Description

Thanks to Aneta Wira-Ostaszyk, a dancer with the Polish National Ballet, you are given a unique chance to cast an intimate look at the everyday life of a ballerina. You will find out about getting into and studying at ballet school and at what age you should take up classical dance lessons. We will demystify the different elements of a dancer’s costume: classical and Romantic tutus, ballet belts, and pointes (and the tricks ballerinas use to prepare them). We will also take you for a behind-the-scenes tour of an opera house. Why would the show plunge into chaos without the stage manager? How many people, besides the cast and orchestra, does it take to stage a performance. Can you notate choreography like music? How do dancers learn their sequences and how many rehearsals do they need before they are ready to go on stage? Do they ever talk to each other mid-performance? The book also offers a simple introduction to the basic ballet positions, inducing the famous arabesque. Finally, we will take you on a wonderful journey back in time to explore the most important historical facts in the history of the genre and the best-known classical and contemporary ballets with tips where to see them! This is a great compendium about ballet, enriched with numerous anecdotes, personal stories and beautiful photographs that are sure to bewitch ballet lovers of all ages!

Text courtesy of the Publisher. English translation by the Polish National Opera.