Winterdanse: The Misplaced Art of Snow Ballet

by Michael Russell

THE STORY OF BALLET SKIING is one of unrealized a child of clashing influences became a mentor-deprived adolescent, ultimately orphaned and abandoned while searching for self. This wandering youngster answered to a mélange of shifting monikers - Trick, Exotic, Hotdog, Freestyle, Stunt, Ballet, Acro - with Skiing for a surname and blessings by officialdom as inspiration. Winterdanse contemplates the foreshortened life of snow skiing's most creative discipline from the perspective of an athlete who presented it as art, and who understood what was required to sustain it. Or foster its return.

Richly illustrated with hundreds of photographs, letters, journal entries, competition documents, performance programs, and news-article excerpts spanning 50 years, Winterdanse is not just about skiing, but about innovation, discovery, and the influence of contemporary culture on sport and art. It is about finding oneself on a road, a good road but not the right road, only to discern that the right road does not yet exist. It is about building a new road with little more than the conviction that it can be built. It is about thinking independently and owning the consequences.

336 pages, Paperback

Published April 8, 2022

About the author

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Reviews

[Karen Hanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a skier, but a dancer and teacher, and I found this book absolutely inspiring. The author's dedication to a creative vision that defied and surpassed even the unconventional perspective of skiing's most unconventional form is magnificent. The story is motivational, the photographs are beautiful, and the journey is 100% unique.

I can't help but wonder what would have happened to the art of snow ballet (aka "ballet skiing," now extinct) if the author's goal had been to promote it rather than to create and refine it.