Customer Reviews

A Child's Introduction to Ballet: The Stories, Music, and Magic of Classical Dance (Book & CD)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this so that I would have something to read to my ballet students occasionally. It is a beautiful book, however, I would recommend it for maybe the 8-10 age group. The music is nice to listen to at any age though. I had quite forgotten how many of the themes of ballets are a little racy! And how would a 4-5 year react to stories about love triangles, suicide (Romeo and Juliet), and other "mature" themes in ballet. I think older ballet students would get more of a kick out of this book than 4-6 year olds would.

This book was a gift to my granddaughter. I have only read the section on Giselle, as that ballet was the one we were preparing to see. I found that the CD was a good idea, but only contained a brief piece from each ballet. Also, there was no verbal announcement, nor written guide to which piece on the CD went with which ballet.

I am a dance teacher and I love using books and videos as teaching aids and supplements to my curriculum. This book is excellent, it tells the stories of the great classical ballets in short story, understandable format for children and includes music!

I gave it to my 5 year old daughter who has enjoyed dancing to the CD and learning a little about each of the ballets (although as the other review pointed out,I have had to be aware of what information to tell her).

My 5 year old daughter and I are really enjoying this book. We often include her older brothers when we read and listen, too. I put the tracks in my iTunes account, then use my iPhone as a remote (using the remote app) so, we can stop and start and go straight to the track we want, and then pause it to read a bit. It's nice to integrate the two that way. We also had my iPad nearby, and we stopped and found brief YouTube videos of the dances and dancers mentioned in the book. We certainly don't sit down and read this from cover to cover, although, an older child might. We are learning a lot, and it always prompts her to show us steps she did in her last dance class. Since class meets only once a week, I think it's valuable to stop and think about it in between classes. Plus, her showing US what she's been taught, certainly helps it stick. Great book!