Dont Think, Dear - On Loving and Leaving Ballet

?Don't think, dear' said Balanchine. ?Just do.'

For centuries, being a ballerina has been synonymous with being beautiful, thin, obedient and feminine. It is the crucible of womanhood, together with the harassment, physical abuse and eating disorders endemic at top schools. Can we abide this in a post #MeToo world?

Weaving together her own time at America's most elite ballet school with the lives of renowned ballerinas throughout history, Alice Robb interrogates what it means to perform ballet today. She confronts the all-consuming nature of the form: the obsessive and dangerous practices to perfect the body, the embrace of submission and the idealisation of suffering.

Yet ballet also gifts its dancers ?brains in their toes', a way to fully inhabit their bodies and a sanctuary of control away from the pressures of the outside world. Perhaps it is time to reimagine its liberating potential.

About the author

Alice Robb has written for Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and The New Republic, among other publications. Her first book, Why We Dream was recommended by The New Yorker, The New York Times, Today, Vogue, TIME and The Guardian, and has been translated into seventeen languages.

Summary

Can ballet ever be reconciled with feminist ideals?

Product details

• Authors: Alice Robb
• Publisher: Oneworld
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.02.2024
• EAN: 9780861547333
• ISBN: 978-0-86154-733-3
• No. of pages: 304
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Biographies, autobiographies; SELF-HELP / General, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Social Activists, PERFORMING ARTS / Dance / Classical & Ballet, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, MUSIC / History & Criticism, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Entertainment & Performing Arts, Memoirs, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory, MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Classical, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, PERFORMING ARTS / Dance / General, Ballet, Feminism & feminist theory, Biography and non-fiction prose, Feminism and feminist theory, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs