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Book Review: Breaking Pointe By Miriam Wenger-Landis

June 8, 2012 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

Miriam Wenger-Landis’s latest novel Breaking Pointe is the companion to her first, Girl In Motion. The protagonist is Anna Linado, now fresh out of the School of Ballet New York and entering her first season as an Apprentice with Los Angeles Ballet Theatre. Breaking Pointe takes us through four seasons of Anna’s career with LABT. From her embarrassment at her mother’s effusiveness over Anna’s new job, to her first-day find of an old diary in her theater case, to her debut in solo after solo, to her disappointing and confusing fall from favor with the artistic staff, Anna’s narration reveals she’s wise beyond her eighteen years. She is optimistically curious about the “real” dance world and its inhabitants, and observant—but forgiving—of the shortcomings she finds there.

Slowly we see Anna’s optimism change to denial and disbelief. How can the things she reads in the diary possibly be true? How can dancers become so jaded and cynical? Injuries, lost roles, sexual harassment, company politics, guilt over the need to prioritize other areas of life, and workplace role ambiguity all take their toll on members of Los Angeles Ballet Theatre. Will the same things happen to Anna?

I loved the way Wenger-Landis uses the voice of Karina, the diary’s author, to serve as a series of interviews with the dancers and staff of LABT. For Anna, the entries provide insight into her colleagues’ sometimes mystifying behavior. They also ring true for the reader as an airing of dancers’ grievances in general. I know many dancers who have been in at least one of these characters’ fictional shoes.

Many of Anna’s career challenges initially stem from her relationship with Ethan, an older, worldlier, boy-next-door type. He is an utter outsider to the dance world, and Anna decides to take the risk of inviting him into her ballet bubble. Though she comes close to questioning her decision to let him in several times throughout the story, Ethan is Anna’s rock. Ultimately, he’s the best thing that could have happened to her, and she knows it.

Spoiler alert: in Breaking Pointe, as in many a ballet fairy-tale, love triumphs over evil, but this happy ever after is the real kind you have to work hard at. The conclusion of this novel brings to light a sad but important question for dancers: how many of us actually have the healthy relationship we want with dance? How good are we at picking up on cues in our own experiences to help us make that assessment? If anything, Breaking Pointe is a lesson in the importance of self-knowledge. I recommend it in earnest.

Purchase Breaking Pointe here

Read more about Miriam Wenger-Landis

Emily Kate Long, Photo by Avory Pierce

BIO: Contributor Emily Kate Long began her dance education in South Bend, Indiana, with Kimmary Williams and Jacob Rice and graduated in 2007 from Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School’s Schenley Program. Ms Long attended Milwaukee Ballet School’s Summer Intensive on scholarship before being invited to join Milwaukee Ballet II in 2007. She also has spent summers studying at Saratoga Summer Dance Intensive, Miami City Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, Pittsburgh Youth Ballet, and Ballet Chicago.

Ms Long has been a member of Ballet Quad Cities since 2009. She has danced featured roles in Deanna Carter’s Ash to Glass and Dracula, participated in the company’s 2010 tour to New York City, and most recently performed the title role in Courtney Lyon’s Cinderella and the role of Clara in The Nutcracker. Prior to joining Ballet Quad Cities Ms Long performed with Milwaukee Ballet and MBII in Michael Pink’s The Nutcracker and Candide Overture, Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadére, Balanchine’s Who Cares?, Bournonville’s Flower Festival in Genzano and Napoli, and original contemporary and neoclassical works by Tom Teague, Denis Malinkine, Rolando Yanes, and Petr Zaharadnicek.

Filed Under: 4dancers, Books & Magazines, Reviews Tagged With: Ballet, book, breaking pointe, miriam wenger -landis

Interview With Author Germaine Shames

February 15, 2012 by 4dancers

Today we are happy to share this interview with author Germaine Shames…

Author, Germaine Shames

What is your background in dance?

Like the protagonist in my novel I began taking ballet classes at the age of four with a teacher whom, my parents liked to boast, had studied under Martha Graham. Like other young girls, I dreamed of becoming a prima ballerina.

