

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more


54. Secret Muses: The Life of Frederick Ashton
by Julie Kavanagh
Hardcover: 647 Pages (1997-05-13)
list price: US$35.00 -- used & new: US$23.13
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Asin: 0679442693
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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The founding choreographer of English ballet saw his influence extend far beyond that world. For more than 50 years he worked with the most famous dancers of his day and many celebrated figures came to know this dazzling and witty personality. Given complete access to Ashton's papers, Kavanagh has written a compelling and definitive account of one of the most important cultural figures of the 20th century. photos.Amazon.com Review
The eponymous muses were young men, many of them dancers, whoinspired choreographer Frederick Ashton (1904-88) to createSymphonic Variations, La fille mal gardee, and the otherworks that brought English ballet to a new level of artistry. Hisbiographer Julie Kavanagh, a British ballet critic, appreciates butdoes not overemphasize their importance, respecting the mysteries ofthe creative process in her perceptive evaluations of Ashton'swork. She is equally good on his famed wit and giddy social life,providing enough party scenes and famous names to keep evennon-balletomanes reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

5-0 out of 5 stars A Panorama of 20th Century Dance.
Julie Kavanagh's biography of Frederick Ashton has been splendidly reviewed below, but there are one or two things I should like to add.

This biography of Sir Frederick Ashton is a panorama of 20th century dance in Britain and, in some aspects, America also. It is, and will remain so for future generations, a marvellous "Who's Who" of the British ballet establishment.

I confess I started to skip the love letters to and from the boys. A little love letter goes a long [long] way. Was Ashton really so creatively tied to such people as Martyn Thomas? His choreographic talent was such that I am left wondering how very much greater Ashton's work might have been without the sturm and drang of those relationships. Was Ashton 'passionately lazy' or did he, I wonder, suffer from undiagnosed depression from most of his life because he could not be the great dancer he longed to be? His attempts to 'keep the slate clean' as far as having a good war record and not get caught out in his homosexuality at a time when it was illegal in the UK are commendable, but how stultifying for him artistically! He could never let go and have a really life-enhancing grand passion. I have the feeling that secretly Ashton longed to be a voluptuously beautiful courtesan with the world at his feet. He had his world at his feet most of the time, and his palace was the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, so there were compensations of course. The whole hypocritcal business of the illegality of homosexuality in the UK affected not only Ashton but Noel Coward, Cecil Beaton, Terence Rattigan and above all, Benjamin Britten. How much greater might their artistic output have been otherwise?

It doesn't matter that many of Ashton's ballets have not stood the test of time. Some of them certainly have, Les Patineurs and Les Rendezvous are great works for, beside, and because of, their choreographic content, they are wonderful for improving and strenghtening any corps-de-ballet - and how many ballets of the 20th century can one say that of? Symphonic Variations and Scenes de Ballet are masterpieces of their genre. Daphnis & Chloe was a marvellous realisation of the score, as was La Valse. I use the past tense deliberately.

Julie Kavanagh has captured the essence of the life Ashton led, and brings him to life with more sympathy than perhaps he deserves. Objectively, then, one should seperate the man from his choreography, and it's up to each reader to do so. One aspect of his art that Ms Kavanagh has captured is the man's 'theatrical theatricality.' Ashton was theatrical in the best sense of the word. It pervades his ballets and certain effects, such as the billowing curtain in Marguerite & Armand stay in the mind's eye, [well, it has in mine anyway], long after the image of the choreography has faded. That a man of Ashton's years could produce A Month in the Country is a testament to his genius, his theatricality and his self-revitalising humanity. As Ms Bonifaccio points out below in her review, should one judge a ballet for it's revivability? No. Ballets are here and now. I am reminded by this by a friend of mine who knew Mme Karsavina in old age. He once said to her: "I'd love to see Le Pavillon d'Armide revived." Mme Karsavina laughed, and replied, "Believe me, you wouldn't."

