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- Merce Cunningham:Fifty Years
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Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years
David Vaughan , and
Merce Cunningham
Manufacturer: Aperture
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Merce Cunningham - A Lifetime of Dance
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ASIN: 0893816248
Release Date: 2005-06-15 |
Amazon.com
Unlike so many biographies of dance maestros, Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years offers no litany of substance or psychological abuse. The volume, assembled by the archivist of Merce Cunningham's world-renowned U.S. company, records and analyzes Cunningham's work process and documents the provenance of his modern dance classics. Heavily spiced with biographical detail, Merce Cunningham packages the choreographer's life story in a lovely design that respects his whole body and conveys a rare sense of movement in its mass of still photos.
Book Description
Merce Cunningham celebrates the career of one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, from his first innovative and explosive solo dances to the present. This unique book incorporates images of performances by many world-renowned photographers, including Imogen Cunningham, Barbara Morgan, Annie Leibovitz, Peter Hujar, and Arnold Eagle.
Customer Reviews:
Merce Cunningham:Fifty Years.......2000-08-02
An excellent resource. Insightful. Beautiful pictures. Highly recommend for folks in dance education, collaborative artists, school teachers, dancers, and children.
Book Description
The long-awaited memoir from one of the most celebrated modern dancers of the past fifty years: the story of her own remarkable career, of the formative years of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and of the two brilliant, iconoclastic, and forward-thinking artists at its center—Merce Cunningham and John Cage.
From its inception in the l950s until her departure in the l970s, Carolyn Brown was a major dancer in the Cunningham company and part of the vibrant artistic community of downtown New York City out of which it grew. She writes about embarking on her career with Cunningham at a time when he was a
celebrated performer but a virtually unknown choreographer. She describes the heady exhilaration—and dire financial straits—of the company’s early days, when composer Cage was musical director and Robert Rauschenberg designed lighting, sets and costumes; and of the struggle for acceptance of their controversial, avant-garde dance. With unique insight, she explores Cunningham’s technique, choreography, and experimentation with compositional procedures influenced by Cage. And she probes the personalities of these two men: the reticent, moody, often secretive Cunningham, and the effusive, fun-loving, enthusiastic Cage.
Chance and Circumstance is an intimate chronicle of a crucial era in modern dance, and a revelation of the intersection of the worlds of art, music, dance, and theater that is Merce Cunningham’s extraordinary hallmark.
Customer Reviews:
A brilliant insider's view of Cunningham and Cage.......2007-08-12
Merce Cunningham and John Cage are two of the most significant figures in dance and music in the second half of the 20th century. Cage, who is aruguably the most influential artist of the second half of the century, has been much written about, and was himself a prolific author. Cunningham has also published influential books, and the two have been the subject of numerous documentaries. But not until now has there been an insider's view of what it was like to be an intimate part of the Cage-Cunningham inner circle, a world that included artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, composers Earl Brown, Morton Feldman, and David Tudor, and many others. Brown has written an honest, sincere account of what life was like touring the US in a VW bus with Cage at the wheel, stopping for picnics along the way. Moreover, while Brown clearly adores both Cage and Cunningham, she doesn't hesitate to provide occasionally hair-raising accounts of things said and done by these two artists that seem incongruous with the myths built up around them. In that regard, Brown renders them human in a way I have never previosuly encountered. Reading that Cage, while in his cups one night, held forth on how turned on he was by Merce, should finally set the record straight (pardon the pun) about Cage's sexuality. The book is a treasury of great anecdotes about Brown's life on the road with an astonishing group of artists, and I felt privileged to have been privy to the journey. It is also a savvy analysis of Cunningham's choreography from the perspective of someone who actually danced it. This book should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in understanding the lives and work of Cage and Cunningham.
A Major Document.......2007-06-27
The wonderful thing about this book is that it gives a very close-up view of the Cage/Cunningham world, especially in the early years of the Cunningham Dance Company. It also presents the two major figures, John Cage and Merce Cunningham, in a critical light. We see them both as the towering creative forces that the outer world knows, as well as the difficult, moody, and complicated people they really are, or were.
The book is exhausting in the way it reveals Brown's life as a dancer, and the tensions and struggles of the Company. Perhaps it could be a few pages shorter, but (in the first half of the book) the insights into the world of modern dance in general, and the NY avant-garde in the 1950's and 60's in particular is fascinating and valuable.
It's also a good example of why people should keep detailed journals.
