Holding on to the Air - Softcover

Farrell, Suzanne; Bentley, Toni

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140157220 ISBN 13: 9780140157222

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1991

Synopsis

Suzanne Farrell joined the New York City Ballet in 1961 and went on to become one of George Balanchine's most celebrated muses. By the time she retired from performing in 1989, she had achieved a career without precedent in the history of ballet. She danced over one hundred ballets, a third of which were composed expressly for her by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Maurice Bejart, including masterpieces in which the limits of ballet technique were expanded to a degree not seen before. As a repetiteur for the George Balanchine Trust, she has staged Balanchine ballets for companies throughout the United States, as well as for the Royal Danish Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet. In 1999 she staged a week-long season of Balanchine for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., which led to the creation of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet as an ongoing partnership with the Center. Farrell joined the faculty of the Department of Dance at Florida State University as a Francis Eppes Professor in 2000. She is the recipient of honorary degrees from several universities, including Yale, Georgetown, and Notre Dame.

About this title

About the Author:

Suzanne Farrell has staged Balanchine's ballets in New York, Boston, Seattle, and Miami and for the Vienna Opera Ballet, the Kirov, and the Bolshoi. A professor of dance at Florida State University in Tallahassee, she also teaches a summer ballet course at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

From Library Journal:

The dance world has been waiting to hear Farrell's story ever since this noted ballerina retired from the New York City Ballet in 1989, six years after the death of NYCB director George Balanchine, acknowledged choreographic genius of this century. As Balanchine's muse and center of his attentions, she collaborated with him in the creation of his most enduring ballets. Though she could not reciprocate in kind when he fell in love with her, she speaks with real feeling of their mutual devotion, which found its physical consummation in their work together at the ballet studio and in her performances for him onstage. The book's highest appeal will be to the dance audience; ballet students and fans will find it fascinating. It is essential for any performing arts collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/90.
- Sheila Riley, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0140157220
• ISBN 13: 9780140157222
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320