First Lessons in Ballet - Softcover

Lise Friedman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0761113525 ISBN 13: 9780761113522

Publisher: Workman Pub Co, 1999

Synopsis

Photographs, captions, callouts, and text provide an interactive and intimate introduction to ballet, covering stretching, the five basic positions, and more complicated moves. Simultaneous.

About this title

About the Author

Lisa Friedman is currently the dance writer for Microsoft's New York Sidewalk. A former dancer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, she also served as founding editor of the award-winning quarterly Dance Ink.

K.C. Bailey's dance photography can be viewed in the Lincoln Center Dance Collection, and in the book Dance Ink Photographs.

From the Back Cover

Premiere and placement. Turnout and tendu, which is training the feet to point. Plus arabesque, or balancing on one leg, sissone, little energetic jumps, and learning to "spot"--to focus your eyes on one place so as not to get dizzy during pique turns.

Illustrated with dozens of engaging photographs, this introduction to ballet is for any young reader who wants to dance or is already enrolled in class. Each spread works as a lesson, balancing a visual how-to with instruction written in the succinct, clear voice of a masterful teacher. Beginning with the basic positions, FIRST LESSONS IN BALLET is the first step toward a lifelong love of dance.

Reviews

Grade 5-8-While appealing on the surface, this "ballet class in a book" is seriously flawed. The spreads-with an experienced teen on one side and multiethnic beginners on the other-start with a vague discussion of warm-ups. They continue with the five positions, barre work, center work, and jumping, and conclude with brief remarks on pointe work and partnering. Although the French terms are defined in context, there is no glossary (or index). In the barre section, confusingly, most photos show the dancers in the center of the studio. All of the photos are black and white. Basic steps such as battement frapp?, pas de chat, echapp? saut?, and assembl? are omitted. Friedman uses others (d?velopp?, attitude, and glissade) in combinations without adequately explaining them. The descriptions are unnecessarily complex and, as step-by-step pictures aren't always provided, are hard to follow. Darcey Bussell's The Young Dancer (DK, 1994) explains many of the same steps and has attractive color photos. For a real ballet class, though, students should turn to Thalia Mara's First Steps in Ballet, Second Steps in Ballet, and Third Steps in Ballet (all Princeton, 1987). These were originally published in the 1950s and rely on old-fashioned line drawings. However, they are thorough, easy to follow, and far more satisfying than Friedman's offering.
Ann W. Moore, Schenectady County Public Library, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From warm-ups in "Body Basics" to weighing acting as a vocation versus avocation, Break a Leg! The Kids' Guide to Acting and Stagecraft by Lise Friedman, photos by Mary Dowdle, provides aspiring actors with digestible chunks of information and photos. Brass tacks about getting an agent, going on auditions and joining a union, plus an appendix with suggested monologues, Web sites, etc., rounds out this valuable resource.

Edition details

• Publisher: Workman Pub Co
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0761113525
• ISBN 13: 9780761113522
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 64