Julie Kavanagh's book is here and now, but I do see great 'researcher trouble' ahead. Some of the prose is misleading because she assumes, rightly, that we KNOW what she is writing about. I can just see a post graduate student doing their thesis in say, Kansas in 2050, and writing about Dame Ninette de Valois longing to jitterbug with a handsome negro at the Caribbean Club. [Page 305]. This is because Barbara Ker-Seymer tells Billy Chappell that 'Madame was in charge... She longed to be whirled into a jutterbug.. but nobody asked her to dance. Maybe it was her WAAF's uniform that put them off.' 'Madame', 'she' and 'WAAF' all in one sentence are going to be read by the uninitiated as though Dame Ninette de Valois was present in uniform when she was, clearly, no-where near the place. [And how I do agree with Sir John Drummond that calling Dame Ninette de Valois 'Madam' was a fearful practise.] That irritating habit [bad theatricality this time] of referring to men as 'she' pervades this book. [Jocelyn Bowlan, a dancer in the English National Opera Movement Group in the 1980'S once complained to the ENO's Head of Dance, Nicky Bowie; "DO the boys have to always call each other SHE?" Ms Bowie replied: "Jocelyn, I joined London Festival Ballet when I was 18 years old and since then everyone's been SHE."] On page 435 'Debo' is mentioned. She is, of course, the Duchess of Devonshire, but you won't find this in the index. Little things, they may seem quibbles, like this are a minefield for future generations who will be hard put to understand where Ashton and The Royal Ballet establishment stood in relationship to the British upper classes. In fact, Ms Kavanagh captures the glorius postwar collision between the Brideshead generation and the Establishment. The whole situation, outlining Ashton's artistic predicament, is wonderfully and accurately summed up by Lincoln Kirsten to Cecil Beaton on page 438. This alone is worth the price of the book.

A wonderful wonderful book!!

5-0 out of 5 stars A valuable and interesting book.
The most amazing thing about Ms Kavanagh's book is that it NOT a hatchet job on what seems to be a rather unpleasant man. Underneath the many layers of Ashton's exhibitionism, egocentricity, tightfistedness and manipulative scheming Kavanagh reveals a rather sad, but talented, figure, whom one feels a certainy sympathy for.

Was Ashton a great choreographer? Probably he was. Future generations will be hard pushed to know though, as his ballets are massacred by the Royal Ballet in the UK.One should, I feel, never judge a ballet by it's revivability. Those of us present at the first night of "Enigma Variations" or "A Month in the Country" knew we were in the presence of greatness. In many ways Ashton was a choreographic Somerset Maugham, who managed to evoke a lost world in a few steps of a short ballet, very like Somerset Maugham's short stories. Who knows whether they will stand the test of time?

I can't help feeling that Ashton wasn't a very pleasant person, though not as unpleasant as the snarlingly awful Antony Tudor with his chips on his shoulders and his deep seated inverted snobbery. Ashton's sexual politics within the Royal Ballet would be considered highly politically incorrect, [while his treatment of some of the dancers would be considered sexual harassment and, if pursued through the courts would have won huge payouts], in this day and age. The whole set up sounds [and probably was] terribly incestuous. Ms Kavanagh quotes extensively from Ashton's love letters to and from young men, letters which, in most cases, are too foolish and should have been submitted to a strong editorial hand.

It's bizarre to read that Dame Ninette de Valois retired from the Royal Ballet in 1964 for she wielded enormous influence there even 30 years later. In fact there was no real reason for her to retire then at all, as her retirement caused a choreographic block in Ashton. Her shoddy politics in the affair do not show her in a good light at all. It's also bizarre to think that the cradle of British ballet as such was in the hands of these people, who were little more than dilettantes, and who lost in the early post-war period the two great influences on them; Constant Lambert and Sophie Fedorovitch. What was the alternative? Marie Rambert? I think not! Page 476, Ashton to Kavanagh: "There are things I have to say about Ninette....but I'm not going to tell you while she's alive." Did he ever say them? I bet he did!