If only this had been published 30 years ago.......2007-05-13
This book is an excellent opportunity to examine Merce Cunningham's work. Carolyn Brown was probably his favorite dancer. She was intimately connected to Merce and John Cage. Many will come away with a more real understanding of what "chance" means to this work. This is very much a dancer's view of things. I only wonder why it took her thirty-five years to write this book. She confesses to the book deal being offered and signed almost as soon as she retired. There are telling comments on State support of the arts and on unions.
revisiting merce with CB.......2007-05-08
As a former student and long time friend of Ms. Brown and Merce Cunningham, I was moved and delighted to revisit the struggles, perseverance and creativity that went into daily life during the years Ms. Brown spent in the Cunningham Company and to understand, from her viewpoint, the inner workings of Merce's choreographic process. I learned so much and appreciate the knowledge, skill and levels of artistry, friendship and as well as travail that made those years so vital. Thanks, CB
Book Description
From the author of the acclaimed Everybody Was So Young, the definitive and major biography of the great choreographer and Broadway legend Jerome Robbins
To some, Jerome Robbins was a demanding perfectionist, a driven taskmaster, a theatrical visionary; to others, he was a loyal friend, a supportive mentor, a generous and entertaining companion and colleague. Born Jerome Rabinowitz in New York City in 1918, Jerome Robbins repudiated his Jewish roots along with his name only to reclaim them with his triumphant staging of Fiddler on the Roof. A self-proclaimed homosexual, he had romances or relationships with both men and women, some famous—like Montgomery Clift and Natalie Wood—some less so. A resolutely unpolitical man, he was forced to testify before Congress at the height of anti-Communist hysteria. A consummate entertainer, he could be paralyzed by shyness; nearly infallible professionally, he was conflicted, vulnerable, and torn by self-doubt. Guarded and adamantly private, he was an inveterate and painfully honest journal writer who confided his innermost thoughts and aspirations to a remarkable series of diaries and memoirs. With ballets like Dances at a Gathering, Afternoon of a Faun, and The Concert, he humanized neoclassical dance; with musicals like On the Town, Gypsy, and West Side Story, he changed the face of theater in America.
In the pages of this definitive biography, Amanda Vaill takes full measure of the complicated, contradictory genius who was Jerome Robbins. She re-creates his childhood as the only son of Russian Jewish immigrants; his apprenticeship as a dancer and Broadway chorus gypsy; his explosion into prominence at the age of twenty-five with the ballet Fancy Free and its Broadway incarnation, On the Town; and his years of creative dominance in both theater and dance. She brings to life his colleagues and friends—from Leonard Bernstein and George Balanchine to Robert Wilson and Robert Graves—and his loves and lovers. And she tells the full story behind some of Robbins’s most difficult episodes, such as his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee and his firing from the film version of West Side Story.
Drawing on thousands of pages of documents from Robbins’s personal and professional papers, to which she was granted unfettered access, as well as on other archives and hundreds of interviews, Somewhere is a riveting narrative of a life lived onstage, offstage, and backstage. It is also an accomplished work of criticism and social history that chronicles one man’s phenomenal career and places it squarely in the cultural ferment of a time when New York City was truly “a helluva town.”
Customer Reviews:
Everything you always wanted to know and more and more.......2007-06-12
I picked this book up out of curiousity. Jerome Robbins was legendary aong those who enjoyed Broadway musical theater. His best known acheivement was probably "West Side Story". In any event, I figured a bit of time spent learning about Robbins' life would be interesting.
Well, yes it was - and it was also a bit of a slog.
Amanda Vail has produced a hagiography of Robbins. Considering that Robbins never did anything really, really, really nasty, that is no sin. However, it is a reflection of Robbins' narcissism that Vail had such massive archives to draw from. 539 pages of biography, followed by just less than 100 pages of notes and bibliography. No one can accuse Vail of inadequate research.
The result is a mind-numbing recitation of what seems to be every day in the life of Jerome Robbins from birth to death. It isn't boring, but it won't be stimulating either unless you really, really are a Robbins fan who just can't get enough.
For me, the reward wasn't in learning far more than I wanted to know about Robbins' sex life, but about his contributions to the development of American dance. Robbins truly was a genius and while perhaps overly detailed, this is the kind of thorough biography Jerome Robbins deserves.
