First Position - by Toba Singer (Hardcover)

About the Book

The dancers profiled in First Position represent the pinnacle of their art over the last century. Author Toba Singer polled scores of dance critics, dance teachers and professors, and active and retired professional dancers to create a list that represents the best of the various styles of ballet from the last hundred years. The result is a collective biography that introduces the reader to dancers both with household names and those known mostly to ballet aficioinados. Profiled dancers include Carlos Acosta, Alicia Alonso, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Erik Bruhn, Lazaro Carreno, Margot Fonteyn, Carla Fracci, Gelsey Kirkland, Li Cunxin, Muriel Maffre, Natalia Makarova, Arthur Mitchell, Rudolf Nureyev, Anna Pavlova, and Maya Plisetskaya.
An introductory chapter addresses the audience for this work: ballet fans, professional dancers, aspiring dance students, and those new to ballet. It also touches on the contributions of dancers who, owing to limits of time and space, are not among the selected, but whose influence has nonetheless been lasting. Each of the fifteen chapters begins with a biographical portrait and includes discussions of the dancer's style and artistic background; associations with noted choreographers, composers, artistic directors, and dance partners; relationship with the audience; and critical reception. The author has utilized published and unpublished interviews and source material from dance archives in San Francisco, New York, Havana, and European cities that have served as centers of the ballet world over the last century. Each chapter features photographs and concludes with a list of works performed.

Book Synopsis

The dancers profiled in First Position represent the pinnacle of their art over the last century. Author Toba Singer polled scores of dance critics, dance teachers and professors, and active and retired professional dancers to create a list that represents the best of the various styles of ballet from the last hundred years. The result is a collective biography that introduces the reader to dancers both with household names and those known mostly to ballet aficioinados. Profiled dancers include Carlos Acosta, Alicia Alonso, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Erik Bruhn, Lazaro Carreno, Margot Fonteyn, Carla Fracci, Gelsey Kirkland, Li Cunxin, Muriel Maffre, Natalia Makarova, Arthur Mitchell, Rudolf Nureyev, Anna Pavlova, and Maya Plisetskaya.

Review Quotes

"This volume features profiles of 15 dancers from around the world....Each profile blends biography and a discussion of the dancer's style and artistic background, associations with choreographers, composers, directors, and partners, and relationship with the audience. Information was drawn from published and unpublished interviews (some with the author) and source material from dance archives in the US and Europe. Dancers were chosen from Singer's poll of choreographers, teachers, administrators, students, dancers, historians, and writers." --Reference & Research Book News

"In her sketches, Singer discusses each dancer's artistic background, unique style, work with choreographers, among them the great George Balanchine, and her or his critical evaluation. With an excellent context-establishing foreword by Bruce Marks, and ancillary materials, this volume about dance as an ever-changing art is an excellent and enjoyable reference for both novices and fans." --Booklist

About the Author

Toba Singer is the Dance Selector and Senior Program Director of the Art and Music Center of the San Francisco Public Library. She graduated from New York City's High School of Performing Arts and has lived and written in Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Virginia, and Charleston, West Virginia. She has been a steelworker, chemical refinery operator, presser and sewing machine operator, and airlines worker. Her articles have been published in the Charleston Gazette, San Francisco Chronicle, Dance Magazine, Dance Europe, voiceofdance.com and criticaldance.com. Singer produced Dance to Live, Live to Dance and served on the board of Robert Moses' Kin dance company. She studied dance with Svetlana Afanasieva, Nina Anderson, Perry Brunson, Cora Cahan, Jane Dudley, Richard Gibson, Zory Karah, Donald McKayle, Francoise Martinet, Augusta Moore, Gertrude Shurr, and Kahz Smuda. Her son James Gotesky dances with Houston Ballet.