Authors: Joseph Epstein.
Hardcover, 224 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication Date: 2008-10-21


Reviews :

    ...

Authors: Diablo Cody.
Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Gotham
Publication Date: 2006-12-28


Reviews :

    Decreed by David Letterman (tongue in cheek) on CBS TV’s The Late Show to be the pick of “Dave’s Book Club 2006,” Candy Girl is the story of a young writer who dared to bare it all as a stripper. At the age of twenty-four, Diablo Cody decided there had to be more to life than typing copy at an ad agency. She soon managed to find inspiration from a most unlikely source— amateur night at the seedy Skyway Lounge. While she doesn’t take home the prize that night, Diablo discovers to her surprise the act of stripping is an absolute thrill.

This is Diablo’s captivating fish-out-of-water story of her yearlong walk on the wild side, from quiet gentlemen’s clubs to multilevel sex palaces and glassed-in peep shows. In witty prose she gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at this industry through a writer’s keen eye, chronicling her descent into the skin trade and the effect it had on her self-image and her relationship with her now husband....

Authors: Julie Kavanagh.
Paperback, 848 pages
Publisher: Vintage
Publication Date: 2008-11-11
Edition: Reprint

Reviews :

    Rudolf Nureyev, one of the most iconic dancers of the twentieth century, had it all: beauty, genius, charm, passion, and sex appeal. No other dancer of our time has generated the same excitement, for both men and women, on or off the stage.

In this superb biography, Julie Kavanagh deftly brings us through the professional and personal milestones of Nureyev's life and career: his education at the Kirov school in Leningrad; his controversial defection from the USSR in 1961; his long-time affair with the Danish dancer Erik Bruhn; his legendary partnership with Margot Fonteyn at the Royal Ballet in London. We see his fiery collaborations with almost all the major living choreographers including Ashton, Balanchine, Robbins, Graham, and Taylor. And we see Nureyev as he reinvigorated the Paris Ballet Opera in the early 1980s before his death from AIDS complications in 1993. Nureyev: The Life is the most intimate, revealing, and dramatic picture we have ever had of this dazzling, complex figure....

Authors: Li Cunxin.
Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Publication Date: 2005-03-01


Reviews :

    From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice....

Authors: Gypsy Rose Lee.
Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Frog Books
Publication Date: 1999-07-15


Reviews :

    Gypsy Rose Lee was an American original -- a woman who transformed the striptease into an art form and bewitched audiences around the world. This colorful autobiography follows Gypsy from her childhood in a ragtag vaudeville troupe to her glittering career as the queen of burlesque. Readers meet Gypsy's indomitable mother, who launched her onto the stage at age four, as well as Florenz Ziegfeld, Fanny Brice, and other flamboyant personalities. As the subject of a Broadway musical, a movie, and a TV movie, Gypsy Rose Lee is a part of America's cultural landscape....

Authors: Fred Astaire.
Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Publication Date: 2008-08-01
Edition: Reprint

Reviews :

   

One of the foremost entertainers of the twentieth century—singer, actor, choreographer, and, of course, the most dazzling "hoofer" in the history of motion pictures—Fred Astaire was the epitome of charm, grace, and suave sophistication, with a style all his own and a complete disregard for the laws of gravity. Steps in Time is Astaire's story in his own words, a memoir as beguiling, exuberant, and enthralling as the great artist himself, the man ballet legends George Balanchine and Rudolf Nureyev cited as, hands down, the century's greatest dancer.

From his debut in vaudeville at age six through his remarkable career as the star of many of the most popular Hollywood musicals ever captured on celluloid, Steps in Time celebrates the golden age of entertainment and its royalty, as seen through the eyes of the era's affable and adored prince. Illustrated with more than forty rare photographs from the author's personal collection, here is Astaire in all his debonair glory—his life, his times, his movies, and, above all, his magical screen appearances and enduring friendship with the most beloved of all his dancing partners, Ginger Rogers.

...

Authors: Jane Goldberg.
Paperback, 328 pages
Publisher: CHANGING TIMES TAP DANCING CO, INC.
Publication Date: 2008-06-11


Reviews :

    This is not a history of tap dancing. It is one determined woman's highly personal account of falling in love with and living the tap life. One of the linchpins behind the Great Tap Revival of the 1970s and 80s, Jane Goldberg tracked down, studied with, and performed alongside some of the tap greats of the twentieth century. In the process, she came up with a genre all her own-"Rhythm & Schmooze." A romantic, Goldberg thought tap dancing would provide the most direct route to finding a partner like Fred Astaire. It did not, she discovered quickly. What she did discover, however, were her happy feet. Those feet, combined with great tenacity and endless curiosity, led her to ferret out a generation of show biz hoofers who had involuntarily gone underground. "Shoot Me While I'm Happy"-the title comes from an old vaudeville expression-captures a wealth of memories both wacky and touching....

Authors: Suzanne Farrell. Toni Bentley.
Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Publication Date: 2002-09-25
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    Suzanne Farrell, world-renowned ballerina, was one of George Balanchine's most celebrated muses and remains a legendary figure in the ballet world. This memoir, first published in 1990 and reissued with a new preface by the author, recounts Farrell's transformation from a young girl in Ohio dreaming of greatness to the realization of that dream on stages all over the world. Central to this transformation was her relationship with George Balanchine, who invited her to join the New York City Ballet in the fall of 1961 and was in turn inspired by her unique combination of musical, physical, and dramatic gifts. He created masterpieces for her in which the limits of ballet technique were expanded to a degree not seen before. By the time she retired from the stage in 1989, Farrell had achieved a career that is without precedent in the history of ballet. One third of her repertory of more than 100 ballets were composed expressly for her by such notable choreographers as Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Maurice Bejart. Farrell recalls professional and personal attachments and their attendant controversies with a down-to-earth frankness and common sense that complements the glories and mysteries of her artistic achievement. ...

Authors: Gelsey Kirkland. Greg Lawrence.
Paperback, 1 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: 1996-07


Reviews :

    The shattering story of a dream which became a heartbreaking nightmare for one of America's most famous ballerinas, Gelsey Kirkland, who chronicles her brilliant start as a dancer with George Balanchine, her legendary partnership with Mikhail Baryshnikov, her agonizing descent into drugs, and her struggles to rise again....

Authors: Barbara Fisher.
Hardcover, 236 pages
Publisher: Wesleyan
Publication Date: 2006-10-03


Reviews :

    During her twelve years with Ballet Society and the New York City Ballet, Barbara Milberg worked under the direction of George Balanchine. She rose from corps de ballet to soloist, danced leading roles in Swan Lake and Illuminations, and performed in celebrated world premieres. In this observant and poignant memoir, she shares her recollections of Balanchine, his craft and his values, and lends insight into surprising aspects of his personality. Fisher gives readers a rare glimpse inside Balanchine's artistry, including vivid accounts of the makings of such important ballets as Schoenberg's Opus 34, AGON, and the world-famous Nutcracker. Told through the eyes of a young dancer in what seemed a truly magical place and time, In Balanchine's Company is ideal for ballet fans young and old. Rich in anecdote, insight, and humor, it offers a unique perspective on one of the twentieth century's cultural giants....