Library of Clean Reads: ballet

Showing posts with label ballet. Show all posts

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin

Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
Berkley Books
ISBN: 978-0425201336
Published March 1, 2005
Trade Paperback, 480 pages

I don't read too many memoirs, so when this one was chosen for our book club pick I hoped it would be good. Well, it was more than good, as I now consider it one of the best memoirs I have read.

This book is the autobiography of one of China's greatest ballet dancers. But what made it stand out for me, right from the first page, I might add, was that Li recounts his childhood in China in the 60s during Mao's communist reign. Li and his family of six brothers were desperately poor peasants. I found this part of the book the most interesting. Every time I put the book down I couldn't wait to get back to it. Knowing this was a true story made me experience so many emotions.

Li brought his childhood to life with his lively portrayal of poor life in the commune. He did it with humour and compassion. I felt like I was right there in China, my stomach growling in hunger along with Li or my feet aching to run with the children as they played in the fields.

At the age of eleven, Li was chosen by Mao's cultural delegates to leave his village and study ballet in Beijing. He now felt the aching loss of a close-knit family and community and the pressure to do well as this would reflect well on his family. With much emotion and vivid details, Li recounts these years of perfecting an art he knew nothing about before and rising to success among his peers. This enabled him to be chosen to go on a short trip to America where he learned about Western culture and its ways, so different from his own rigid and sheltered life. This taste of freedom led him to eventually defect from China and perform all over the world.

A movie adaptation of the book is available and I would now like to see it. Just watching the trailer brought tears to my eyes. Li currently lives in Australian with his wife and three children. In 2012, Li was appointed the new Artistic Director of Queensland Ballet. You can learn more about him at www.licunxin.com.

Note: This book is rated C = clean read.
I will count this book toward the following challenges: Reading the World

Reviewed by Laura

Disclosure: I borrowed this book from the library and was not told how to rate or review this product.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Harper Collins
ISBN: 9781443412346
Published Dec 18, 2012
Trade Paperback, 353 pages

This is the kind of historical fiction I love. The author evokes a time and place, Paris of the late 1800’s. The world of the Paris Opera and dance came alive as I saw the ballerinas with their greasepaint practicing their pas de deux, plies, etc. Excerpts from newspaper articles regarding a real-life criminal trial taking place at the time gives an authentic “voice” to the story. Sometimes, Ms Buchanan made me “feel” that I was viewing a scene in “Les Miserables.” And who can resist the book cover?

The story is told from two perspectives. Antoinette, 17 and Marie, 13 are poverty-stricken girls whose father has died and whose mother is addicted to absinthe. They are desperate to find work or be evicted from their apartment. Marie applies to the Paris Opera to train as a ballerina, a “petit rat” – girls struggling to elevate their lives through ballet. Times are difficult and the girls are forever pawning household items in order to buy food. At one point they burn a drawer from a treasured sideboard in order to keep warm.

Then, Marie accepts Edgar Degas’ invitation to paint her. He is obsessed with the ballet dancers of the Opera, and Marie becomes his muse for the painting ‘Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.’ She also poses for a would-be painter who wants nothing more than to see her undressed; readers need to be aware of some rather sordid sexual situations. So there is a dark underside to the beautiful paintings of tutus. But Marie is determined to rise from the gutter to the stage. Antoinette meanwhile accepts whatever work she can get, sometimes as a laundress, sometimes as an extra in a play. An opportunity arises and she gradually slips into the more profitable work of a “coquette” – euphemism for prostitute.

The characters in the story are well developed as Marie and Antoinette face the moral challenges that are presented. The time period, as well as the world of ballet is well researched. The author successfully weaves fact and fiction into this beautiful, lyrical story, the themes of which are love, determination, and family loyalty. And it has a happy ending.

I recommend this novel to readers who love Paris, ballet and Degas’ work. You won’t be disappointed. See some of Degas’ art at www.CathyMarieBuchanan.com/art.

Note: This book is rated S = some sexual situations

Reviewed by Sandra

Disclosure: I bought this book at Costco. I was not told how to rate or review this product.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Kid Konnection: Dancing on the Inside by Glen C. Strathy

Dancing on the Inside by Glen C. Strathy
iUniverse, Inc.
ISBN: 978-1462018710
Published July 2011
Trade Paperback, 236 pages

Twelve-year old Jenny Sparks loves ballet, but when she takes her first lesson she has a panic attack and discovers she's terrified of dancing in front of the other students. Jenny is determined, however, to pursue her dream and finds a way to observe the ballet classes to learn the technique. She is befriended by Ara, a girl who dances with passion, and together they come up with an idea for a story ballet. With help from Ara, Jenny not only learns she has a talent for choreography but she learns to conquer her social phobia too.

For any girl who has taken ballet and performed an end-of-the-year recital, this book will resonate. For any girl who is extremely shy or has a hard time making friends, this story will speak to them. The author clearly showed the struggle and difficulty of social phobia through the character of Jenny who thought up ingenious ways of learning ballet without actually participating in class! She had a dilemma and worked hard to still do what she loved. Sometimes, some of the tactics she used got her into trouble, highlighting to what degree this phobia controlled her life.

My daughter and I were proud of Jenny for pursuing her dancing and love of choreography despite her problem. She showed perseverance, not giving up when she could easily have done so. She was also smart and came up with a way to appease her antagonist Veronique, who wanted the limelight and thought she was the best dancer. Ara was a delightful character, spontaneous and fun, and the perfect friend for Jenny. We liked the friendship that blossomed between the two girls.

The story did have a slow start, but this is not a story with a fast pacing. The ballet scenes are described in detail and the characters are one-dimensional. All we really know about them is related to ballet. My daughter and I would have liked to have seen the characters in other settings, such as at school or doing other tween things besides ballet to give us a more rounded view of their personalities. One of the ballet students is a boy, which my daughter and I thought would add a good element to the story, (there are not many 12 year-old boy ballet dancers!) but he is rarely mentioned although most of the other students in the class are, and they play various roles vis-a-vis Jenny. I also wasn't sure how I felt about Jenny's mother who wasn't too supportive of her daughter's new-found talent.

What we liked best about this story was how it showed the value of a good friend, especially one like Ara, who didn't deride her friend's weakness but instead helped Jenny to become the best she could be. And Jenny recognized Ara's talent and worked to help her shine as a ballerina.

This is the perfect story for girls who love ballet and want to pursue a career in this art, as well as any young girl suffering from extreme shyness. This was a new theme for us and it added an interesting perspective to the story. And we loved the book cover. It captured the essence of Jenny perfectly.

Note: This book is rated C = clean read.
I will count this book toward the following challenges: Middle-Grade Book Challenge

Reviewed by Laura

Disclosure: Thanks to the author and Pump Up Your Book Promotions for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

Every Saturday, Booking Mama hosts a feature called Kid Konnection—a regular weekend feature about anything related to children's books. If you'd like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children's books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, visit Booking Mama.