Wild Grace - by Sara Veale (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Opening a door into the rich world of modern dance." Kirkus starred review ⭐

"Captivating." Publishers Weekly starred review ⭐

The untold tale of the extraordinary women who drove the modern dance movement, boldly confronting cultural narratives about sex and power.

In Wild Grace, Sara Veale profiles nine of the pioneering North American dancers at the heart of this movement. She shows how Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller fearlessly rejected nineteenth-century paternalism and how Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus battled to recenter marginalised histories with Dunham leading America's first major Black dance troupe and Primus breaking down doors as the first Black student at New York's New Dance Group.

Each of these dancers redefined the meaning of grace in their art and their lifestyle, conveying vital truths about what it means to walk the world as a woman. Veale brings to life the stories and artistry of these remarkable individuals and reveals how, in their refusal to conform, we can find urgent lessons for today.

Review Quotes

"Sara Veale tells the stories of three generations of modern dance matriarchs....By situating each within the context of contemporary social structures, expectations, and movements, Veale illustrates how these artists influenced and were influenced by these forces, and how they in turn subverted ideas of what a woman or dance artist should be."--Courtney Escoyne, Dance Magazine

"With evocative prose, Veale vividly highlights how famous and lesser-known female dancers remade an often exclusionary art form while expanding the ways that art can be used to pursue sociocultural change. It's a captivating chronicle."--Publishers Weekly starred review ⭐

"Opening a door into the rich world of modern dance...Enthusiastic profiles of dancers set within insightful social history."--Kirkus starred review ⭐

"A love letter to modern dance and the women who spearheaded it."--Library Journal

"These female dance makers, whose works emerged from an age of hopefulness, are brought back to life, and are an inspiration for the future."--Sarah Crompton, Spectator

"Compelling."--Harper's Bazaar

"A refreshing blend of biography, criticism and social history."--Zuzanna Lachendro, New Statesman

"Written with love...this pithy, passionate volume is a hymn to the American female dancers from the early 1900s on...a valuable and often fascinating document."--Mark Monahan, Sunday Telegraph

"[An] ardent debut . . . Rigorous research matches with a zesty turn of phrase . . . while broader insights emerge organically into how a person might move through the world with authentic grace."--Hephzibah Anderson, Observer

About the Author

Sara Veale is a London-based writer and editor focusing on dance, feminism and design. She studied literature and dance as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and holds an MA in English: Issues in Modern Culture from University College London. Veale has been a freelance dance critic since 2013, reviewing major international dance companies, covering arts festivals across the UK and Europe and interviewing industry giants. She has written regularly for the Observer, The Spectator, Fjord Review and DanceTabs. Her dance criticism has also appeared in Gramophone, Auditorium, Exeunt and more; her literary criticism has appeared in The Literateur, Fiction Uncovered and Review 31, where she was the fiction reviews editor from 2014 to 2020. Veale is also a member of the Dance Critics' Circle.