One of my sort-of-resolutions for this year is to read more. Since finishing grad school (2 years ago?! Seems longer...) I've barely had time to really sit down with a book from start to finish. Here are some things on my New Year's reading list...I'm a little off the "normal" cultural radar (okay, a lot off), but I'm looking forward to reading these...
-Margot Fonteyn's Autobiography, which I received an autographed copy of for Christmas :)
-Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet, which has caused a stir lately
-Off Balance: The Real World of Ballet, which I heard about in a radio interview recently
I have quite the collection of old dance books going on, and a few I'm thinking of resurrecting from the dusty boxes to reread are...
-The Shape of Love by Gelsey Kirkland, which wasn't as big as her first controversial autobiography but is super interesting in analyzing certain roles
-Allegra Kent's Once a Dancer, which I nearly finished in one sitting a few summers ago
-Christopher D'Amboise's little known Leap Year: A Year in the Life of a Dancer, which I found by accident when working with him at BAE
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Monday, January 3, 2011
Monday, February 25, 2008
in the wings books
This morning at Barnes & Noble I finally had a chance to pick up a copy of the new behind the scenes at NYCB photo book "In the Wings" by corps de ballet member Kyle Froman. I had heard all about it when it came out recently, but had yet to see the wonderful pictures everyone spoke about. It really is a great book with some interesting pictures...I recognized lots of dancers in the backgrounds.
What was ironic about coming across the book today was that I went there to have my coffee and work on MY book proposal, which is an assignment for grad school. Basically I was given the task of thinking up any possible book I would want to publish and putting details together. Honestly I've been wanting to get myself to write a proposal for a while now and just haven't had the time or opportunity to do so, and now that it's required I figured I'd put some real effort into it so I might be able to use it one day for real.
The irony: I named my prospective book "In the Wings." Haha. It was subconciously tucked away somewhere in mind and it's a pretty common cliche kind of title for a dance related thing, but I didn't think anything of it until I realized there's already a book with that name. Stupid me, haha.
So now I need a new title. But basically my "book" is about the insides of the ballet world, and it would potentially be broken up into 3 parts. I don't want to give away details in case some day it comes into fruition (haha) but it's fun to think this stuff up. I really should take them time to actually write it...someday.
It would be nice if there were a bigger market for dance titles, though. That's the problem.
Anyways thought I'd share that for now, since I spent most of the morning working on it (after saying goodbye to my family who were visiting for yesterday's performance). I'm off to the New Yorker in a bit, and then class later. Some interesting stuff coming up this week...details to come (and Vishneva review to come).
What was ironic about coming across the book today was that I went there to have my coffee and work on MY book proposal, which is an assignment for grad school. Basically I was given the task of thinking up any possible book I would want to publish and putting details together. Honestly I've been wanting to get myself to write a proposal for a while now and just haven't had the time or opportunity to do so, and now that it's required I figured I'd put some real effort into it so I might be able to use it one day for real.
The irony: I named my prospective book "In the Wings." Haha. It was subconciously tucked away somewhere in mind and it's a pretty common cliche kind of title for a dance related thing, but I didn't think anything of it until I realized there's already a book with that name. Stupid me, haha.
So now I need a new title. But basically my "book" is about the insides of the ballet world, and it would potentially be broken up into 3 parts. I don't want to give away details in case some day it comes into fruition (haha) but it's fun to think this stuff up. I really should take them time to actually write it...someday.
It would be nice if there were a bigger market for dance titles, though. That's the problem.
Anyways thought I'd share that for now, since I spent most of the morning working on it (after saying goodbye to my family who were visiting for yesterday's performance). I'm off to the New Yorker in a bit, and then class later. Some interesting stuff coming up this week...details to come (and Vishneva review to come).
Sunday, October 28, 2007
And the Nutcracker countdown begins...
I'm back from another lonnnnng weekend of Nutcracker rehearsals in Connecticut. After one last midterm exam Saturday morning I hopped on the bus and was there all weekend til now. Luckily this weekend went much smoother than last weekend.
A new girl just joined the cast last week, so Saturday night we spent most of the time teaching the choreography to her. It was a good review for me because I'm still not completely comfortable in it. It's hard to only see something once a week and have no prep time before jumping right into it full out (not even a warm up or moment to mark through it!). So we worked until pretty late with that. It's hard because there's no set finish time for those rehearsals because those of us staying over from the city are literally living at the studio, so they can keep us working til all hours of the night if they wanted! They don't, but it's still hard to pace yourself when you don't know just how long you'll be working.