Jerry
Broadway Equals Robbins.......2007-03-14
If Jerome Robbins had only directed "West Side Story" that would have been enough to establish his legend on Broadway...if you read this wonderful biography by the very skillful Amanda Vaill you will discover that almost every production from the Golden Era of Broadway had the Robbins touch. Mr Robbin was also a member of the American Ballet Theatre and created many celebrated dance pieces. A complex individual, at times; a son of a bitch, he always got the best from his performers and his collaborators. West Side Story, High Button Shoes, Peter Pan, Gypsy, Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, The King and I, Fiddler=Robbins
Dance Review.......2007-02-17
My dance teacher raved about this book in class and so I had to buy it. I haven't read it all but it shows valuable insights into Mr. Robbins. Although he was a difficult person, he was a genius, as my dance teacher said, and so he was and he made dance so much bigger and better for us all.
An Insightful Look at the Legendary Choreographer Soars Highest in Vaill's Professional Portrait.......2007-01-03
The mercurial brilliance and personal shortcomings of choreographer extraordinaire Jerome Robbins are captured with equal amounts of compassion and objectivity in Amanda Vaill's comprehensive biography. His impressive resume represents some of the most arresting work in dance and theater - "On the Town", "High Button Shoes", "Call Me Madam", "Gypsy", "Wonderful Town", "Bells Are Ringing", "The King and I", "Peter Pan", "The Pajama Game", "Funny Girl", "Fiddler on the Roof", "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". Robbins' most famous work is the stage and screen versions of "West Side Story", his legendary collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein and then-prodigious lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Yet for all these accomplishments, he was reviled as much as he was revered. Stellar results notwithstanding, his vaunted perfectionism and Method-style approach were taxing to many, and it would often come under the guise of brutality and verbal abuse. Although Vaill's book is the third Robbins biography to be released in the last five years, hers reflects access to the subject's personal diaries before his death at age eighty in 1998, which lends the book a voice that one could easily imagine approximates Robbins' own.
The author dives deeply into Robbins' childhood to seek answers to his personal dichotomy, and she pieces together a vivid if somewhat pat portrait of self-loathing. Robbins' mother comes across as a vindictive woman who used her deep-rooted insecurity as a lightning rod for attention, while his father seems weak-willed and foolish. The combination of their personalities already reinforces Robbins' incurable sense of self-doubt due to his shame over being both Jewish and gay. His resulting bisexuality gave way to a string of lovers of both sexes, though his most intense and enduring relationships were with men including a two-year affair with a young Montgomery Clift. Ironically, he was able to translate these passions into some of the most beautiful male-female duets in musical theater. It is in Robbins' professional triumphs and failures where Vaill's book soars highest. She meticulously documents the process of creating his ballet works, in particular, 1944's "Fancy Free" (the basis for "On the Town") and 1969's "Dances at a Gathering", and how George Balanchine acted as both supportive mentor and demonic taskmaster. Obviously, Robbins applied Balanchine's split-personality approach to his own work when he drove performers, whether chorus dancers or ego-driven divas, to tears with his exacting demands.
In spite of his self-assurance in staging and choreographing specific scenes, he would remain steadfast in experimenting with endless versions of the same moment no matter how long it took to satisfy his vision. Feeding into the already rampant insecurities of his cast, Robbins would often have two or more people learn the same part and urge one to shadow the other as he did his solo. In rehearsing the Broadway version of "West Side Story", he would instigate gossip in order to raise the ire of the dancers playing the gang members. Such alienating, frequently self-serving techniques came at a price, for instance, he was fired from the film version of `West Side Story" in mid-production due to his insensitivity to the resulting budget overruns. The darkest moments of his life are almost a carbon copy of filmmaker Elia Kazan's, as they revolve around his guilt over his 1953 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee and the seven people he named who apparently recruited him for the Communist Party. Vaill is insightful enough not to judge Robbins for this infamous act, especially ironic given the value he placed on loyalty throughout his career. Her extensive portrait of Robbins should satisfy not only those fascinated by his legendary life and career but also those interested in knowing one of the most profound influences on musical theater and ballet in the second half of the 20th century.
