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56
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
51/100Critics
61/100Scholars
Author:
Toni Bentley
Publisher:
Pantheon
Date:
April 12, 2022
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."
What The Reviewers Say
Bentley, who danced under Balanchine’s direction at the New York City Ballet for a decade in the 1970s and ’80s, tells a history that is as vivid and poetic as the dance itself.
... [a] beautiful, affecting book.
Bentley writes as she once danced, with grace and elegance, as she captures the haunting beauty of an art form that exists to be seen and experienced.
Reading a book about ballet is like listening to ice skating on the radio: One can imagine the scene, but the strengths of one medium don’t fully translate the beauty of the other. Bentley gamely tries to translate the majesty of one ballet in her latest book, and with more success than one might expect.