Anyway after rehearsal we finally had some time to ourselves so we go to go out to eat and one of the dancers that lives there gave us a mini tour of Hartford. It's such a cute little city - more like a suburb actually. The houses are beautiful and it was cool because many had Halloween (!) decorations out. It reminded me of my small town back home, and it was refreshing to get some air outside the city.
Then today it was back to rehearsal. We worked a lot on Snow today. I think that music might be my favorite part of Nutcracker. I remember back in the day in Boston I used to LOVE listening to that music backstage - and also from the orchestra pit the few years I got to be in the chorus because I was in Act II. That was quite the experience, seeing the snow scene from the conductor's perspective. That's the one thing I really do miss about home...Boston's Nutcracker. I grew up with it like I grew up with my family. That production will always be the first that comes to mind with that music, even though I've done many other versions since then.
Anyways - I'm rambling. Rehearsal went fairly well, and then our bus back left right on time for once. It's a nice treat to get home a decent hour on a Sunday night so I can prepare for the week.
Since last week was midterms and I did a ton of work and everything I gave myself the weekend off from homework. Usually I carry massive amounts of books with me on the bus, but this weekend I brought just one book to read for enjoyment. I haven't read for enjoyment (besides my weekly NY Magazine reading) in sooo long. All this school work takes over and I lose the time and energy to just sit and read. So I took Tony Bentley's biography, "Winter Season." She was a dancer in NYCB and it's all about her experiences with Balanchine and so forth.
I'm such a ballet dork reading ballet books, but 1) I like to hear different accounts of people in the ballet world who have worked with some of the teachers I know etc and 2) I hope to wite these kinds of books some day. So it's multipurpose, haha. But I finished the entire book this weekend and it was great. Highly recommended if you're a dance fan :)
Anyways I'm off to prepare for yet another busy week. I'm looking forward to Halloween class on Wednesday (hahaha..pictures to come). 3 days til that. 3 weekends til Thanksgiving. 3 months from yesterday I graduate!!!!!!!!!
A new girl just joined the cast last week, so Saturday night we spent most of the time teaching the choreography to her. It was a good review for me because I'm still not completely comfortable in it. It's hard to only see something once a week and have no prep time before jumping right into it full out (not even a warm up or moment to mark through it!). So we worked until pretty late with that. It's hard because there's no set finish time for those rehearsals because those of us staying over from the city are literally living at the studio, so they can keep us working til all hours of the night if they wanted! They don't, but it's still hard to pace yourself when you don't know just how long you'll be working.
Anyway after rehearsal we finally had some time to ourselves so we go to go out to eat and one of the dancers that lives there gave us a mini tour of Hartford. It's such a cute little city - more like a suburb actually. The houses are beautiful and it was cool because many had Halloween (!) decorations out. It reminded me of my small town back home, and it was refreshing to get some air outside the city.
Then today it was back to rehearsal. We worked a lot on Snow today. I think that music might be my favorite part of Nutcracker. I remember back in the day in Boston I used to LOVE listening to that music backstage - and also from the orchestra pit the few years I got to be in the chorus because I was in Act II. That was quite the experience, seeing the snow scene from the conductor's perspective. That's the one thing I really do miss about home...Boston's Nutcracker. I grew up with it like I grew up with my family. That production will always be the first that comes to mind with that music, even though I've done many other versions since then.
Anyways - I'm rambling. Rehearsal went fairly well, and then our bus back left right on time for once. It's a nice treat to get home a decent hour on a Sunday night so I can prepare for the week.
Since last week was midterms and I did a ton of work and everything I gave myself the weekend off from homework. Usually I carry massive amounts of books with me on the bus, but this weekend I brought just one book to read for enjoyment. I haven't read for enjoyment (besides my weekly NY Magazine reading) in sooo long. All this school work takes over and I lose the time and energy to just sit and read. So I took Tony Bentley's biography, "Winter Season." She was a dancer in NYCB and it's all about her experiences with Balanchine and so forth.
I'm such a ballet dork reading ballet books, but 1) I like to hear different accounts of people in the ballet world who have worked with some of the teachers I know etc and 2) I hope to wite these kinds of books some day. So it's multipurpose, haha. But I finished the entire book this weekend and it was great. Highly recommended if you're a dance fan :)
Anyways I'm off to prepare for yet another busy week. I'm looking forward to Halloween class on Wednesday (hahaha..pictures to come). 3 days til that. 3 weekends til Thanksgiving. 3 months from yesterday I graduate!!!!!!!!!
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