Book Description
Praise for Qiu Xiaolong:
"A sequel [to Death of a Red Heroine] that in many ways is even more impressive. . . . [Qiu] has moved from the poetic, exotic milieu of his first book (although plenty of elements remain) into a tougher, wider, probably more commercial and modern version of China as seen by America."-Chicago Tribune
"Another wonderful novel featuring Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police Bureau . . . [for] Sinophiles like myself, who fantasize about taking an insider's tour of Shanghai."-Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
"The travelogue aspects of the novel don't overwhelm it's critical intelligence. As in all hard-boiled [mysteries], the murder and mayhem provide a cover story for a larger investigation of social mysteries."-Chicago Sun-Times
Inspector Chen's mentor in the Shanghai Police Bureau has assigned him to escort U.S. Marshal Catherine Rohn. Her mission is to bring Wen, the wife of a witness in an important criminal trial, to the United States. Inspector Rohn is already en route when Chen learns that Wen has unaccountably vanished from her village in Fujian. Or is this just what he is supposed to believe? Chen resents his role; he would rather investigate the triad killing in Shanghai's beauteous Bund Park. But his boss insists that saving face with Inspector Rohn has priority. So Chen Cao, the ambitious son of a father who imbued him with Confucian precepts, must tread warily as he tries once again to be a good cop, a good man, and also a loyal Party member.
Qiu Xiaolong, a prize-winning poet and critic in China, now teaches at Washington University in St. Louis, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
Customer Reviews:
Crime Beat Street Blog Review.......2007-09-12
I was really looking forward to the second installment in the Inspector Chen series but was quite disappointed in this book. Detective Yu, a primary character in the first novel, barely made an appearance in this one, instead too much time is devoted to the character Detective Rohn, an American working for the U.S. Marshall's office. Frankly she just isn't that interesting, she seems like a caricature of an American woman, blond, pretty, not all that smart save for an occasional comment here and there, and worst of all close minded. I didn't really get into the "what could have been" romantic suggestion the author made about her and Chen, she was too condescedning towards the Chinese, I didn't think Chen, despite his own struggles within the political system, would really find her appealing.
I also felt Qiu Xiaolong relied too heavily on plot devices he used in Death of Red Heroine, which were fabulous the first time but formulaic here. It seemed like Inspector Chen doesn't really work at all, he just ponders things until he makes a connection. That is part of detective work, but not the whole bit. Also, Chen summarizing the wrap up at the end of the novel was dull, I wanted to read about the things he discovered as he was discovering them, not later in summary. How is the reader supposed to feel like part of the story otherwise?
Despite all these criticisms there were some great moments in the book, and I hope I never have to drink snake's blood to show my gratitude to anyone!
Poetry, food, and culture.......2006-12-21
The book contains all the ingredients that make a mystery good -- a puzzling crime, dialogs between characters whose implications are left for the reader to extract, and a plausible conclusion. However it was not for these elements alone that I enjoyed the book. In fact I had picked up the volume after hearing a review for it on NPR (National Public Radio). It was reported in that review that the book depicted the going-on in current China, in particular Shanghai very well. I found the statement to be well grounded.
The fabrics of the city are of course delivered through the book's protagonist, chief inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai police bureau. He is an intelligent 30-ish man of integrity who enjoys poetry and food. Because of his interest in poetry, readers are exposed to fragments of Chinese poetry throughout (for every 5 pages or so appears a fragment). His predilection towards food brings readers to the nooks and corners of Shanghai for gourmet Chinese food and specialties. The process of solving the case reveals snapshots of the society -- how guanxi (loosely translated as relationships or connections) dominates every aspect in life, how no one is ever free from politics (Chen Cao often times withholds information even from his own boss for political considerations), how rapid economic growth is accompanied by the growth of the triads, how Mao's cultural revolution is still affecting peoples' lives, etc. Cultural differences between US and China is also highlighted through the character US Marshal Catherine Rohn, who is Chen's US counterpart in solving the illegal immigration case and serves as his love interest in this episode (another cultural aspect -- Chen gets monitored by Internal Security for his interest in Catherine).
Except for the slight slackening of pace towards the end I enjoyed the novel very much. This was my first episode in Inspector Chen series. Immediately after finishing this book I placed an order for an older episode featuring Chen.
Disappointing.......2006-06-06
I'd heard good things about Qiu's first book, Death of a Red Heroine, but was only able to get my hands on his second book, ALCD. I picked it up eagerly, not because I like mystery fiction generally, but I am interested in the political and cultural environment of China. I was surprised to find the book a bit dull. I liked the detailed descriptions about life in china, but I found the characters not particularly interesting and the story kind of pedestrian. Moreover, I found the attraction between Chen and Rohn very grating, but that's prob because I hate romantic stuff in non-romance books. Seemed very hollywood to me. In fact, wouldn't be at all surprised if the book was made into a movie. Anyway, I would still recommend reading the book because it does paint a very interesting portrait of life in china and it's always a good thing to support authors there. If you are interested in reading more chinese authors, check out Mo Yan. Cheers.
