Amazon.com: The JOFFREY BALLET: Robert Joffrey and the Making of An American Dance Company (9780684197241): Sasha Anawalt: Books

Buy Used
Used - Good See details
$3.98 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
The JOFFREY BALLET: Robert Joffrey and the Making of An American Dance Company
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

The JOFFREY BALLET: Robert Joffrey and the Making of An American Dance Company [Hardcover]

Sasha Anawalt (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)


Available from these sellers.


Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover --  
Paperback --  

Book Description

October 17, 1996
Published in conjunction with the fortieth anniversary of the renowned group, a portrait of founding member Robert Joffrey shows how he build a ballet troupe and includes an examination of the company's repertoire as well as photographs. 10,000 first printing.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Robert Joffrey took ballet from its lofty and often inaccessible perch and helped popularize it to a broad audience without once compromising the level of its art. His company was metamorphic, infusing its performances with both tradition and innovation, seriousness and wit, and highbrow and lowbrow, producing much of this century's most memorable dance. Anawalt's biography not only elegantly describes how the company developed but how it helped shape American dance.

From Publishers Weekly

Launched in New York City in 1952 by Robert Joffrey and his companion, Gerald Arpino, the Joffrey Ballet embodies an innovative approach that combines classical form with modern techniques. Its dancers, loaded with energy, have expanded the sphere of ballet as a popular American entertainment with works by Twyla Tharp, Arpino and with the multimedia rock ballet Astarte, which filtered the sexual revolution through myths of the ancient Babylonian fertility goddess. Joffrey?choreographer, teacher and artistic director?also pioneered meticulous revivals of the 20th-century repertoire, such as Kurt Jooss's antiwar ballet, The Green Table, and Leonide Massine's Le Tricorne. After Joffrey's death in 1988 at the age of 59, the company faltered, and in its present incarnation as the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago it gains few grants and survives mostly on box-office revenue. In this sparkling, substantial chronicle, written with the cooperation of Arpino and other Joffrey stalwarts, dance critic Anawalt ably follows the troupe's continual metamorphoses. The Seattle-born, secretive Joffrey, who rebelled against his working-class immigrant parents (his father a devout Muslim from Afghanistan, his mother an Italian-born waitress), emerges as a gutsy entrepreneur who struggled against underfunding, homophobia and a hierarchical arts system. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Scribner; 1St Edition edition (October 17, 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0684197243
  • ISBN-13: 978-0684197241
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,011,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing history of a most important American dance co., July 30, 1998
A fascinating, incredibly well-researched history of the Joffrey Ballet -- and its place in American dance. I myself had worked as an intern backstage there when I was younger, and I must say it really captured the company's spirit and the personalities of the major players, such as Mr. Joffrey and Gerald Arpino. Answalt has a knack for presenting the complexities of running a dance company in the US and for fairly examining the disputes between artists and board members that nearly destroyed the Joffrey. If I have any quibble at all, and it is small, it is that from time to time certain events are a little rushed and merit more detail. But that's a small problem, indeed.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence:
Let's look at a ballet, a Joffrey ballet, one of the few he choreographed in his lifetime and probably the ballet that is most closely associated in the popular mind with the company: Astarte. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
ballet mistress, mal gardée, musical adviser, men dancers, new ballet, phone interview, ballet master, six dancers, first ballet, new dancers, solo dancers
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, City Center, Robert Joffrey, American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Russe, Pas des Déesses, Los Angeles, Dance Magazine, Music Center, The Green Table, Gerald Arpino, Mary Ann Wells, Sea Shadow, Columbia Artists, Lisa Bradley, American Ballet Center, Rebekah Harkness, Jonathan Watts, Ford Foundation, Walter Terry, Alex Ewing, John Wilson, Herbert Migdoll, Royal Ballet, Brunilda Ruiz
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:



Books on Related Topics (learn more)

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
 
(18)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 

Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   



So You'd Like to...



Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject