Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-156) and index.
The inheritance -- The choreographer at work -- Narrative and Meaning -- The dancer's contribution -- From classroom to stage -- Music for ballet -- Design for ballet -- The audience -- Appendix A: Notation -- Appendix B: Petipa's notes for The Sleeping Beauty -- Appendix C: Petipa's notes for The Nutcracker -- Appendix D: Bronislava Nijinksa's notes on Les Noces -- Appendix E: Natalia Roslaveva on The Bronze Horseman - hos a Soviet ballet is made -- Appendix F: John Lanchbery and Ivor Guest on the score for La Fille mal Gardée -- Glossary -- Further Reading.
"'Making a Ballet' is a survey of the processes which bring a ballet to the stage; it successfully dispels much of the mystique that has surrounded what is, after all, a hard-learned and very arduous craft. A historical introduction describes something of the collaborations and creativity that made the nineteenth century ballet. Then Mary Clarke and Clement Crisp, through the direct testimony of a distinguished gallery of choreographers, dancers, musicians and painters, examine the varying elements that are combined in today's ballet and the relevance of the changes that have occurred in the conditions of work and the methods of collaboration. Choreographers describe their creative processes, dancers discuss the way a role develops and the way the classroom steps are adapted for the stage; composers and conductors tell how ballet scores are commissioned and arranged and designers relate the many problems associated with providing the sets and costumes. Useful appendices provide long-unobtainable documentation of the famous collaborations of Petipa and Tchaikovsky, Nijinska and Goncharova and Ashton and Lanchbery. The book is fully illustrated and some of the photographs have been specially taken to illuminate the text." -- Book Jacket