More case and less political atmosphere .......2005-05-28
Having thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, Death of a Red Heroine, I jumped right into reading the sequel. This second visit with Chief Inspector Chen and his loyal deputy Yu is fun and the case even more interesting than that in the Red Heroine as it involves gangs and illegal immigration from China to the United States. But what I really liked in Red Heroine was the interesting group of characters, the descriptions of life and political atmosphere of 1990 Shanghai. Nothing in Character Dancer add to the first book in this area as it is not fresh and the group of characters are given minor rolls. New twist is that Inspector Chen must work with a United States Marshal, a woman named Catherine Rohn. This I suspect was a plot devise to give some dialog to the management of U.S. / China relations. The problem here is that the Rohn character is so underwritten she becomes more of wooden prop to hold up the narrative. And lastly, I am not a big fan of mysteries that end which several pages of the brilliant inspector explaining all that happened and perhaps why. All that said if you liked the character of Inspector Chen and a book more aimed at the case than the character I think you will get some entertainment value. I do plan to read the next book in the series and hope it returns to the roots of Red Heroine.
Don't read this writer for the mystery alone!.......2005-01-06
Once again Qiu Xiaolong offers a fantastic mystery. What amazed me in his first novel was the cultural depth, so to speak, the feeling I had at the end of the novel that I had learned more about modern China than I would have, had I watched a documentary or assisted a one-semester course at the local university. I had the same sensation this time, even though some of the minor details were already known. Inspector Chen is a very believable character caught like so many of us between a profession [police officer] and an avocation [poet] which at first appear mutually exclusive. The true revelation comes when we discover how his knowledge of poetry helps him in his investigations. This characteristic of his, the love of poetry, also makes Chen - at least to my eyes -- more Chinese, for crafty, more sensitive than many men and certainly than most detectives, reminescent only of Inspector Morse, in his beloved Cambridge.
I agree with the previous reviewer than some of the more literary passages, tangential subjects, and cultural observations appear to have been shaved off in this second book, probably through the hands of some know-it-all editor who believes that a thick book with plenty of literary allusions might bore or be too much of a challenge to the ninth-grade level reading he imagines his readers to possess.
But in the end, the cuts, if there were some, did not take away from the overall charm of the book, of Inspector Chen and of China.
I intend to read his next book and I strongly recommend the reading of this one; both for the mystery as well as for the information on a changing China.
Book Description
The story of a remarkable woman's rise out of the foster-care system to attain the American dream—and of the unlikely series of women who lifted her up in marvelous and distinctive ways
Born as a ward of the state of Maine—the child of an unmarried Yankee blueblood mother and an unknown black father—Victoria Rowell beat the odds. Unlike so many other children who fall through the cracks of our overburdened foster-care system, her experience was nothing short of miraculous, thanks to several extraordinary women who stepped forward to love, nurture, guide, teach, and challenge her to become the accomplished actress, philanthropist, and mother that she is today.
Rowell spent her first weeks of life as a boarder infant before being placed with a Caucasian foster family. Although her stay lasted for only two years, at this critical stage Rowell was given a foundation of love by the first of what would be an amazing array of women, each of whom presented herself for different purposes at every dramatic turn of Rowell's life.
In this deeply touching memoir, Rowell pays tribute to her personal champions: the mothers, grandmothers, aunts, mentors, teachers, and sisters who each have fascinating stories to tell. Among them are Agatha Armstead, Rowell's longest-term foster mother, a black Bostonian on whose rural Maine farm Rowell's fire to reach for greatness was lit; Esther Brooks, a Paris-trained prima ballerina, Rowell's first mentor at the Cambridge School of Ballet; Rosa Turner, a Boston inner-city fosterer who taught Rowell lessons of independence; Sylvia Silverman, a mother and teacher whose home in a well-kept middle-class suburban neighborhood prepared Rowell for her transition out of foster care and into New York City's wild worlds of ballet and acting and adulthood.
In spite of support from individuals and agencies, Rowell nonetheless carried the burden of loneliness and anxiety, common to most foster children, particularly those "orphans of the living" who are never adopted. Heroically overcoming those obstacles, Rowell also reaches a moment when she can embrace her biological mother, Dorothy, and, most important, accept herself.
Ultimately, The Women Who Raised Me is a story that belongs to each of us as it shines a glowing light on the transformational power of mentoring, love, art, and womanhood.
