The internationally acclaimed new book that takes you behind the scenes to reveal how ballet really happens: In a scuffed-up studio, a veteran dancer transmits the magic of an eighty-year-old ballet to a performer barely past drinking age. In a converted barn, an indomitable teacher creates ballerinas as she has for more than half a century. In a monastic mirrored room, dancers from as near as New Jersey and as far as Mongolia learn works as old as the nineteenth century and as new as this morning. Snowflakes "zooms in on an intimate view of one full season in the life of one of America's top ballet companies and schools: Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet. But it also tracks the Land of Ballet to venues as celebrated as New York and Monte Carlo and as seemingly ordinary as Bellingham, Washington and small-town Pennsylvania. Never before has a book taken readers backstage for such a wide-ranging view of the ballet world from the wildly diverse perspectives of dancers, choreographers, stagers, teachers, conductors, musicians, rehearsal pianists, lighting directors, costumers, stage managers, scenic artists, marketers, fundraisers, students, and even pointe shoe fitters--often in their own remarkably candid words. The book follows characters as colorful as they are talented. Versatile dancers from around the globe team up with novice choreographers and those as renowned as Susan Stroman, Christopher Wheeldon, and Twyla Tharp to create art on deadline. At the book's center is Peter Boal, a former New York City Ballet star in his third year as PNB's artistic director, as he manages conflicting constituencies with charm, tact, rationality and diplomacy. Readers look over Boal's shoulder as he makes tough decisions about programming, casting, scheduling and budgeting that eventually lead the calm, low-key leader to declare that in his job, "You have to be willing to be hated." "Snowflakes" shows how ballet is made, funded, and sold. It escorts you front and center to the kick zone of studio rehearsals. It takes you to the costume shop where elegant tutus and gowns are created from scratch. It brings you backstage to see sets and lighting come alive while stagehands get lovingly snarky and obscene on their headsets. It sits you down in meetings where budgets get slashed and dreams get funded--and axed. It shows you the inner workings of "Nutcracker, " from kids' charming auditions to no-nonsense marketing meetings, from snow bags in the flies to dancing snowflakes who curse salty flurries that land on their tongues. It follows the tempestuous assembly of a version of "Romeo and Juliet" that runs afoul of so much pressure, disease, injury, and blood that the dancers begin to call it cursed. "Snowflakes" uncovers the astounding way ballets, with no common form of written preservation, are handed down from generation to generation through the prodigious memories of brilliant athletes who also happen to be artists. It visits cattle-call auditions and rigorous classes, tells the stories of dancers whose parents sacrificed for them and dancers whose parents refused to. It meets the resolute woman who created a dance school more than fifty years ago in a Carlisle, Pennsylvania barn and grew it into one of America's most reliable ballerina factories. It shows ballet's appeal to kids from low-income neighborhoods and board members who live in mansions. Shattering longstanding die-for-your-art cliches, this book uncovers the real drama in the daily lives of fiercely dedicated artists in slippers and pointe shoes-and the musicians, stagehands, costumers, donors and administrators who support them. "Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet" brings readers the exciting truth of how ballet actually happens.

'Don't think, dear' said Balanchine. 'Just do.' For centuries, being a ballerina has been synonymous with being beautiful, thin, obedient and feminine. It is the crucible of womanhood, together with the harassment, physical abuse and eating disorders endemic at top schools. Can we abide this in a post #MeToo world? Weaving together her own time at America's most elite ballet school with the lives of renowned ballerinas throughout history, Alice Robb interrogates what it means to perform ballet today. She confronts the all-consuming nature of the form: the obsessive and dangerous practices to perfect the body, the embrace of submission and the idealisation of suffering. Yet ballet also gifts its dancers 'brains in their toes', a way to fully inhabit their bodies and a sanctuary of control away from the pressures of the outside world. Perhaps it is time to reimagine its liberating potential.