I do have some small issues with Ms Kavanagh's approach. She talks about the men of the early post-war Royal Ballet as having good techniques. This is nonsense. Believe me, until the advent of Nureyev British male dancing was of a pretty poor standard as there were no outstanding male teachers at the Royal Ballet School in those days. For instance, there was no male variation for the Prince in Sleeping Beauty until just before the Royal Ballet's Russian tour in 1961 and no coda to the pas-de-deux until well into the late sixties. There were one of two plausible dance-actors, Alexander Grant being one of them, but he was miscast in any thing remotely classical, i.e. The Two Pigeons. Michael Somes [and what a fearful baddie he turned out to be, his behaviour bordering on psychotic!] simply could not dance by today's standards. He couldn't even walk properly onstage and was really just a 'porteur' for Margot Fonteyn. I never in my life saw David Blair [page 446] perform eight en dehor turns consecutively onstage, and I saw him often. Nureyev's arrival at the Royal Ballet did not really wipe out a whole generation of British male dancers [page 471n] because there weren't any who could be remotely compared to Nureyev.Certainly not the gormless looking Christopher Gable who, with Lynn Seymour, nightly mistook barnstorming for acting. Which reminds me: There is a myth that is gaining circulation [page 485] that Seymour and Gable were deposed from the first night of Romeo and Juliet. There would never have been any question of them doing the first night whilst Fonteyn and Nureyev were in the offing. When the press announcement of Romeo and Juliet was made [if memory serves] in late December 1964 it's opening two performances, February 9th and 11th 1965, had Fonteyn cast as Juliet with Nureyev as Romeo. Think about this: If Nureyev had been around in 1960, "La fille mal gardee" would have been for Fonteyn and Nureyev, not Nerina and Blair. Nadia Nerina, [page 472], should keep this in mind when criticising "Marguerite and Armand." If one Ashton ballets survives it will be "La fille mal gardee" and Nerina, for all her bitterness at not being Fonteyn's successor, will be remembered as the first Lise in Ashton's production. [Mercifully preserved in a complete black and white kinescope.]

Despite my quibbles Julie Kavanagh has produced a great book. I hope she's planning a companion piece, the life of Dame Ninette de Valois!That will be something to look forward to. ... Read more


55. Fernando Bujones: An Autobiography
by Fernando Bujones, Zeida Cecilia-Mendez
Hardcover: 342 Pages (2009-05-01)
list price: US$35.00 -- used & new: US$22.49
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Asin: 0615284965
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Product Description

Beginning with his Cuban childhood in Miami, this autobiography of famed dancer Fernando Bujones covers his life from his years as a gifted student at the School of American Ballet to his 13-year career as principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). Among these recollections are his incredible rise as the youngest principal dancer with ABT, how he became the first American dancer to win the gold medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition, and his time spent in the tumultuous years following Mikhail Baryshnikov's takeover of ABT. Bujones took an abrupt departure from his beloved company and subsequently found superstar status with his international career. He continued to touch the lives of those around him—as well as those who watched his performances—until his unexpected death in 2005.

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Customer Reviews (2)

5-0 out of 5 stars a mesmerizing journey through a fantastic life
This is one of those books that you do not want to put down, and that you want to go back to over again.It is an amazing story of the will to suceed, the triumph that came with it, and of how dreams can come true. Even though Fernando has been the greatest ballet dancer of his generation, he was a very sincere and down-to-earth man; and you get this from this book - the true essence of this great man.His life was one fantastic voyage and in this book you are right there beside him. You don't have to be a ballet lover to enjoy this book.Having known Fernando, and having lost him, this book keeps him with us.

5-0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Book
The story setting is fascinating, it includes Cuba, USA, Europe, Brazil and Asia. It's a true odyssey around the world showing how a young boy living in Cuba became one of the most celebrated Ballet Dancers in the world.

