Celestial Bodies: How to Look at Ballet

A distinguished dance critic offers an enchanting introduction to the art of ballet

As much as we may enjoy Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, for many of us ballet is a foreign language. It communicates through movement, not words, and its history lies almost entirely abroad--in Russia, Italy, and France. In Celestial Bodies, dance critic Laura Jacobs makes the foreign familiar, providing a lively, poetic, and uniquely accessible introduction to the world of classical dance. Combining history, interviews with dancers, technical definitions, descriptions of performances, and personal stories, Jacobs offers an intimate and passionate guide to watching ballet and understanding the central elements of choreography.

Beautifully written and elegantly illustrated with original drawings, Celestial Bodies is essential reading for all lovers of this magnificent art form.

• And Then We Danced: A Voyage into the Groove
• Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet (Dover Books on Dance)
• Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger, and More Graceful You
• The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story
• The Art of Movement
• Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet
• The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between American and British English
• Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siecle Paris
• Old In Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over
• New York City Ballet in Paris