Customer Reviews:
Review.......2007-09-07
This was a well written book. The author gives a heartfelt account of her life in foster care. She begins her story as a small child in rural Maine and concludes as an adult actress in Hollywood. This is a great book that deals with foster care, mental illness, achievements, and adversity in a young woman's life.
Wanted more of an autobiography.......2007-08-16
I know the title says the women who raised me, but I really wanted to read more about how she got into acting, what it was like to be on the young and the restless and work with dick van dyke. She spends many chapters about her ballet years, but doesnt mention what it was like to get into tv acting, which is really her career, not ballet. She is known for being a TV star. She did a great deal of research into her families/friends - I think too much. I had to skip many many pages because it got boring. She mentions her marriage, but never talks about getting divorced. I never knew if she married Wynton or not, had to look it up on the net. She doesn't get into her relationships with men much or her children. I got the impression Wynton was raising her son? but who knows. She seems very multi talented though and it was great that she put so much time into writing a book in addition to her other charities/career.
Intriguing,surprising insights about foucs & tenacity.......2007-08-10
This is an exceptionally touching journey through the life of a foster child that was exposed to a number of phenomenal women.
All their lives were woven together beautifully by the author [Rowell]and revealed that despite backgrounds that were so different, these women all exhibited determined, giving spirits through their own talents.
A must read!!
The Women Who Raised Me.......2007-07-28
A very touching story , well written and informative. So sad at times. I loved that there were pictures of these incredible women to put faces on the heroes! Inspiring too, that with love and guidance, our children can thrive in difficult life situations.
As a grandmother to a mixed race child, very distubing also, that we still have so far to go in the US.
A wonderful book.......2007-07-01
I could not put down Ms. Rowell's life journey. I knew very little about her, only that she was an actress in a soap opera. She is an incredibly strong woman. I have great admiration for her. She could so easily have turned her back on her painful past and distanced herself from orphans; but she chose not to. She embraces her birth mother and all who assisted her.
Book Description
Combining how-to information with voices of working artists, Poor Dancer's Almanac is an essential resource tool and source of inspiration for all independent artistsâchoreographers, performance artists, dancers producers, managers. Created in 1975 and revised again in 1984 this handbook has come to serve as one of the most crucial references for the arts community. In the most up-to-date and comprehensive edition yet, a broad range of issues affecting performers and producers is addressed, interwoven with newly added, more personal contributions from major figures in the performance world.
Organized and compiled by Dance Theater Workshop in New York and authored by more than fifty leading professionals in the field, Poor Dancer's Almanac offers in-depth discussions of everything from personal livelihood to professional career development, from medical care, housing, and unemployment insurance to management, touring, and legal issues. Each chapter is followed by an appendix containing extensive and varied listings, giving names and addresses for finding internship programs, videotaping, flooring, grant-writing, and reference publications. Although centered on New York the Almanac includes lists of resources and contacts for many other statesâCalifornia, Washington D.C, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, and Ohio. An entirely new section has been added dealing with health issues and the crisis of AIDS.
In personal anecdotes and essays various performers offer their own insights and storiesâboth of struggles and of successesâto bring to life the practical realities of working in the arts. We hear from Merce Cunningham, Eric Bogosian, Karen Finley, Paul Zaloom, and Bill T. Jones, among others. Illustrated with original drawings by Janie Geiser, this thoroughly revised and updated edition of the Poor Dancer's Almanac will continue to serve as one of the leading sources for those concerned with managing life and work in the performing arts.
Selected contents
The Financial Realities of Performance Art
From Studio to Stage
Promoting Your Performance
What is Management?
Budgeting
Funding
AIDS Explained
Action Medical Insurance for the Arts
Psychological Issues for the Dancer
Customer Reviews:
A very good resource for dancers.......1999-09-08
This book should be required reading for aspiring dancers, particularly those who lack the administrative know-how to manage money, funding, etcetera. It teaches you everything they neglected to tell you in dance class. Makes a great gift!
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.
Customer Reviews:
Great for non-dancers as well!.......2007-07-16
This book helped be understand WHAT kind of exercise I needed to do in order to lose body FAT. I'm not in the "overweight" category, so books that tell you to "just take a walk" or "take the stairs instead of the elevator" aren't the most useful (I already do those things).
I'm not a dancer but I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to go down ONE size, and doesn't need to go down 3 or 4.
Mmmh!.......2006-03-20
It is a little confuse for young adults, specially if they are not familiar with measurement :-(
Diet for Dancers.......2005-12-24
Awesome book for any type of Dancer!
