La Nijinska

La Nijinska is the first biography of twentieth-century ballet's premier female choreographer, shedding new light on the modern history of ballet, and recuperating the memory of lost works and forgotten artists, all while revealing the sexism that still confronts women choreographers in the ballet world.

"The first in-depth study of Vaslav Nijinsky's life-writing, this book combines textual analysis and literary theory with intellectual biography to elucidate the dancer's riffs on Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche. This interdisciplinary study explores the modernist contexts from which the dancer-writer emerged at the end of World War I"--

Now in paperback, Bronislava Nijinska: Early Memoirs--originally published in 1981--has been hailed by critics, scholars, and dancers alike as the definitive source of firsthand information on the early life of the great Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950). This memoir, recounted here with verve and stunning detail by the late Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972)--Nijinsky's sister and herself a major twentieth-century dancer and leading choreographer of the Diaghilev era--offers a season-by-season chronicle of their childhood and early artistic development. Written with feeling and charm, these insightful memoirs provide an engrossingly readable narrative that has the panoramic sweep and colorful vitality of a Russian novel.

Selected writings illuminate a century of international dance.

The lush, sweeping story of a remarkable dancer who charts her own course through the tumultuous years of early twentieth-century Europe. Beautifully blending fiction with fact, The Chosen Maiden plunges readers into an artistic world upended by modernity, immersing them in the experiences of the era's giants, from Anna Pavlova and Serge Diaghilev to Coco Chanel and Pablo Picasso. From their earliest days, the Nijinsky siblings appear destined for the stage. Bronia is a gifted young ballerina, but she is quickly eclipsed by her brother Vaslav. Deemed a prodigy, Vaslav Nijinsky will grow into the greatest, and most provocative, dancer of his time. To prove herself her brother's equal in the rigid world of ballet, Bronia will need to be more than extraordinary, defying society's expectations of what a female dancer can and should be. The real-life muse behind one of the most spectacular roles in dance, The Rite of Spring's Chosen Maiden, Bronia rises to the heights of modern ballet through grit, resilience and fervor. But when the First World War erupts and rebellion sparks in Russia, Bronia—caught between old and new, traditional and ground-breaking, safe and passionate—must begin her own search for what it means to be modern.

Tells the interwoven stories of revered dance teacher Timothy Draper, the Rochester City Ballet that he founded, and its predecessor, the Eastman Theatre Ballet, established in 1923 as the first professional ballet company in the United States.

Presents biographical sketches of 66 underappreciated ballet composers of the 19th and 20th centuries, plus briefer entries on 20 choreographers, and an introductory overview of the history of ballet. Entries encompass composers' contributions to ballet music as well as other aspects of their lives, and include plot summaries and excerpts from reviews of ballets. For ballet aficionados, music librarians, and musicians. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR