Reading Dance: A gathering of memoirs, reportage, criticism, profiles, interviews, and some uncategorizable extras
by Robert Gottlieb, Editor
Published by Pantheon Books
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Reviewed by Gene Hayworth
Robert Gottlieb’s extensive anthology, Reading Dance, celebrates the dance and the dancer in every possible facet. The book is a compilation of criticism, letters, interviews, obituaries, memoirs, and more. It provides a rare glimpse into the world of dance from the nineteenth century to the present. Gottlieb, a former editor at Alfred A. Knopf and “The New Yorker,” has chosen his subjects thoughtfully, focusing not only on the world of ballet, but Broadway as well. There are intimate discussions of Jerome Robbins and Fred Astaire balanced against a wealth of information on classic ballet performers such as Isadora Duncan, Twyla Tharp, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Though there is a considerable focus on dancers, readers will also appreciate the broader scope of the book, for it also offers information on the world of set designers, choreographers, and dance teachers. And the book’s breadth is not limited to individuals. An essay by Alastair Macaulay discusses “Disney’s Dances.” Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale provide an exquisite discussion of Jean Cocteau’s creation, “Parade,” a ballet that featured the music of Erik Satie and a set by Pablo Picasso. This essay begins with a brief discussion of the work, then offers a series of letters between Satie, Cocteau, Misia Sert and Valentine Gross, correspondence that sheds light on a collaboration between men of artistic vision that has had no equivalent in modern times.
Reading Dance contains the writing of almost 60 contributors, from Carl Van Vechten to Terry Teachout. Though it is a book about dance, there is much here that readers will appreciate about life, inspiration, and the creative process.
Armchair Interviews says: Very interesting.