On Wings of Joy: The Story of Ballet from the 16th Century to Today

by Trudy Garfunkel

A complete illustrated history of ballet, introducing the major dancers, choreographers, and composers who influenced this art form, starts at the sixteenth-century French court and moves to a portrait of a modern dancer's daily life.

Genres: Art, History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1994

Reviews

[Robin Stansel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the opening description of the Battle of Agincourt and it's possible relationship to the development of ballet.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great ballet history book for the late-child/early-YA bracket. I got this as a Christmas present one year-- I think I was in middle school at the time. I remember it having much more information that I was able to garner from other children's books. In particular, it placed Balanchine and New York City Ballet in time and context in a way that other books had not. My experience of children's dance books is that they either stopped the story with Balanchine (much the way the South stops teaching US History after the Civil War), or they were written by New Yorkers and present NYCB as the center of the ballet world, without much information as to why this is so. Or they were British-- growing up I knew much more about the Royal Ballet, Ashton, and the British ballerinas than I did about Balanchine and his dancers, all because of the availability of the books.*

(*I did read Darci Kistler's autobiography when I was in fifth grade, and I imagine there are similar books, but again, the greatness of Balanchine and his company were taken as a given, not explained or contextualized)

As far as I know, there are not too many books about dance for this age group, and this one is probably the best. Highly recommended for young people past the "pretty tutus" phase of dance books.

[Christiann · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was written by one of the volunteers of NYCB (Yea Trudy!) and is very readable :)

[Mills College Library]

792.809 G2316 1994