THEME FOR BALLET

by Vicki Baum ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 2, 1958

... and variations on the men in her life trace the story of a great danseuse, Katja, wanting to have both ""life and art"" and failing time and again as her dancing is the obsession to which other obligations are sacrificed. From the time when as a child- in Vienna- she knew she would become a dancer, there were the years of driving discipline, and always the close companionship of Grisha the boy who teaches her, learns with her, and is the center of her world-never exercised even after his death. Grisha takes to young men and cocaine, and for Katja there is the brief, sensual marriage to Pepito, a matador; and finally, when dancing with Grisha, there is the accident which leads to him death, the near-end of her career, and the meeting with Dr. Ted Marshall whom she marries. The years of this polite, undemanding marriage in which she neglects him- for the theatre- are finally threatened by a much younger girl. Katja storms off to New York for the premiere of a new ballet, and only at its close- a triumph- realizes that Ted is more important.... A more substantial book than Vicki Baum has done in some years (although no better written), this gives a prima ballerina a primadonna performance, and the furor of temperament, of love which is not always a pas de deur, of the driving dedication to a world which also has its squalid aspects, keeps this moving.

Pub Date: July 2, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1958

Categories: FICTION