Customer Reviews

Karen Kain: Movement Never Lies

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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I loved this book, and in defense of the person that said Kain is rude and stuck up....you have to remember that you may have caught her at a bad time. We can only wonder what it would be like to have fans constantly in your face. I thought the book was wonderful, and very insightful. Karen Kain remains a charismatic performer in my eyes.

Anyone interested in a career in the dance world, or the performing arts, should read this book. Written with honesty, insight, and passion, Movement Never Lies goes beyond the day-to-day specifics, the newspaper criticisms, and the backstage politics of a company. "Movement" reveals what happens when a great artist faces the inevitable conflicts of career demands, the impetus for self-fulfillment, the continuing search for artistic growth, family obligations and family aspirations. All these struggles are shown in the context of her own life, and in relation to the ballet company and the society around her. Reading this book is sometimes like listening to an old friend talk, and I found it hard to put the book down.

The only thing which is missing, is a contact address where the reader could order videos of her various television performances.

I saved every penny I came across for 3 months to buy this book when I was in high-school; it was worth it! It is an amazing book that outlines the life of Karen Kain, in my opinion the best ballerina in Canada, and the trials and tribulations that she went through in her everyday life. It is very well written; it never provides a dull moment. I would read it again and again. I would recommend this book to any dancer or anyone interested in dance.

I found this book amazing and incredible to read. I am also a dancer and saw her fianle performance. She portrayed the typical dancers life accurately. This book was interesting and captivating, and if I had not met her she would have remained my hero. Karen is stuck up and rude and when I met her, my growing admiration stopped dead. If you want to read her book, go ahead, but remember she is not as sweet and as genuine as she seems

I enjoyed this book and being a Canadian it's interesting to hear about how she grew up in Ontario. I thought it was good, and was very well written. response to the person who said she was stucvk up i met her to and while she waws getting mobbed walking down a hallway by kids she stopped to sign each and every one of there pointe shoes or paper and even let me take her picture so it was probably that she was just having a bad day. but the book displays her well .

This book is a wonderful autobiography of one of Canada's brightest stars. Ms. Kain openly and honestly relays the story of her rise to fame. She is candid and full of humility. Clearly, Ms. Kain is well aware of the alignment of the stars the night she took to the stage in her first principal role and she is as gracious, lovely and endearing today as she was being christened in Ms. Franca's office.

I have done a heritage fair project on Karen Kain. I used this book to help me and it gave me so much info. Thanks

I absolutely loved this book. I recieved it as a gift, and being a dancer i sat down and read it right away. It was amazing!! Karen Kain is such an exciting dancer, with new bounds at every jump. It made me remember that i can achieve my dreams!!! *S*

I really love the way you dance its beautiful.I study with the Royal Academy of Dance. Thank-you for being a great role model

An excellent book, great pictures and surprisingly frank for someone still immersed in the ballet world in Canada. Trapped as she is in one of the most regressive ballet companies in the world, it was very brave of her to speak out against the anorexia rampant there and gives one hope that things may change one day. Although the tutus the corp are wearing this year all fit skinny eight year olds (we tried them on), she has just started as artistic director and one can hope.

I also laughed that even in her position on the board of NBS she still said how surprised she was to find that she was completely unprepared and untrained to dance in Europe - a situation at NBS that has gotten much worse since those teaching there now are the NBS graduates who weren't good enough to get jobs as dancers! All the technique drawbacks she complains of (sway backs (duck butts) because of the fear that they might develop leg muscles if they tuck under, no turn out or elevation, etc.), all of which have given rise to the saying that "a lot of beautiful dancers come out of NBS but far more go in" are still true and getting worse. When you consider that the school has such a huge amount of money given to them (truly obscene, look it up) and that they throw out loads of kids every year to bring in new ones that were properly trained by someone else, you would really think that the best dancers in Canada would come from there. Surprisingly, the best dancers in Canada (based on international sucesses) have been Evelyn Hart (Royal Winnipeg) Chan Goh (Goh Academy) and Sarah Clark (Canadian Ballet Theatre) all from schools who take whatever kids they can get, and only one of which has any government funding. It is obvious that Karen is aware of the problem and I am most interested to see what her opinions and actions will be now that she is part of the bureaucracy, especially since we have her "before" opinions recorded!

And yes, I have seen her several times, she really is quite arrogant and rude, I do get embarassed for her. Some are, some aren't, but Evelyn Hart is so sweet and by far the better dancer ... Canadian ballet politics are such a shame.