The first translation of the writings of Akim Volynsky, the greatest ballet authority of early twentieth-century Russia Akim Volynsky was a Russian literary critic, journalist, and art historian who became Saint Petersburg's liveliest and most prolific ballet critic in the early part of the twentieth century. This book, the first English edition of his provocative and influential writings, provides a striking look at life inside the world of Russian ballet at a crucial era in its history. Stanley J. Rabinowitz selects and translates forty of Volynsky's articles-vivid, eyewitness accounts that sparkle with details about the careers and personalities of such dance luminaries as Anna Pavlova, Mikhail Fokine, Tamara Karsavina, and George Balanchine, at that time a young dancer in the Maryinsky company whose keen musical sense and creative interpretive power Volynsky was one of the first to recognize. Rabinowitz also translates Volynsky's magnum opus, The Book of Exaltations, an elaborate meditation on classical dance technique that is at once a primer and an ideological treatise. Throughout his writings, Rabinowitz argues in his critical introduction, which sets Volynsky's life and work against the backdrop of the principal intellectual currents of his time, Volynsky emphasizes the spiritual and ethereal qualities of ballet.

Tchaikovsky's Ballets combines analysis of the music of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Nutcracker with a description based on rare and not easily accessible documents of the first productions of these works in imperial Russia. Essential background concerning the ballet audience, the collaboration of composer and ballet-master, and Moscow in the 1860s leads into an account of the first production of Swan Lake in 1877. A discussion of the theatre reforms initiated by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Imperial Theatres and Tchaikovsky's patron, prepares us for a study of the still-famous 1890 production of Sleeping Beauty, Tchaikovsky's first collaboration with the choreographer Marius Petipa. Professor Wiley then explains how Nutcracker, which followed two years after Sleeping Beauty, was seen by its producers and audiences in a much less favourable light in 1882 than it is now. The final chapter discusses the celebrated revival of Swan Lake in 1985 by Petipa and Leve Ivanov.

This is a story of a young girl from a small town with a big dream that took her to Juilliard, Broadway, summer stock, the stage of the Metropolitan Opera and the Santa Fe Opera, and introduced her to her husband William Zeckendorf Jr. Her memoir overflows with the glamour of a life lived among the famous figures of mid-century New York society and the grit necessary to succeed in the professional world of dance. Fascinated by art and architecture, the vivacious ballerina Nancy Zeckendorf became a formidable development partner with her husband and a philanthropic leader in the performing arts - her fundraising ability is an art form unto itself. "I love hardware stores and tools," she said of her common-sense approach to construction projects. Indeed, Nancy was a guiding force in the expansion of the Santa Fe Opera, the Lensic Performing Arts Center, and the premier community of Los Miradores where she lives now in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

For the second catalogue of materials from the John Milton and Ruth Neils Ward Collection of the Harvard Theatre Collection, Professor John Milton Ward has selected over 2,100 items relating to Italian ballet from the seventeenth through the twentieth century. Italian Ballet, 1637-1977 includes published materials (printed scores, librettos, treatises on ballet) as well as hundreds of manuscript scores (many autograph), letters, contracts, choreographic notes, and costume and set designs. Like its predecessor The King's Theatre Collection, Italian Ballet, 1637-1977 was designed to be a useful scholarly resource, with descriptive citations for each ballet and detailed indexes for titles, choreographers, composers, and theaters. Arranged chronologically, Italian Ballet, 1637-1977 allows the researcher to follow the development of Italian ballet from unnamed comic dances performed between the acts of eighteenth-century opera to the large-scale nineteenth-century ballets choreographed by Antonio Pallerini and Luigi Manzotti. The catalogue is meant not only as a reference to the collection at Harvard, but also as an entryway for scholars to delve into this unexplored area of musicology and dance history.

