Janet Collins wanted to be a ballerina in the 1930s and '40s, a time when racial segregation was widespread in the United States. From her early childhood lessons to the height of her success as the first African-American prima ballerina in the Metropolitan Opera, this is the story in rhyme of her artistic career.

"A new girl has joined Lola Levine's second-grade class. When they get off on the wrong foot, they are forced to spend time together...and learn they have more in common than they thought"--

Pinkalicious can't wait to go to ballet class with her best friend, Alison, but things take a turn when there's a mix-up and Pinkalicious ends up in the big kids' class. Will Pinkalicious get lost among the dancers, or will she be able to jump to new heights?

"In 1980s Minnesota, when auditions for a concert with Prince are announced, 16-year-old Rosa Dominguez, the daughter of a tyrant ballet master, is desperate to escape her pointe shoes and show everyone what she can do"--

Like generations of little girls, Lauren Kessler fell in love with ballet the first time she saw “The Nutcracker”, and from that day, at age five, she dreamed of becoming a ballerina. But when she was twelve, her very famous ballet instructor crushed those dreams, along with her youthful self-assurance, and she stepped away from the barre. Fast forward four decades. Lauren - suddenly, powerfully, itchingly restless at midlife, embarks on a "Transcontinental...

“Early Days, Early Dancers” documents the first decade of the National Ballet, focusing on the dancers of the 1950s, especially principal dancers Lois Smith, David Adams, Angela Leigh, Donald Mahler, and Celia Franca, herself a dancer and later the Company's Artistic Director. With an enthusiastic foreword by Karen Kain, and a moving afterword by Veronica Tennant, the book includes pieces by twenty-two dancers, plus memorial tributes to dancers...

In Starting Your Career as a Dancer, author Mande Dagenais explains what it really takes to get into the business, be in the business, and survive in the business. Based on more than twenty-five years of experience in the performing arts as a dancer, teacher, choreographer/director, and producer, Dagenais offers insider advice and shares her vast knowledge while answering questions asked by professionals and beginners alike. Aspiring dancers will...

When Igor Stravinsky's ballet Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) premiered during the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, its avant-garde music and jarring choreography scandalized audiences. Today it is considered one of the most influential musical works of the twentieth century. In this volume, the ballet finally receives the full critical attention it deserves, as distinguished music and dance scholars discuss the meaning...

An incisive exploration of ballet's role in the modern world, told through the experience of the author and her classmates at the most elite ballet school in the country: the School of American Ballet. As a child, Alice Robb devoted herself to the storied art of ballet. She loved its rich history and its hyper-feminine trappings, but eventually, the impossibly high standards took their toll. When she finally quit, she thought she had escaped ballet's...

The collection of essays demonstrates that ballet is not a single White Western dance form but has been shaped by a range of other cultures. In so doing, the authors open a conversation and contribute to the discourse beyond the vantage point of mainstream to look at such issues as homosexuality and race. And to demonstrate that ballet's denial of the first and exclusion of the second needs rethinking. This is an important contribution to dance...