But I was not like most girls.  Shy, stubborn, I balked at following choreography and often found myself stranded alone on one side of the studio while the class, moving as one body, occupied the opposite side.  And then suddenly, before I had mastered a single step, it was time for my first recital.  A chorus line of us baby ballerinas was positioned center-stage as the towering velvet curtain slowly, slowly opened.  One look at the audience and I froze, mouth wide-open, hands clamped to my cheeks.

My parents removed me from ballet class and enrolled me again thee years later—with similar results.  There would be no more recitals.

Flash forward half a century…

I have ripened into, not a ballerina, but a writer with abiding creative and emotional ties to dance and dancers.  My forthcoming ballet-themed novel You, Fascinating You will be released within days.

The protagonist of my novel, Margit Wolf, begins the account of her life, “They say ballet chooses the dancer.”  Regrettably, I was not among the chosen.  How I envy those of you who are!

How did you become a writer? [Read more…]

Filed Under: 10 Questions With..., Books & Magazines, Dance Gifts, Dance History Tagged With: ballerina, Ballet, book, dancer, germaine shames, margit wolf, martha graham, you fascinating you

Review: Every Step You Take by Jock Soto

December 5, 2011 by 4dancers

by Catherine L. Tully

I’m fascinated by the lives of dancers. Even though I was one, I can never seem to get past the fact that each of us has such a distinctly different path–and a totally unique perspective on what it is like to live this life.

Because of that, I was excited to read Every Step You Take, a memoir written by Jock Soto (with Leslie Marshall). After all, this is a man that I grew up watching in the ballet world. Soto was a principal dancer with NYCB when he retired at the age of 40, and this book begins with the end of his career on stage. A peek inside the thoughts and fears that swirl around one’s head when the final performance looms, I thought it was a great opener.

Where, I thought, will this book go from here? [Read more…]

Filed Under: 4dancers, 4teachers, Books & Magazines, Dance Gifts, FOR SALE, Reviews Tagged With: abt, Ballet, book, every step you take, jock soto, new york city ballet, nycb

10 Questions With…Miriam Landis

October 19, 2010 by 4dancers

Today we have an unusual interview–with writer/former dancer, Miriam Landis. She is the author of a book about ballet…but I don’t want to give everything away so…read on!

1. How did you wind up in dance?

My mom noticed early on that I was walking around the kitchen on my tippy-toes, so she put me in dance classes before I was even three. As I grew up I enjoyed ballet more and more and discovered I was good at it. When I was thirteen I started going away for six weeks to ballet summer programs in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and eventually New York. When I was sixteen, I attended the summer program at the School of American Ballet and they invited me to return for the full school year. I moved away from my family in Salt Lake City and lived in a dorm at Lincoln Center to attend SAB for my last two years of high school. After the annual workshop performances at the end of my senior year, Edward Villella invited me to join the Miami City Ballet. 

Miriam Landis

2. What was your career like?

It was a whirlwind. I joined Miami City Ballet when I was eighteen and started dancing soloist and principal roles within a year. My first big part was the Flower Festival in Genzano pas de deux. I worked hard and the big parts came quickly. I danced leading roles Scotch Girl in Scotch Symphony, the ballerina doll in The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and even Liberty Bell in Stars and Stripes. By the time I was twenty-two I felt like I had accomplished what I wanted in ballet and was ready for a change of direction. Ballet was such a core part of my identity that it was difficult to move on. It’s still a huge part of who I am today and I’ve been able to apply the discipline and other skills in many other aspects of my life. I also made lifelong friends who I’ll feel connected with forever. I was fortunate to have the experience of dancing with such a prestigious company and felt so close to the people I trained and performed with every day for four years. My whole world revolved around dance during that time in my life.