Good information for everyone, not just dancers........2005-12-12
This book was an unexpected present from someone who saw I was putting on a belly :o)
It's a good read, even for non dancers like me. A lot of statistical information is provided about dancers, mainly to give a picture of what their common eating mistakes are. While this wasn't very useful to me, I could just skip it and still understand the rest of the book.
It covers three areas:
1. an introduction to nutrition
2. the biology of weight
3. the transfer diet, a diet developped for diabetics
The first two parts are very interesting and a worthwhile read for anyone. The knowledge you gain about nutrition will be useful no matter who you are. The third is sound advice, it is a diet where you can set your target amount of daily calories, while ensuring that you eat from every important nutrient group and therefor stay healthy. HOWEVER, if all you are looking for is information about the transfer diet, you can find free info on the net (try the american diabetics association, for instance).
Sound Advice.... Really!!.......2004-04-12
I bought this book wondering what I would find. Too many of the reviews here would like to make this book out to be a guide to starving oneself thin. The book is very complex, offering the physiology of how food breaks down in the body, how starvation and very low calorie consumption adversely effects the body, and how to calculate proper caloric intake based on weight and activity level. The recommened diet is the Exchange Program, that would be the American Diabetic Assoc. diet. The very same one physicians instruct persons with type 2 diabetes to use. This diet ensures that you eat a variety of foods (starches, meat, veggies, fruits, milk/dairy, and fat) and do not have to directly count calories. This is not a quick weight-loss plan, in fact the book testifies to the fact that this is a slow proccess. I couldn't find anything in this book that recommended unhealthy practices to lose weight.
Bottom Line:This diet WILL work and is not encouraging dangerous behavior in dancers or everyday folks!
Book Description
"I think it is the most eloquent of female dances, with its haunting lyricism, its fire, its endlessly shifting kaleidoscope of sensual movement."
With these words, Wendy Buonaventura explains her own fascination with Arabic dance. Her book is a unique celebration of the female dancers of the Arab world, and their impact on the West. She explains the origins of this ancient art, which has survived in the face of commercialism, religious disapproval and changing times.
Focusing on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, she shows how Arabic dance came to be influenced by Western ideas about art and entertainment. But the influence was two-way. In the heyday of "Orientalism," Arabic dance exerted a powerful influence on the Western imagination-on such writers as Flaubert, such artists as David Roberts and Jean-Leon Gerome, and such imitators as Colette and Mata Hari. Their fascination was often based on common fantasies about the women of the Middle East. Yet, as the book's sumptuous illustrations show, this obsession also produced wonderfully evocative images. At the turn of the century, the genre also had an impact on fashion, theater and popular entertainment.
Customer Reviews:
For the Bellydance Afficionado.......2002-11-17
Lots of colour pictures ... past & present ...including old paintings, quotes & accounts of the people who actually watched belly dancing...& then tried to describe it!
For those just starting out to find out about Bellydancing & such enthusiasts,there are some pictures of famous older dancers, past & present .. Samya Gamal, Fifi Abdou & Sohair Zaki.
More like a collection of cameos than a real in-depth exploration of the Art Form, or Elucidation of the styles & Expression... but it IS a good coffee-table book & nice, informative read .
FOr the Pictures, if Nothing Else.......2002-07-04
I can't speak to the accuracy of Wendy Buonaventura's history of belly dancing, though I found no evidence of the most controversial complaint, that she fails to note the role of European Orientalists in fabricating our notions of Middle-Eastern dance. In fact, she discusses this very thing at length.
The treasure in the book is the collection of paintings. Where else can you see Dinet's gorgeous watercolors? I had never even heard of him. Are the pictures accurate? I suspect they are. Are they representative? Of course not. Like Gauguin in Tahiti, the Orientalists saw what they wanted to see.
