WRITING IN THE DARK, DANCING IN THE NEW YORKER

Name: WRITING IN THE DARK, DANCING IN THE NEW YORKER
Author: Arlene Croce
ISBN: 0-374-10455-7

by Arlene Croce ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2000

In one of her more controversial essays, “Discussing the Undiscussable,” Croce declares, “Theoretically, I am ready to go to...

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This scintillating collection, comprising 109 of Croce’s dance essays and reviews published in the New Yorker during the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, presents a riveting three-decade panorama of Amerca’s love affair with the terpsichorean arts.

Croce credits Merce Cunningham with the famous line that speaking about dance is like nailing Jell-o to the wall, but she easily proves that her critical writing can meet that demanding standard. Her prose is light and feathery in its contours, yet exacting and precise in its analysis. From the early days of Mikhail Baryshnikov to the waning years of Martha Graham, with everyone and every dance imaginable in between and beyond, Croce’s reviews capture with snapshot clarity and permanence the most ephemeral of arts; although dance may be as intangible as a beautiful movement in a moment, her essays reveal themselves to be timeless pieces of amber surrounding the memory of a triumphant (or sometimes a failed) evening of motion. With devastating precision through the chronological progression of her writings, Croce asserts that dance’s last great year was 1989 and that the 1990s have witnessed a decline in the beauty and significance of dance due to the emergence of “victim art,” which frees itself from the exigencies of criticism due to its appeal to pathos. Many of the essays here previously appeared in the earlier collections Afterimages (1977), Going to the Dance (1982), and Sight Lines (1987); since all three are now out of print, this is a most welcome omnibus edition.

In one of her more controversial essays, “Discussing the Undiscussable,” Croce declares, “Theoretically, I am ready to go to anything once. If it moves, I’m interested; if it moves to music, I’m in love.” The library of anyone who shares this view is incomplete without her book.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-374-10455-7

Page Count: 720

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.