3. What have you done since you retired from dance?

I branched out my interests when I left. I traveled through Europe and did two different study abroad programs in France. In fact, much of the book was written while I was living in France at a time in my life when i could reflect in a meaningful way. I completed all of the pre-med courses in college but eventually decided I didn’t want to become a doctor. l found it hard to go from working with bodies in perfect form to bodies with disease without becoming emotionally overcome. I switched my major to English instead and pursued a career in publishing. I started writing “Girl in Motion” during my junior year of college. After I graduated from Stanford I moved back to New York and worked as an assistant editor at a major publishing house in New York. Three years later I had a great opportunity to move to Seattle and work at Amazon in book merchandising. I’ve been in Seattle for three years and met my husband here.

4. Why did you decide to write the novel, “Girl In Motion”?

There were two reasons. One was that I read a lot of ballet books as I grew up and never found one that fully reflected what my experience was like. I felt a real need to share what I learned with younger ballet students. Second, the writing was also for myself. I was trying to come to terms with leaving the ballet world, and writing was a good way to process my experience.

5. What audience is the novel aimed at?

It’s for ballet students and their parents, and anyone who is interested in ballet.

6. How did you draw on your personal experience with dance in terms of your writing?

I wrote about the emotions I felt and the struggles I watched my friends go through. The feelings remain vivid in my mind ten years later. It was easier to examine how we became professionals through the lives of fictional characters because so many of the themes are universal to every young dancer.

7. What was the experience of writing a novel like?

It was so challenging. There was too much I wanted to say and didn’t know how to express in words. Dancing is all about saying things without words, and writing is completely the opposite. I wrote so many drafts of “Girl in Motion.” At certain times it was in third person, had different titles, and focused on different characters. I tried so many different ways of expressing the story.

8. Do you have any advice for people who might be thinking about writing a dance novel?

The publishing industry is difficult and a unique business world, which makes getting published through traditional routes a real challenge, especially if you don’t already have a persuasive way to market the book. Publishers want to see that. I’d say to worry about that later though, and first try to write the book. I always felt the challenge was to refrain from over-dramatizing ballet the way you often see it in done in films. It wasn’t easy to make the dancers seem like real characters that normal people can relate to, and that’s really important in a novel. Most people don’t go through the specific intense competition involved in a dancer’s life, and dancers’ experiences aren’t universal. Fiction needs to have more universal themes.

9. Can you share a favorite memory from when you were dancing?

One of my favorite memories was my very first performance with Miami City Ballet. We were dancing Western Symphony at the Olympics in Atlanta. I remember standing in the wings and watching all the dancers creating the ballet together, and there was just this incredible feeling of teamwork and love for what we were doing. I could see every person pushing themselves, concentrating, and striving for something larger than we could have done alone. The energy was just incredible.

I was so excited to be a part of it.

10. Where can people purchase your book?

Human Kinetics Book

The easiest place to find “Girl in Motion” is on Amazon.com.

You can also join the “Girl in Motion” Facebook page.

I’d love to know what people think of “Girl in Motion,” so don’t hesitate to post a review on Amazon or make comments on the Facebook page.

I hope people enjoy the book!

BIO: Miriam Wenger-Landis was a student at the School of American Ballet and a professional ballerina with the Miami City Ballet. She graduated from Stanford University and lives in Seattle.

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Filed Under: 10 Questions With..., 4dancers, 4teachers, Books & Magazines, Dance Gifts, Editorial, Studios Tagged With: book, dancer, girl in motion, Miami City Ballet, miriam landis, sab, school of american ballet

Dance & Poetry

April 5, 2010 by 4dancers

If you are into dance–and into poetry–this book is for you. An anthology of poems on dance, this book has noted authors such as Carl Sandburg, Lord Byron, Ezra Pound and Anne Sexton.

Famous dancers that are talked about in the poems include Gene Kelly, Anna Pavlova and Isadora Duncan, among others. There are 86 poems in all.

This book would make a great gift for a dance lover, or a nice addition to your own library of dance books.

You can find it at Dance Horizons for $18.95

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Filed Under: 4dancers, 4teachers, Books & Magazines, Dance Gifts, FOR SALE Tagged With: anna pavlova, anne sexton, book, carl sandburg, dance, dance horizons, ezra pound, gene kelly, isadora duncan, lord byron, poetry

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