Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

Serenade : a Balanchine story / Toni Bentley.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Pantheon Books, [2022]Copyright date: ©2022Edition: First EditionDescription: xxv, 283 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780593316399
  • 0593316398
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Audience -- Initiation -- Mr. B -- Sixteen -- Turnout -- Pointe -- The great run -- John's geometry -- Stonehenge -- Waltz -- Little Georgi -- The American -- The Composer -- Transitions -- Legacy -- Hopping -- Anarchists: Wilis, Virgins, Sylphs -- After the fall -- Maria's arabesque -- Vetruvian man -- Charlie's Angels -- Destiny.
Summary: "A ballerina tells the story of George Balanchine's iconic masterpiece, Serenade, and what it is like to be one the young women who danced it, lived it, during his lifetime. At age seventeen, Toni Bentley was chosen by Balanchine, then in his final years, to join the New York City Ballet. From backstage and onstage, she carries us through both the serendipitous history and physical intricacies and demands of Serenade-its dazzling opening, with seventeen women in a double-diamond pattern; its radical, even jazzy, use of the highly refined language that is ballet; its place in the choreographer's own dramatic story of emigration to the U.S. from Bolshevik Russia; its profound influence on the art form internationally. Bentley takes us inside the rarefied, intense and thrilling world Balanchine created through his lifelong devotion to celebrating and expanding female beauty and strength-a world that, inevitably, passed upon his death. An intimate elegy to grace and loss and the imprint of a towering artist and his transcendent creation on her life, Serenade: A Balanchine Story is a rich narrative by a woman artist about the nature of art itself at its most fleeting, dynamic, and glorious"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography BENTLEY, T. B477 Available 33111010820518
Total holds: 1

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Toni Bentley, a dancer for George Balanchine, the greatest ballet maker of the 20th century, tells the story of Serenade , his iconic masterpiece, and what it was like to dance-and live-in his world at New York City Ballet during its legendary era.

"Reading Bentley's Serenade made me feel as alive as I felt on the stage the moment that I fell in love with ballet.... A delicate balance of personal memoir, rarefied elegance, history of the arts and pure human interest."-Misty Copeland, New York Times Book Review

" A unique document about one of the greatest ballets ever created.... A beautiful read"-Mikhail Baryshnikov


At age seventeen, Toni Bentley was chosen by Balanchine, then in his final years, to join the New York City Ballet. From both backstage and onstage, she carries us through the serendipitous history and physical intricacies and demands of Serenade- its dazzling opening, with seventeen women in a double-diamond pattern; its radical, even jazzy, use of the highly refined language that is ballet; its place in the choreographer's own dramatic story of his immigration to the United States from Soviet Russia; its mystical-and literal-embodiment of the tradition of classical ballet in just thirty-three minutes.

Bentley takes us inside the rarefied, intense, and thrilling world Balanchine created through his lifelong devotion to celebrating and expanding female beauty and strength-a world that, inevitably, passed upon his death. An intimate elegy to grace and loss and to the imprint of a towering artist and his transcendent creation on Bentley's own life, Serenade- A Balanchine Story is a rich narrative by a dynamic artist about the nature of art itself at its most ephemeral and glorious.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-273) and index.

Audience -- Initiation -- Mr. B -- Sixteen -- Turnout -- Pointe -- The great run -- John's geometry -- Stonehenge -- Waltz -- Little Georgi -- The American -- The Composer -- Transitions -- Legacy -- Hopping -- Anarchists: Wilis, Virgins, Sylphs -- After the fall -- Maria's arabesque -- Vetruvian man -- Charlie's Angels -- Destiny.

"A ballerina tells the story of George Balanchine's iconic masterpiece, Serenade, and what it is like to be one the young women who danced it, lived it, during his lifetime. At age seventeen, Toni Bentley was chosen by Balanchine, then in his final years, to join the New York City Ballet. From backstage and onstage, she carries us through both the serendipitous history and physical intricacies and demands of Serenade-its dazzling opening, with seventeen women in a double-diamond pattern; its radical, even jazzy, use of the highly refined language that is ballet; its place in the choreographer's own dramatic story of emigration to the U.S. from Bolshevik Russia; its profound influence on the art form internationally. Bentley takes us inside the rarefied, intense and thrilling world Balanchine created through his lifelong devotion to celebrating and expanding female beauty and strength-a world that, inevitably, passed upon his death. An intimate elegy to grace and loss and the imprint of a towering artist and his transcendent creation on her life, Serenade: A Balanchine Story is a rich narrative by a woman artist about the nature of art itself at its most fleeting, dynamic, and glorious"-- Provided by publisher.

Powered by Koha