Ballet, an Illustrated History

"Renaissance Italy was its birthplace; Elizabeth of England and the Sun King encouraged and developed it. First Camargo, then Taglioni, Elssler, and Grisi inspired generations of ballerina-worshippers and respect for the new profession of theatrical dancer. Champagne was drunk from toe-slippers as Paris of the Second Empire unveiled spectacles whose popularity is unimpaired to this day, while French choreographers, engaged in St. Petersburg, linked the dance heritage of Europe to Imperial Russia, where the Tsar's court proved a fertile climate for a new magnificence in stage production and technical advance. In the 20th century, the quixotic Diaghilev--who did not dance, choreograph, paint, or compose, but merely managed and inspired--almost singlehandedly brought the Russian masterpieces to the West, and two fellow émigrés, Pavlova and Nijinsky, captured imaginations and helped to spread the Imperial style around the globe. On this base--from France, from Russia, and distantly from Italy--Fokine, Massine, Nijinska, Balanchine, Rambert, Ashton, Tudor, Cranko, Robbins, and many others have diversely created an art form that is one of the most popular--and forward-looking--of our time. Mary Clarke and Clement Crisp recount the story in rich detail, aided by a wonderfully fresh selection of illustrations, covering not only dancers and dance design but attendant concerns of costume, scenery, technique, criticism, and theatrical taste. They pursue this enterprise 'with a smile,' and the reader, too, will be amused at the image of 19th-century ballerinas en travesti, forced to assume male roles because the classical danseur was held in such low repute; the overweight Louis XIV monopolizing leading parts; Renaissance dancing masters struggling to walk, let alone dance, while wearing some 40 pounds of magnificence. There are tales to inspire sympathy, too: Taglioni danced until she fainted; Pavlova continued on bloody toes; Balanchine fled Russia without a ruble or an advance booking. The lively treatment here accorded a splendid art, complemented by an extensive bibliography, will be an invaluable guide to those who are discovering the pleasures of ballet and want to know more of its background, as well as a useful companion for afficionados, all of whom will find something they did not know before."--Dust jacket.