Drawn partly from the scattered remnants of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and partly from extraordinary new talent, Colonel W. de Basil's company of dancers kept alive the heritage of the Russian ballet for a period spanning virtually twenty years. De Basil's Ballets Russes, under various titles, and initially founded in association with Rene Blum, director of ballet at Monte Carlo, not only preserved the greatest of the Diaghilev ballets but mounted many new ones, among them major works by Balanchine, Fokine, Massine, Nijinska and Lichine -the company's one home-grown choreographer. It provided a brilliant showcase for great dancers such as Danilova, Woizikovsky and Massine, whose reputations were already made, and for many younger dancers including the remarkable 'baby ballerinas'. De Basil launched not only the original trio -Toumanova, Baronova and Riabouchinska - but a whole succession of teenage dancers of outstanding natural ability whose superb training had made of them finished artists of the highest quality well before their eighteenth birthdays. Among many other dancers whose careers were influenced by de Basil - a White Russian Cossack officer who emigrated to Paris in 1919 and whose gifts were entrepreneurial rather than artistic - were Tchernicheva, an ex-Diaghilev dancer whom he brought out of retirement to become a leading performer again in her maturity, and Kirsova, suddenly thrust into stardom by rapturous Australian audiences. The story of the de Basil ballet is one of glamour, mystery and the obsessive dedication without which no art form can achieve excellence. Its locations are many - Europe, the USA, Central and South America and Australasia were toured by the company, which appeared not only in the great capitals but in places where classical dance had rarely if ever been seen before. Travelling through the countryside, this multi-national troupe would climb out of their coach to hold class in a wayside field, using the wire fences as barres; and no matter what conditions they had to face backstage, on stage these dancers would create magic. Kathrine Sorley Walker's researches for this eminently readable book have taken her on a tour of duty hardly less exhausting than those of the de Basil company. The result is a riveting account of these little-documented years, by one of Britain's best dance historians and critics, that fills a conspicuous gap in the literature of the ballet.

First published in 1944, this classic book remains the definitive work on the masterpiece of the Romantic Ballet, Giselle. The book is in two parts, the first dealing with the original 1841 production, the second with technical and critical aspects of the ballet. Part I charts the evolution of the Romantic Ballet, and then gives a detailed description of the original production of Giselle, including a synopsis and accounts of the settings, costumes and creators of the original roles. Part II describes the stage action - the steps, gestures and the meanings they express - and analyses the interpretation of the roles. The book concludes with a survey of dancers who won fame for their performances as Giselle and as Albrecht.

Featuring an eight-page gallery of full-color illustrations, here is a major new biography of Serge Diaghilev, founder and impresario of the Ballets Russes, who revolutionized ballet by bringing together composers such as Stravinsky and Prokofiev, dancers and choreographers such as Nijinsky and Karsavina, Fokine and Balanchine, and artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Bakst, and Goncharova.
An accomplished, flamboyant impresario of all the arts, Diaghilev became a legendary figure. Growing up in a minor noble family in remote Perm, he would become a central figure in the artistic worlds of Paris, London, Berlin, and Madrid during the golden age of modern art. He lived through bankruptcy, war, revolution, and exile. Furthermore he lived openly as a homosexual and his liaisons, most famously with Nijinsky, and his turbulent friendships with Stravinsky, Coco Chanel, Prokofiev, and Jean Cocteau gave his life an exceptionally dramatic quality. Scheijen's magnificent biography, based on extensive research in little known archives, especially in Russia, brings fully to life a complex and powerful personality with boundless creative energy.
A New York Times Editor's Choice

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.

"Piano Adagios 1" is the companion songbook for Fariborz Lachini's CD of the same name. Lachini's compositional style is sometimes categorized as neo-romantic although he prefers to call it light classical. His music has a unique powerful emotional content that speaks to the listener without the words. Requiem for a Love Butterfly in Snow Unafraid Blossom New Beginnings Enigmatic Heart Crossing Unwritten Letter Sad Ballerina Flying Dream Dinner by Candlelight Blue Orchids Only Sound Remains Emerging from theClouds Across theWaves