The Feeling Balletbody introduces the innovative teaching concept BalletBodyLogic, the brainchild of teacher, dancer and choreographer Annemari Autere. Accompanied by charming illustrations by Raphaelle Zemella, The Feeling Balletbody reveals how dancers can effortlessly enhance their posture and movement by conscious use of the red muscle fibers and the internal movement of the connective tissue. Annemari also busts some of the biggest ballet myths, using science and her extensive experience as a professional dancer. Annemari Autere is a member of several professional groups, which include the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, Nordic Forum for Dance Research, World Dance Alliance, Conseil International de Danse, and the International Somatic Movement Education & Therapy Association. A former dancer at the Norwegian National Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet, Annemari Autere developed her method of BalletBodyLogic during her 15 years as an associate professor at the Arts Department of the University in Nice.

'Swan Dive is to ballet what Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential was to restaurants, a chance to go behind the serene front of house to the sweaty, foul-mouthed, psychofrenzy backstage.' Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times Award-winning New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin, aka the Rogue Ballerina, gives readers a backstage tour of the real world of elite ballet - the gritty, hilarious, sometimes shocking truth you don't see from the orchestra circle. In this love letter to the art of dance and the sport that has been her livelihood, NYCB's first Asian American female soloist Georgina Pazcoguin lays bare her unfiltered story of leaving small-town Pennsylvania for New York City and training amid the unique demands of being a hybrid professional athlete/artist, all before finishing high school. She pitches us into the fascinating, whirling shoes of dancers in one of the most revered ballet companies in the world with an unapologetic sense of humour about the cutthroat, survival-of-the-fittest mentality at NYCB. Some swan dives are literal: even in the ballet, there are plenty of face-plants, backstage fights, late-night parties, and raucous company bonding sessions. Rocked by scandal in the wake of the #MeToo movement, NYCB sits at an inflection point, inching toward progress in a strictly traditional culture, and Pazcoguin doesn't shy away from ballet's dark side. She continues to be one of the few dancers openly speaking up against the sexual harassment, mental abuse, and racism that in the past went unrecognized or was tacitly accepted as par for the course - all of which she has painfully experienced firsthand. Tying together Pazcoguin's fight for equality in the ballet with her infectious and deeply moving passion for her craft, Swan Dive is a page-turning, one-of-a-kind account that guarantees you'll never view a ballerina or a ballet the same way again.

Text in Danish with an introduction in German. The Lumbye-catalogue is a catalogue of printed ballet and dance compositions by the Danish composer H C Lumbye. It provides us with a chronological survey of his printed works including a detailed index. The works were performed by Tivoli's orchestra which he conducted from its establishment in 1843. Co-published by The Royal Library in Copenhagen and Museum Tusculanum Press.

In distinction to many extant histories of ballet, The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet prioritizes connections between ballet communities as it interweaves chapters by scholars, critics, choreographers, and working professional dancers. The book looks at the many ways ballet functions as a global practice in the 21st century, providing new perspectives on ballet's past, present, and future. As an effort to dismantle the linearity of academic canons, the fifty-three chapters within provide multiple entry points for readers to engage in balletic discourse. With an emphasis on composition and process alongside dances created, and the assertion that contemporary ballet is a definitive era, the book carves out space for critical inquiry. Many of the chapters consider whether or not ballet can reconcile its past and actually become present, while others see ballet as flexible and willing to be remolded at the hands of those with tools to do so.

This is the first authorized biography of four twentieth-century American Indian ballerinas: Marjorie Tallchief, Rosella Hightower, Marjorie Tallchief, and Yvonne Chouteau. Each grew up in Oklahoma during the 1920s and 1930s and went on to achieve international fame. Lili Cockerille Livingston, who worked with all four ballerinas during her own career as a dancer, draws upon her extensive interviews with the women to bring their stories to life while also shedding new light both on the development of New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and the now-defunct Harkness Ballet and Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas.

Maria Fay's third and final book covers the evolution of her approach to teaching character dance to classical ballet dancers. First written some years ago, but never published until now, it includes an entertaining narrative account, together with descriptions and analysis of exercises for seven different character dance styles: Hungarian Court, Polish, Hungarian Gypsy, Russian, Romanian, Georgian, and Hungarian Peasant. Her particular system has formed the foundation of classes taught in recent times at the Royal Ballet School by her former students Amanda Maxwell and Tania Fairbairn. This historical record of an important strand of work by the renowned Hungarian dancer, teacher, choreographer and coach will be of interest to the dance community worldwide.