The ballet goer's guide / Mary Clarke & Clement Crisp

Includes index.

Introduction -- Background to the Ballet -- History of the Ballet -- Making a Ballet-- Stories of the Ballet -- The Dance Steps / technical advisor: Kathryn Wade, teacher, The Royal Ballet School -- The Choreographers -- The Stars -- Glossary -- Index.

"'The BalletGoer's Guide' is a uniquely attractive and comprehensive companion to the magical pleasure of ballet-going, aimed exclusively at today's ballet lover. Written by two experts in the field, Mary Clarke an Clement Crisp, the lively, informative text and beautiful photographs present ballet in a fascinating new light.
Like all performing arts, ballet is mutable: no two performances are ever identical. The role of the choreographer, the composition of different companies, current ideas on what is fashionable or relevant in the repertory - all affect the difference in performance. At the heart of 'The Ballet Goer's Guide' are the stories of more than one hundred of the most frequently performed ballets - not only the original synopses, but also accounts, where relevant, of the different productions as performed by the world's major ballet companies. The ballet goer is thus able to compare The Royal Ballet's traditional version of Swan Lake with the more optimistic production staged by the Bolshoi Ballet or the more psychoanalytical interpretation of The Hamburg Ballet.
'The Ballet Goer's Guide' explores the origins of ballet and its relationship with design, score and choreography. It illustrates the vocabulary of ballet - the dance steps - with photographs and the accompanying text enables each reader to become conversant with the specialised language which surrounds the world of dance. It contains a guide to the most well-known choreographers as well as today's ballet 'stars'". - Book Jacket