ISMN: 979-0-706060-05-7 Corresponding MP3s: http: //www.amazon.com/Piano-Adagios-1/dp/B0043WK4VQ Single Sheet Music or complete eBook, compatible with Kindle/iPad/other eBook readers, in PDF format is available from artist's official website for download using your same amazon.com account: http: //www.lachini.com

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The Diaghilev Ballet existed from 1909 to 1929; and from its beginningto its end Serge Grigoriev acted as r gisseur-that is to say he was responsible for every aspect of the venture save its finance. In theearly 1950s he began reading back among the "logs" of the Ballet'smany seasons, and decided that he would write what no one elsecould write-the story of Diaghilev's extraordinary enterprise as seenby one of its major participants. His book offers a chronology of the Ballet's history, beginning withthe first preparations in St. Petersburg, through triumphs and setbacks in Paris, disaster in the United States, revolution in Portugal, tothe last phase when, cut off from Russia, the Ballet found an official home in Monte Carlo. Almost without exception, the leading European practitioners of music and painting came to collaborate with Diaghilev. Add the names of the dancers, and virtually all the famous figures in theartistic world of the period find a place in Grigoriev's record. Of Diaghilev himself-the strange genius behind this fabulous adventure, the creative artist who could only create in collaboration with dancer-choreographers-a vivid portrait emerges. He underwent every kind of fortune, good and bad, deserved andundeserved, finally refusing to regard himself as a sick man, gambling with death and losing his stake.

"Golden Autumn 4" is the fourth installment in composer/pianist Fariborz Lachini's celebrated series of piano albums called Golden Autumn that includes his original writings for solo piano, some of which were originated from the themes he created for film scores. This is the companion songbook for Fariborz Lachini's CD of the same name. 1. Whisper in the Wind 2. Raindrops 3. Forever Autumn 4. Moonlight Memories 5. Morning Dews 6. Lonely Leaf 7. As Dusk Falls 8. Bare Branches 9. Distant Dawn 10. Days Gone By 11. Words to Say 12. Sunlight Through the Mist 13. Reflections 14. A Leaf's Caress 15. Autumn Theme ISMN: 979-0-706060-03-3 Corresponding MP3s: http: //www.amazon.com/Golden-Autumn-4-Pieces-Piano/dp/B003XSXV66 Single Sheet Music or complete eBook, compatible with Kindle/iPad/other eBook readers, in PDF format is available from artist's official website for download using your amazon.com account: http: //www.lachini.com

"Golden Autumn 2" is the second installment in composer/pianist Fariborz Lachini's celebrated series of piano albums called Golden Autumn that includes his original writings for solo piano, some of which were originated from the themes he created for film scores. This is the companion songbook for Fariborz Lachini's CD with the same name. Dance of Leaves Memories of Autumn Whirlwind in Autumn Silence of Stars Loneliness Desire to Stay Childhood I Remember Staring in a Mirror Stranger Trail of Loneliness What Must Have Been Autumn Slumber Reincarnation Shadow

ISMN: 979-0-706060-01-9 Corresponding MP3s: http: //www.amazon.com/Golden-Autumn-2-Pieces-Piano/dp/B003XSZATW Single Sheet Music or complete downloadable eBook, compatible with Kindle/iPad/other eBook readers, in PDF format is available from artist's official website for download using your same amazon.com account: http: //www.lachini.com

"Golden Autumn 1" is the first installment in Iranian/Canadian composer/pianist Fariborz Lachini's celebrated series of piano albums called Golden Autumn that includes his original writings for solo piano, some of which were originated from the themes he created for film scores. It was first released right after the dark years of Iran/Iraq war. Crossing all barriers, the album quickly became the most popular album in Iran and made Lachini's a household name. Since then his solo piano books have been taught by music teachers in Iran. This is the companion songbook for Fariborz Lachini's CD with the same name. Autumn, Autumn, Autumn 'Twas a Soft Autumn (/Autumn Lightness) Autumn Was Lost in the Leaves In Autumn the Leaves Came to Our House 'Twas Uprising of the Leaves, 'Twas Autumn Perplexed, I Reached the Edge of Autumn Faces Lost in the Autumn Leaves In My Little Autumn, the Trees Had Only One Leaf In A Corner Of the Sky Were the Leaves of Autumn Confused, the Leaves Went to the Sea 'Twas the Morning of the Leaves, 'Twas Autumn You Were a Guest in Our House in Autumn The Autumn Leaves Went Towards Winter The End of Autumn Without Autumn

ISMN: 979-0-706060-00-2 Corresponding MP3s: http: //www.amazon.com/Golden-Autumn-1-Pieces-Piano Single Sheet Music or complete downloadable eBook, compatible with Kindle/iPad/other eBook readers, in PDF format is available from artist's official website for download using your same amazon.com account: http: //www.lachini.com

Insights and guidelines for teaching the best students "Not since Noverre and Fokine has a master teacher sought to clarify the present state of ballet. The goals John White sets for each level of training, the psychological philosophies he sets forth for teachers, the emphasis on a positive approach to teaching and forming relationships with students and parents can be read over and over again throughout a teacher's career."--Charles Flachs, Massachusetts Academy of Ballet "It has been an inestimable privilege to have worked with John White for more than ten years. This book, along with his first, provides an outstanding opportunity for generations of teachers to learn from him as well. Bravo "--Michele MacDonald, St. Louis Center of Creative Arts Staying true to the Russian Academy of Ballet (St. Petersburg) pedagogy he has taught for forty years, "Advanced Principles in Teaching Classical Ballet" is a continuation of the work John White began in his first book. Designed for teachers, company directors, and advanced dancers, the book explores the importance of disciplined dancing, choreography, acting, conditioning, and performance. White's writing style is as straightforward as he is unyielding in his insistence on excellence. White also confronts serious issues dealing with the future of classical ballet and what is needed to maintain its rightful place as an important theater art. He argues that theatergoers with high expectations deserve nothing less than masterful choreography performed by superior dancers. Decidedly not a primer, "Advanced Principles in Teaching Classical Ballet" is a must-read for anyone serious about teaching and performing ballet. John White, former soloist and ballet master of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba and interim ballet master of the Pennsylvania Ballet Company, is codirector of the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet.

In the current dance scene, performers contend with choreography that involves extreme dance, multiple techniques, and acrobatic moves, exemplified in the popular reality television show, "So You Think You Can Dance." The dilemma for aspiring professionals is that dance class no longer provides sufficient preparation for performing at this level. Dancers who want to achieve their best, avoid injury, and perform at their peak will welcome the insight and advice in the pages of "The Dancer's Way."

The world-renowned New York City Ballet developed their proven wellness program to help dancers reach their potential without compromising their health. As one of the key designers of this program, former dancer and clinical psychologist Linda Hamilton, Ph.D. provides the essential principles of wellness that will help you achieve your goals in all levels and forms of dance. These include keeping yourself physically healthy, nutritionally sound, and mentally prepared as a dancer. New York City Ballet's celebrated program, here for the first time in book form, highlights every tool you'll need to stay in great shape.

"Golden Autumn 3" is the third installment in composer/pianist Fariborz Lachini's celebrated series of piano albums called Golden Autumn that includes his original writings for solo piano, some of which were originated from the themes he created for film scores. This is the companion songbook for Fariborz Lachini's CD of the same name. Fall in Love Again Silver Winter A Thousand Leaves Forever in My Dreams Sepidar Autumn Whispers It's Snowing Leaves of Light Fragments of Autumn Blue Sky Autumn in My Heart Calling Out for You Signs of Rain On the Wind Autumn Eve

ISMN: 979-0-706060-02-6 Corresponding MP3s: http: //www.amazon.com/Golden-Autumn-3-Pieces-Piano/dp/B003YBM18G Single Sheet Music or complete eBook downloads, compatible with Kindle/iPad/other eBook readers, in PDF format is available from artist's official website for download using your same amazon.com account: http: //www.lachini.com

From adagio to voyage, over 800 steps, movements, poses, and concepts are fully defined. A pronunciation guide and cross-references to alternate names for similar steps and positions that vary from the Russian to the French or Italian schools are also invaluable aids.

The literature on Balanchine is vast, but it is primarily biographical. "Balanchine Variations "is the first book to concentrate on the ballets themselves, providing critical analysis and detailed descriptions of what the dancers actually do. Beginning with "Apollo" (1928), Balanchine's first extant work, and ending with one of his last ballets, "Ballo della Regina" (1978), Nancy Goldner offers detailed insights into more than twenty individual ballets. Based on lectures given across the United States, under the auspices of the Balanchine Foundation, they are intended to illuminate his art. Goldner discusses the history of each ballet, places each in the context of Balanchine's life and sensibility. She also addresses his taste in music and whether his style can be considered particularly American. The ballets Balanchine choreographed for the New York City Ballet are danced by companies around the world, and this innovative book is sure to become an indispensable guide to dancers and spectators alike.

Dance is a uniquely significant art form, whose primary material is not simply the 'body', but energy as it is used and experienced in movement. Energy is central to discourses of modernity and modernism, in which choreographers and dancers can actively intervene through their innovative uses of energy. Mary Wigman, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham are key choreographers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, whose rhythmic innovations challenged established norms of energy usage in their socio-cultural contexts, enabling their contemporaries to engage differently with dominant economies of energy. This book explores their rhythmic innovations by combining discussion of cultural contexts with close analysis of specific dance works. Uses of energy in dance are described and analysed with the aid of concepts drawn from Rudolf Laban's writings, and are theorized with reference to historical, social and cultural contexts and to phenomenological and post-structuralist approaches to the embodied subject, constructing the argument that choreographical innovation - including recent work using digital technologies - involves a process of 'kinesthetic imagination'.

The art of character dancing in classical ballet is now almost lost, but when this unique book was first published in Russia in 1939 it still thrived. The authors, all brilliant character dancers themselves, were teachers at the Kirov Ballet and its school, and were establishing a five-year course in character dance at the Kirov School. The first part of the book is devoted to class character exercises and the second part gives specific character dances in various national styles. "Character Dance" has been translated and adapted by Joan Lawson, a noted specialist in the subject, who herself studied in Leningrad in the 1930's and was for many years a teacher at he Royal Ballet School in London.

Originally published in 1899, this is a comprehensive study of the art of Dancing throughout history. It goes into great detail about dancing through the ages, including musical notation, right up to the start of the 1900s. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include - The Natural and Origin of Dancing - Dancing in Ancient Egypt - Dances of the Greeks - Dancing in Ancient Rome - Religious, Mysterious, and Fanatical Elements in Dancing - Remarkable Dancing of Later Times - The Minuet - Modern Dancing

Newly edited and engraved. The composer considered an orchestral suite from his great ballet, but never got around to extracting it. An unknown editor compiled the first version, which was issued by Jurgenson in 1900. The Soviet state publishers produced their own version in 1954, adding 3 dance movements and omitting the finale from the original suite. This new score includes all the movements found in the two different versions of the suite.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

A lively discussion of North America's favorite ballet-its history, productions, and significance The Nutcracker is the most popular ballet in the world, adopted and adapted by hundreds of communities across the United States and Canada every Christmas season. In this entertainingly informative book, Jennifer Fisher offers new insights into the Nutcracker phenomenon, examining it as a dance scholar and critic, a former participant, an observer of popular culture, and an interviewer of those who dance, present, and watch the beloved ballet. Fisher traces The Nutcracker's historyfrom its St. Petersburg premiere in 1892 through its emigration to North America in the mid-twentieth century to the many productions of recent years. She notes that after it was choreographed by another Russian immigrant to the New World, George Balanchine, the ballet began to thrive and variegate: Hawaiians added hula, Canadians added hockey, Mark Morris set it in the swinging sixties, and Donald Byrd placed it in Harlem. The dance world underestimates The Nutcracker atits peril, Fisher suggests, because the ballet is one of its most powerfully resonant traditions. After starting life as a Russian ballet based on a German tale about a little girl's imagination, The Nutcracker hasbecome a way for Americans to tell a story about their communal values and themselves.