Tag: book review

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With Ballet in My Soul, by Eva Maze A Book Review

With Ballet in My Soul book cover

I had the pleasure of receiving a pre-publication copy of Eva Maze’s memoir, With Ballet in My Soul: Adventures of a Globetrotting Impresario to review. The book itself is lovely—a large, square paperback with glossy pages, filled with pictures from the author’s long and illustrious career spanning forty years.

Never having heard of her before, Eva Maze’s life story is one I read about in wonder. She’s the sort of quiet hero whose work was appreciated by millions who probably never saw her or heard her name. Eva didn’t get to pursue a career in ballet as she’d dreamed due to a childhood illness, but her love for ballet propelled her into an association with world-class artists as a booking agent. Her book is fascinating, taking the reader from places like Romania to India, Germany, China, Japan, Italy, France, and the United States.

It was personally exciting for me to see pictures of a young Marina Svetlova, who was one of my ballet teachers at Indiana University in the late 1980’s. We called her Madame. She was a tough teacher and I always got the impression that she wanted us to know what it was like to work hard in ballet class, as she had. In this book I learned that she had danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and she, along with Anton Dolin and John Gilpin were the first dancers Eva Maze ever booked—in 1953 and in India, no less!

I truly adore this book and am inspired by her love of life and the arts, and her ability to swim 20 laps every day well into her nineties! This book is sitting on my coffee table now—it’s too beautiful to put on a shelf just yet. It will be available for purchase April 1, 2017.

See Moonstone Press for more information, and pre-order the book online from Amazon here.

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Book Review: GIRL THROUGH GLASS by Sari Wilson

I was given an advance copy of GIRL THROUGH GLASS in December and finally picked it up yesterday, planning to give it a small measure of my attention for a couple weeks until I could finish it. To my surprise and delight, it captured my full attention and I consumed the whole book within 24 hours. It’s hard to believe this is Sari Wilson’s first novel—it is written with a wonderful literary style. She is able to put words to feelings in a way not many authors can.

Maybe it’s because I could relate to the story as a dancer, but I think it’s much more than that. I believe she’s an author I’ll keep an eye on, and whose work I’ll devour just as easily no matter the subject. Sari’s writing is a thing of beauty; her expressions are refreshing and original, such as when she describes Mira having her hair done by a woman who holds the bobby pins in her teeth. “The lady pulled and tugged and clutched at Mira. The bobby pins the lady gripped in her teeth moved up and down like insect antennae trying to communicate something dire.”

The flow of the book worked its magic as well, weaving the life of a young girl growing into a woman between scenes of the grown woman’s present day life until the two come together and the story is complete. Sari Wilson has created suspense that I wasn’t even aware was building until the truth of what happened to this girl became crystal clear. It caught me completely by surprise, in a very good way.

GIRL THROUGH GLASS by Sari Wilson is well done. She exposes the stark realities of the ballet world with an authenticity that will make real ballerinas nod in agreement, and delivers it in a beautifully written story about characters I came to love.

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My Margot Ballet Book Review

My Margot book cover

From the LinkedIn group “Teachers of Classical Ballet” I learned that Ken Ludden had published a personal memoir and biography of Margot Fonteyn. I emailed Ken to ask if he would consider allowing me to interview him about his book, and he kindly accepted! (The interview will be posted next week.) I bought the book and it took about three or four weeks for me to read it, but that’s only because I didn’t have the luxury of foregoing all my daily duties (but I would have liked that!). I didn’t realize what a close relationship Ken had with Margot as one of her most trusted friends. If you want to get a close up look at this remarkable woman, this is the book to read.

I’ve posted a review of this book on Amazon. His book is available on Amazon using this link: http://amazon.com/My-Margot-Ken-Ludden/dp/1312075228/. It is also available in paperback!

Ken Ludden’s beautifully written memoir and biography of Margot Fonteyn offers the reader a glimpse into the life of one who was under the sheltering wing of one of the world’s most renowned and loved ballerinas. A touching tribute. No closer look into her life and character can be found. This book is not only fascinating but superbly written. Ken’s recollection of events and conversations is uncanny, and he writes in such a way that I could visualize the scenes as his stories unfolded.

Not only does he offer a peek into Margot Fonteyn’s world; he also shares a lot about Rudolph Nureyev—his childhood, defection, and his demeanor (which I was sad to hear was often quite rude). Throughout the book he mentions his interactions with many other famous dancers and teachers and schools, and I found every bit of it very interesting. His own life’s work would be enough to fill a book, but he expertly weaves the story so it always relates back to Margot.

Ken’s intrinsic goodness and humility are endearing. He shares a conversation with Tito, (Margot’s husband) where he reflects, “My basic view of my life is that it should be of service to others, and the idea that it was to make an impact on the world was very foreign to me. I still believe that being of service to the needs of others is the highest esteem, but I also see that carrying forward the legacy of Fonteyn is a higher service than nearly anything else I could do, and it does impact the world.”

I highly recommend this book, and I know that Margot herself would be quite pleased with it!