ABSTRACT

A series of interviews with some of the foremost dancers in twentieth-century ballet, Never Far from Dancing reflects on the paths that their careers have taken since they retired from the stage. Barbara Newman has expertly edited each of her interviews to read as a monologue, addressing every aspect of ballet, from its styles and technical demands to its personalities, its celebrated roles and, most of all, to what happens when the dancing stops.

While ballet invites all manner of writing from critics, admirers and academics, the thoughts and experiences of the dancers themselves are seldom recorded. Here, those who scaled the heights of their art hand down their wisdom and recount lives spent in this most enduring of art forms.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

chapter |10 pages

Alicia Alonso

chapter |12 pages

Beryl Grey

chapter |13 pages

Donald MacLeary

chapter |15 pages

Lynn Seymour

chapter |16 pages

Antoinette Sibley

chapter |22 pages

Monica Mason

chapter |14 pages

Desmond Kelly

chapter |22 pages

Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux

chapter |17 pages

David Wall

chapter |18 pages

Merrill Ashley

chapter |18 pages

Nina Ananiashvili