I especially enjoyed the chapters about the escape from Cuba, the Varna Competition and the Orlando Ballet Theater. The Bujones' honesty is another important feature in the book, he describes the events with the sincerity of a boy, with the passion of an artist and the vision and commitment of a producer. So it's easy to surprise yourself "wearing his shoes" and be mesmerized by the sequence of events. This makes the book highly readable.

I just read a review from Dance Europe (july, 09) that I totally agree and helps to describe the book: "his (Fernando Bujones) story is like a movie script on the theme of the American Dream".

I strongly recommend this book not only to Ballet fans but everyone interested in how the human passion, dedication and discipline can triumph over all obstacles. ... Read more


56. Merce Cunningham
by Germano Celant, David Vaughan, Barbara Frost, Merce Cunningham
Paperback: 320 Pages (2009-09-30)
list price: US$45.00 -- used & new: US$17.00
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 8881582589
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Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) pioneered the contemporary conception of dance as a moving image of life. His innovations in the field date back to the 1940s, when, after meeting composer John Cage, he proposed the separation of music and dance and applied chance procedures to the structure of his dances; later, he used technology to further extend and blur the medium's boundaries. Collecting testimonies from Cunningham's friends and collaborators, this volume surveys the milestones in Cunningham's career, from 1944 to 1999. Composers such as Gordon Mumma, Earle Brown and John Cage, artists such as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Nam June Paik and dancers such as Yvonne Rainer, Douglas Dunn and Carolyn Brown describe their collaborations with Cunningham over the past half-century, in interviews, essays and memoirs, alongside Cunningham's own writings and a wealth of illustrations. ... Read more


57. Truth in movement: Ohad Naharin talks about his choreography, his world view, and why the mirror always lies.: An article from: Dance Magazine
by Ohad Naharin
 Digital: 7 Pages (2006-10-01)
list price: US$9.95 -- used & new: US$9.95
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: B000JJ4LRU
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Editorial Review

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Dance Magazine, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1840 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Truth in movement: Ohad Naharin talks about his choreography, his world view, and why the mirror always lies.
Author: Ohad Naharin
Publication: Dance Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 80Issue: 10Page: 50(5)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more


58. Moving and seeing: photographing dance; Far more than passive documentation, dance photography can collaboratively aid dancers and choreographers in the ... of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance
by Steve Clarke
 Digital: 16 Pages (2006-02-01)
list price: US$5.95 -- used & new: US$5.95
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: B000FDE2HO
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Editorial Review

Product Description
This digital document is an article from JOPERD--The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, published by Thomson Gale on February 1, 2006. The length of the article is 4723 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Moving and seeing: photographing dance; Far more than passive documentation, dance photography can collaboratively aid dancers and choreographers in the development of their art.
Author: Steve Clarke
Publication: JOPERD--The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 77Issue: 2Page: 33(8)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more


59. On Broadway: can Fosse's Sweet Charity still lure audiences without his signature choreography?: An article from: Dance Magazine
by Sylviane Gold
 Digital: 4 Pages (2005-04-01)
list price: US$5.95 -- used & new: US$5.95
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: B000AJPO3Y
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Editorial Review

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Dance Magazine, published by Dance Magazine, Inc. on April 1, 2005. The length of the article is 984 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: On Broadway: can Fosse's Sweet Charity still lure audiences without his signature choreography?
Author: Sylviane Gold
Publication: Dance Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2005
Publisher: Dance Magazine, Inc.
Volume: 79Issue: 4Page: 88(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more


60. All the right moves: creating choreography that looks great on your student.(COMPETITIONS: Winning Ways): An article from: Dance Magazine
by Janet Weeks
 Digital: 6 Pages (2006-10-01)
list price: US$9.95 -- used & new: US$9.95
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: B000JJ4LUW
Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan
Editorial Review

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Dance Magazine, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1568 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: All the right moves: creating choreography that looks great on your student.(COMPETITIONS: Winning Ways)
Author: Janet Weeks
Publication: Dance Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 80Issue: 10Page: S10(5)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more


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