Inspirational, but Flawed.......2001-07-26
Wendy Buonaventura obviously loves raks baladi ("country" or folkloric belly dance) with a passion. As sometimes happens with authors passionate about a subject, she unfortunately treats her opinions as facts upon occasion. As a dancer, I love the glorious Orientalist pictures, early 20th-century photos and fascinatingly slanted accounts from Western travellers, and I love her feelings for the dance. It's a beautiful book to peruse, and you can get some marvelous ideas for theatrical costuming from it. But like the Orientalists she reviews, Buonaventura presents an exotic and monolithic Middle East, where Egypt represents this entire diverse region and where nothing changes over time. She also perpetuates the popular myth that this is a *women's* dance, whereas in truth both sexes dance at private functions, and in both Egypt and Turkey, men historically performed as well. (Western tourists just weren't interested!) Read this for its lovely artwork and, if you're a dancer, for a feel-good spiritual connection with earlier dancers--but if you're interested in the subject of dance history, do some further research. And if you are involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism, PLEASE don't use this book for costume documentation. Egyptian clothing pre-1600 was very, very different.
great pictures but..........2000-08-29
The quality and quantity of pictures in this book is wonderful and there is also some good information but unfortunately all the information is not very accurate and there are even many things that are not true. As a book this is nice to watch but as this book has become "a bible of belly dance" when other more accurate documents have been hard to find I can't rate this higher because readers tend to believe everything that is written here.
Or, Belly Dancing for Dummies! A Good Resource and Accessory.......2000-07-26
"Serpent of the Nile" is a wonderful book for anyone with an interest in Middle Eastern Dance, which is currently gaining tremendous popularity in the West. The author traces the art of 'Beladi,' what we now refer to as 'belly-dancing' from its origin to how it has changed over time. There is a lot of very interesting information in here, written concisely and accessibly, even for those of us who are not overly concerned with history; such as the need for male dancers to entertain the public when women were forbidden to do so, how the patriarchal nature of Arabic society affected Beladi, and how the Westerners exoticised and perhaps even corrupted the original form of dance. But the beauty of this book lies in its stunning pictures, a treat for the eyes! Photographs of sculptures, paintings and engravings of dancers and musicians fill the pages and make it an ideal coffee table book. A wonderful resource.
Book Description
A New Classic for Today's Dancer
The Ballet Companion is a fresh, comprehensive, and thoroughly up-to-date reference book for the dancer. With 150 stunning photographs of ballet stars Maria Riccetto and Benjamin Millepied demonstrating perfect execution of positions and steps, this elegant volume brims with everything today's dance student needs, including:
- Practical advice for getting started, such as selecting a school, making the most of class, and studio etiquette
- Explanations of ballet fundamentals and major training systems
- An illustrated guide through ballet class -- warm-up, barre, and center floor
- Guidelines for safe, healthy dancing through a sensible diet, injury prevention, and cross-training with yoga and Pilates
- Descriptions of must-see ballets and glossaries of dance, music, and theater terms
Along the way you'll find technique secrets from stars of American Ballet Theatre, lavishly illustrated sidebars on ballet history, and tips on everything from styling a ballet bun to stage makeup to performing the perfect pirouette.
Whether a budding ballerina, serious student, or adult returning to ballet, dancers will find a lively mix of ballet's time-honored traditions and essential new information.
Customer Reviews:
No serious dancer should be without!.......2007-06-08
We give a copy of this book to all graduating seniors who intend to continue their dance career.
If You Love Ballet, You Need This Book!.......2007-04-02
This book is a must have for anyone who loves the Ballet. There is a little something her for everyone, instructors, dancers, ballet enthusiast. It's a beautifully put together collection of photos, descriptions of ballet moves as well as descriptions of actual ballets. This is a wonderful book for research purposes and a beautiful addition to anyone's personal library. The history of dance is also included as well as other interesting bits and pieces of trivia.
Ms. Gaynor Minden's love for ballet comes across in this book. I highly recommend this title if you love ballet or know someone who does.
A Must for every Ballet Mom Library.......2006-03-17
Written in lay-persons terms so I could understand. Every thing you need to know concerning ballet. - From warm ups to jumps, ribbons to toe shoes, healthy eating to injury protection, Ballet history to future diva dancer. I have been able to look up an ache, see what muscles are in the area and then look up the appropriate stretches. All in one book!
And there are 5 glossaries in the back of the book. - Ballet Terms, Music Terms, theater Teams, Social Dances, and Dancer Slang! Don't get stuck with a "Dolly Dinkle"! Be a proud "Bun Head" and be in the know! This may very well be the only dusted book in your Ballet Library.
Poor Mom of Three Darling Dancing Divas.
Lovely.......2006-02-27
I really enjoyed this book. There's almost nothing out there for us adult beginners, and this book fills that gap totally. I highly recommend it for anyone starting out, but would hesitate to get it if you've already been taking classes for a few years.
Demasiado básico.......2006-02-27
Si buscas un libro donde aparezcan los conceptos más básicos del ballet, este es perfecto.El problema es que abarca muchos temas y profundiza poco en todos.
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