RR 2008/318 The Cambridge Companion to Ballet

摘要

There are many ballet books on the market, all the way from Angelina Ballerina to information on technique, nutrition, the structure of a class, and coffee table books of photographs from ballet companies. The Cambridge Companion to Ballet offers something different in that it deals less with the minutiae of ballet and is more of a historical treatment of the development of ballet through the centuries to what it is today. Through a collection of chronological essays one can trace the evolution of ballet as a discipline and as a spectacle from the court dances in renaissance Italy and pre-revolutionary France all the way through to modern dance in the twentieth century which sought to break free from some of the conventions of classical dance. The Companion is divided into four sections: From the Renaissance to the Baroque: royal power and worldly display; The 18th Century: revolutions in technique and spirit; Romantic Ballet: ballet is a woman; and the Twentieth Century: tradition becomes modern. There are between four and seven articles per section from an international group of contributors, mostly from Europe, but also from the United States, Cuba and Singapore. There is a detailed timeline at the beginning of the book which begins with the Mongols conquering China in 1279 and ends with Ghengis Khan being declared Chinese in 2006. In between, historical, balletic and literary events are listed which give context to the development of ballet through the centuries.