After a distinguished career as a dancer, Nicolai Serrebrenikov became one of the leading teachers at the Vaganova Choreographic School in St. Petersburg. In this major work on pas de deux, the students and teachers are taken step by step through the fundamentals of double work to the most complex enchainements of the classical repertoire. The translator and editor, Joan Lawson, studied dance with Margaret Morris and Serafina Astafieva, and later became of of the first English ballet dancers to study in Soviet Russia, subsequently becoming a distinguished and much-loved teacher at the Royal Ballet School in London.
Presents a look at the world of dance; an analysis of ballet movement, music, and history; a close-up look at popular ballets; and a host of performance tips.
This book applies basic principles of physics to the art of dance, opening up anew level of appreciation for lovers of the form. Using simple, nontechnical terms, Laws and Harvey describe how those laws affect dancing bodies.--[book cover].
Dance. That was their instruction. But fate tripped them up, and they fell in love. Under the fluorescent sun of '80s Hollywood, aging ballerina Peridot "Peri" Jones and her new partner, seventeen-year-old Mark Maroulis, Jr., ignite a chemistry onstage that brings a dying ballet company back to life. Although wary of their age difference, they begin a highly charged love affair offstage. They keep the romance a secret because artistic director Mr. D considers Peri to be his. When Mr. D discovers their relationship, he wrenches Mark and Peri far apart. Will they be able to dance themselves back together? Lyrical and poignant, the story unfolds through the structure of a classical ballet grand pas de deux. It delves into themes of toxic masculinity, the sacrifices that art exacts from its practitioners, and the challenges of an inverse May/December relationship. The Pas de Deux combines the classical ballet setting of Billy Elliot and Astonish Me (Maggie Shipstead) with the upside-down romance of On the Island (Tracey Garvis-Graves). It draws parallels among three genocides of the 20th century-Armenia, AIDS, and the Holocaust-and a suggestion rooted in dance practices to address intolerance. Author Interview What draws you to this genre? Romance embodies the Hegelian dialectic, which is a super fancy way of saying the genre presents two contradictory worldviews (the hero and heroine's) and then unifies them. This is why some of my favorite novels (from Pride and Prejudice to A Knight in Shining Armor) are romances. What was the hardest part of writing this book? Accurately portraying the '80s. While the decade isn't that far away, it took tons of research to ensure everything from clothing to a Guns N' Roses show that occurs at a climactic moment was period appropriate. Why do you write? Fiction offers access to another person's headspace, which can broaden our understanding of what makes somebody tick. I consider dance to be my genre, and that allows me enormous leeway in tone, content, and style in all my books.
A dark-hued, hybrid novel by a writer who “delivers our culture back to us, made entirely new” (A. M. Homes) In The Complete Ballet, John Haskell choreographs an intricate and irresistible pas de deux in which fiction and criticism come together to create a new kind of story. Fueled by the dramatic retelling of five romantic ballets, and interwoven with a contemporary story about a man whose daunting gambling debt pushes him to the edge of his own abyss, it is both a pulpy entertainment and a meditation on the physicality—and psychology—of dance. The unnamed narrator finds himself inexorably drawn back to the pre–cell phone world of Technicolor Los Angeles, to a time when the tragedies of his life were about to collide. Working as a part-time masseur in Hollywood, he attends an underground poker game with his friend Cosmo, a strip-club entrepreneur. What happens there hurtles the narrator down the road and into the room where the novel’s violent and surreal showdown leaves him a different person. As the narrator revisits his past, he simultaneously inhabits and reconstructs the mythic stories of ballet, assessing along the way the lives and obsessions of Nijinsky and Balanchine, Pavlova and Fonteyn, Joseph Cornell and the story’s presiding spirit, the film director John Cassavetes. This compulsively readable fiction is ultimately a profound and haunting consideration of the nature of art and identity.
