History, Politics & Society
This book explores the relationships between dancers and their teachers, and classical ballet pedagogy through the life of Maria Zybina. It was inspired by the author’s direct connection through Zybina and her teachers.
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Relatively little has been written about how ballet teachers become teachers themselves and how each generation passes on its experience to the next. The teacher-dancer relationship within the context of the Russian classical tradition is a theme of “A Life Well Danced”. It is presented through the lens of a young girl who lived through emigration and displacement at the time of the Russian Revolution, who experienced this again as an adult after the Second World War and who went on to establish a successful career as a teacher, examiner and choreographer. The book also touches on the teaching and performing of European character dance which is also an under-appreciated field.
“A Life Well Danced” was inspired by the author’s direct connection through Zybina and her teachers, Nicolai Legat in London, Evgenia Eduardova in Berlin and Elena Poliakova in Belgrade, to the flowering of Russian classical ballet in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Marius Petipa was choreographing works such as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. An interview with Zybina provides the framework for material in memoirs and first-hand accounts that are drawn upon for their lively descriptions of the Imperial Theatre School and the Mariinsky ballet company in St. Petersburg.
Born in Moscow, Zybina and her family fled to Europe at the time of the Russian Revolution. Her first marriage to an English diplomat took her to Belgrade and a career as a dancer and ballet mistress in Yugoslavia. The Second World War saw her still in Yugoslavia with her second husband when they and a number of close friends worked in intelligence on behalf of the Allies. A strange twist of events, brought them to England where Zybina established her ballet school and became an examiner for the Federation of Russian Classical Ballet and the Society of Russian Style Ballet Schools.
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
As a dancer, I adored this biography. I think that it not only covers Zybina's life, career, and legacy in great detail but also further opens up the conversation on the role that ballet teachers/masters/mistresses play in the wider world of ballet. I would say, I think that this book is easier to understand and you will get more out of it if you are familiar with the history of ballet (particularly the history of Russian ballet in the 19th and 20th centuries) but is a worthwhile read for anyone.
This BOOK! Jane Gall Spooner has done a remarkable job of telling Maria Zybina's story and her history in Ballet and..... she cited every reference. I am in amazement! This is the embodiment of the perfect History of Ballet book. Ms. Spooner begins around the 1850's and mentions all the important players up to the 1990's, and in some cases even beyond that. All of my favorites are there....Mathilde Kchesssinska, the brothers Legat, Anna Pavlova, Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky and his sister Bronislava Nijinsky, Pierina Legnani, the first dancer to ever incorporate 32 fouettés in a ballet!!!!, Marius Petipa, and so many others! The book begins and ends with Maria (Mary), but what is between the beginning and ending is the best part of this book. I can honestly say that it has answered so many questions I have had in my life regarding the history of Ballet! And...I learned about choreographers and balletomanes I had not heard of before. I LOVED THIS BOOK! The research alone is incredibly intimidating. Thank you to Ms. Spooner, first and foremost, in achieving miracles in the telling of Russian Ballet history and to NetGalley and Troubadour Publishing for the ARC. This is a book I will be recommending to students, friends and fellow choreographers for a long time!!!!
This book is a delightful, informative reading experience. The absorbing story of the author's ballet teacher, the important and cherished Zybina, is told along with its dramatic historical and political context. The author's care in researching the story is evident immediately so the reader feels confident of being in very good hands as it unfolds. At every turn, the details of classical ballet training are described so clearly that even a ballet neophyte can easily follow. I learned so much, easily and enjoyably, from this lovely book.
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