"A distinguished dance critic offers an enchanting introduction to the art of ballet As much as we may enjoy Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, for many of us ballet is a foreign language. It communicates through movement, not words, and its history lies almost entirely abroad-in Russia, Italy, and France. In Celestial Bodies, dance critic Laura Jacobs makes the foreign familiar, providing a lively, poetic, and uniquely accessible introduction to the world...

Unique among the arts, ballet has no written texts or standardized notation. It is a storytelling art passed on from teacher to student. A ballerina dancing today is a link in a long chain of dancers stretching back to sixteenth-century Italy and France: Her graceful movements recall a lost world of courts, kings, and aristocracy, but her steps are also marked by the dramatic changes in dance and culture that followed. From ballet's origins in the...

Candace isn't sure if she wants to be a ballerina and loves her own way of dancing, so when she and the other ballet dancers get stage fright on the night of their recital, she comes up with a solution to help them.

Text and photographs present the activities at a ballet studio where young children warm up, practice the five basic positions, exercise at the barre, and watch teenage ballet dancers perform.

Introduces the history and basic concepts of ballet. Easy-to-read text, vibrant photos, and dance tips will make readers want to get up and dance.

"Award-winning New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin, aka the Rogue Ballerina, gives readers a backstage tour of the real world of elite ballet-the gritty, hilarious, sometimes shocking truth you don't see from the orchestra circle"--

An introduction to ballet features facts on the dance discipline's history, basic steps, costumes, and famous dancers, and includes details of iconic performances from the Royal Ballet.

Tallulah takes ballet lessons and eagerly awaits her coveted tutu, which, she learns, she must work hard to earn.

Discover more than 70 of the most famous ballet dances, from The Nutcracker and Swan Lake to The Rite of Spring. Learn the stories behind renowned companies such as The Royal Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet. Explore the lives and achievements of dancers across the centuries, such as Margot Fonteyn, Carlos Acosta, and Darcey Bussell. Meet composers and choreographers, from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to Matthew Bourne. From its origins at court and the...