Striving For Beauty

by Sally Bailey

Striving for Beauty takes place during the Christensen Brothers era of the San Francisco Ballet. The Prologue ends with Willam presenting the first full-length Nutcracker in America in 1944. Sally Bailey, one of the Company's future ballerinas, enters Harold's School here, and through her eyes we see the growth of the Company and herself, including; Willam's departure, Lew's ascendance, Balanchine's influence, the State Department tours, trying to get recognition at home, and touring across the U.S. She also gives her perspective on issues-both personal and artistic-that dancers face. A short Epilogue carries San Francisco Ballet history forward to today.

372 pages, Hardcover

First published September 23, 2003

About the author

Sally Bailey received her BFA in directing at the University of Texas at Austin in 1976 and her MFA in playwriting and directing at Trinity University's program at the Dallas Theater Center in 1981. She discovered the power and beauty of drama therapy in the late 80's and trained with Janet Goodrich, one of the founders of NADT. She worked in the Washington metropolitan area as a drama therapist with recovering addicts at Second Genesis and with people of all ages with disabilities at the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts (now Imagination Stage) where she created the Arts Access Program. Since 1999 she has been teaching drama therapy and theatre at Kansas State University. Currently she is a full professor at K-State where she directs the Drama Therapy MA program. She is also the director of the Barrier-Free Theatre, a program for people of all abilities, sponsored by the City of Manhattan's Parks and Recreation Department and co-sponsored by the Manhattan Arts Center. Her passions are writing and drama therapy.