Irina Baronova And The Ballets Russes De Monte Carlo

"Drawing on letters, correspondence, oral histories, and interviews, Baronova's daughter, the actress Victoria Tennant, ... recounts Baronova's dramatic life, from her earliest aspirations to her grueling time on tour to her later years in Australia as a pioneer of the art"--Dust jacket flap.

From a turbulent beginning in Russia to world fame and beyond, this is the vivid, moving story of Irina Baronova's extraordinary life. Irina was born into a privileged family, whose world was changed forever by the Bolsheviks. They fled Russia to poverty in Bucharest, but Irina's mother was determined that her daughter learn ballet. Her first lessons were taken with the kitchen table as a barre. Her family struggled to take Irina to Paris, where she made her debut, aged eleven, with the Paris Opera. Spotted by the legendary choreographer George Balanchine, she joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She quickly rose to fame as one the three 'Baby Ballerinas' and toured the world, working with a dazzling array of great names. Later Irina starred in films, danced with American Ballet Theatre and appeared in plays. But when she met Cecil Tennant, theatrical agent to stars such as Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, Irina had to choose between the limelight and life as a wife and mother . . .

Choreographer George Balanchine discovered her. Yul Brynner romanced her. She danced for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, Adolf Hitler, and Josef Goebbels. This memoir by the elegant octogenarian celebrates a remarkable life in the arts.

In pre-World War I England, a frail Jewish girl is diagnosed with flat feet, knock knees, and weak legs. In short order, Lilian Alicia Marks would become a dance prodigy, the cherished baby ballerina of Sergei Diaghilev, and the youngest ever soloist at his famed Ballets Russes. It was there that George Balanchine choreographed his first ballet for her, Henri Matisse designed her costumes, and Igor Stravinsky taught her music—all when the re-christened Alicia Markova was just 14. Given unprecedented access to Dame Markova’s intimate journals and correspondence, Tina Sutton paints a full picture of the dancer’s astonishing life and times in 1920s Paris and Monte Carlo, 1930s London, and wartime in New York and Hollywood. Ballet lovers and readers everywhere will be fascinated by the story of one of the twentieth century’s great artists.

Osato's life and worldwide travels are portrayed with reminiscences about the dancers and musical geniuses her world included -- Toumanova, Danilova Stokowski, Dorati, Nijinska.

One of the most influential choreographers of the twentieth century, Merce Cunningham is known for introducing chance to dance. Far too often, however, accounts of Cunningham’s work have neglected its full scope, focusing on his collaborations with the visionary composer John Cage or insisting that randomness was the singular goal of his choreography. In this book, the first dedicated to the complete arc of Cunningham’s career, Carrie Noland brings new insight to this transformative artist’s philosophy and work, providing a fresh perspective on his artistic process while exploring aspects of his choreographic practice never studied before. Examining a rich and previously unseen archive that includes photographs, film footage, and unpublished writing by Cunningham, Noland counters prior understandings of Cunningham’s influential embrace of the unintended, demonstrating that Cunningham in fact set limits on the role chance played in his dances. Drawing on Cunningham’s written and performed work, Noland reveals that Cunningham introduced variables before the chance procedure was applied and later shaped and modified the chance results. Chapters explore his relation not only to Cage, but also Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, James Joyce, and Bill T. Jones. Ultimately, Noland shows that Cunningham approached movement as more than “movement in itself,” and that his work enacted archetypal human dramas. This remarkable book will forever change our appreciation of the choreographer’s work and legacy.