It's said the artist is born of a damaged soul...Wilhelmina Allende is a prima ballerina. When tragedy turns her beloved Paris into a gilded cage, she jumps at the chance to work with one of the most prolific choreographers she's ever seen. But Zack's style is way out of her comfort zone. So is his teaching method. And his humor. And his everything. He's a charming little connard. It's hard not to like him. Merde. What has she gotten herself into?Zachary Coen's first musical is opening on Broadway. Much like his life, it's anything but conventional, so hiring Mina is simply out of the question. She's too...classical. Too perfect. She's all wrong for the role. Then he meets her in person and sees her cracks. Her broken pieces. How unique and beautiful each one is. And he can't help but notice how her edges seem to fit his...perfectly.Just when teaming up seems to be working, the monsters they've kept hidden threaten to rip it all apart.**Possible trigger warning: The hero is a child sexual assault survivor. He uses a coping mechanism throughout the story, and is triggered in a scene toward the end. (It doesn't get explicit, but it is not glossed over.)**
"An insightful read from one of the ballet world’s most beloved married couples!"--Melinda Roy, former principal dancer, New York City Ballet "Wonderfully complete and instructive, written by two artists who have lived what they write about and are sharing their life experience from a deep and very human viewpoint. Bravo!"--Donald Mahler, former director, Metropolitan Opera Ballet "Perfect for inspiring dancers who want to learn more about the art of partnering."--Lauren Jonas, cofounder and artistic director, Diablo Ballet "An effective and lively resource to add to a dancer and teacher’s partnering skills toolkit."--Dean Speer, author of On Technique Traditionally, the pas de deux was designed as an interlude during longer ballets and showcased a ballerina’s skills. The male was a guide to her movements and steps, an unwavering extension of the ballerina. Today the pas de deux occupies a central role in dances and the reliance on a male’s strength has given way to endless modifications. Respect, patience, intuition, and awareness are just as significant as technique and the best partners communicate through breath, eye contact, and musical cues. In Experiencing the Art of Pas de Deux, professional dance couple Jennifer Carlynn Kronenberg and Carlos Miguel Guerra demystify the physical, emotional, and artistic intricacies that allow two to dance as one. They examine key components often overlooked in classes and textbooks, such as how to build and maintain the connections necessary for a trusting and successful team. Illuminating pas de deux work from both male and female perspectives, they detail the specific responsibilities of each partner. Step-by-step instructions are provided for proper posture, lifts, promenades, turns, and even dance conditioning--and QR code–accessible videos provide brief demonstrations of new and complex movements. Each chapter also includes personal anecdotes, offering a rare and intimate look at how partners can support one another and discover the inner workings of the finest and most memorable dances. Jennifer Carlynn Kronenberg is a former principal dancer with the Miami City Ballet. She has conducted master classes for Ballet Chicago and Ballet de Monterrey, among other companies and schools. She is the author of So, You Want to Be a Ballet Dancer? Carlos Miguel Guerra is a former principal dancer with the Miami City Ballet. He studied and worked with Fernando Alonso in Cuba, Ivan Nagy in Chile, and Edward Villella in Miami.
Caitlyn Lloyd has the world at her feet. Or more accurately—under her horse’s hooves. With the 2016 Rio Olympics just around the corner, nothing is going to derail her long-held dream of winning a medal or two in Olympic dressage. Not even the reappearance of a childhood so-not-a-friend throwing her perfectly balanced life into disarray. Addie Gardner’s career is at its peak, and accepting a last-minute fill-in position as the veterinarian for the US Olympic Dressage Team was a no-brainer. The fact that her old crush from Pony Club is on the team is just a bonus. Not a distraction at all. And it might just offer the chance to be friends with the girl who wouldn’t even give her the time of day twenty years ago. But Caitlyn and Addie have very different memories of their time together at Pony Club and their first meeting as adults is less like a reconnection and more like a butting of heads. With the Olympics looming, they’ll need to set aside their history and learn to work together. And maybe Caitlyn and Addie will realize childhood memories aren’t always accurate, and that they have more in common than they would ever have thought. Maybe. Just maybe.
"Mr. Serebrennikov's book is widely famous throughout the world. Students, teachers, and dancers in all fields of dance will find this important work useful."-- Svetlana Osiyeva, ballet faculty, Harid Conservatory, Boca Raton, and former principal dancer and soloist with the Kirov Ballet Pas de Deux has been widely regarded as the foremost existing textbook on the art of partnering. First published in 1969 in Russian by one of the world's most respected experts on partnering, the original book was created for the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, the school that produced Pavlova and Nijinsky. This expanded edition contains new text, sketches, and photographs that describe 32 new poses and lifts, along with new information about strengthening exercises and balance points. It is adaptable to instruction based on the Royal Academy of Dancing and the Cecchetti methods, making it invaluable for teachers and dancers of all three major methodologies. Beginning with simple exercises for young dancers, the comprehensive text guides students, teachers, and choreographers safely to complex lifts and tosses. The instruction is useful to all forms of dance, including ballet, jazz, modern dance, ballroom dancing, and ice dancing. Nikolai Serebrennikov, a former dancer with the Kirov Ballet, is a master pedagogue at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Russia. Marian Horosko, a former member of the New York City Ballet, is the education editor of Dance Magazine. She is the author of many books, most recently Sleeping Beauty and Ballet Technique for the Male Dancer.
A reckoning with one of our most beloved art forms, whose past and present are shaped by gender, racial, and class inequities—and a look inside the fight for its future Every day, in dance studios all across America, legions of little children line up at the barre to take ballet class. This time in the studio shapes their lives, instilling lessons about gender, power, bodies, and their place in the world both in and outside of dance. In Turning Pointe, journalist Chloe Angyal captures the intense love for ballet that so many dancers feel, while also grappling with its devastating shortcomings: the power imbalance of an art form performed mostly by women, but dominated by men; the impossible standards of beauty and thinness; and the racism that keeps so many people of color out of ballet. As the rigid traditions of ballet grow increasingly out of step with the modern world, a new generation of dancers is confronting these issues head on, in the studio and on stage. For ballet to survive the twenty-first century and forge a path into a more socially just future, this reckoning is essential.
