Ballet

Portraits of dancers rendered through reflective storytelling and exquisite photography, illustrating the varieties of individual paths within the world of ballet Infinite Steps invites readers into the deeply personal journeys of thirty-three ballet dancers from around the world, tracing their paths from first pliés to final bows and beyond. Through intimate profiles by writer and dancer Gavin Larsen and stunning photographs by Gene Schiavone, this book reveals the physical demands and quiet triumphs that define a life in ballet. Each chapter offers a glimpse into a dancer’s inner world, illuminating the realities behind the moments portrayed by the images. The dancers featured in this book span generations, career stages, and perspectives. Some, such as Misty Copeland, are internationally celebrated stars, while others are just beginning their journeys, and still others have transitioned into new lives beyond the stage. Alina Cojocaru began dancing in Kyiv at 9 years old before becoming a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet. Paloma Herrera became one of the youngest principal dancers in the history of American Ballet Theatre, and Marja’ Quaqua received Copeland’s prestigious Ballet in the City Scholarship for emerging Black dancers. Kylie Edwards performed with the City Ballet of San Diego and transitioned to an acting career, while Vjola Hajati found a second home performing cabaret at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. From the discipline of training to the vulnerability of retirement, these stories reflect the full spectrum of what it means to be a dancer, resonating with Schiavone’s images of the artists at work and rest. Infinite Steps is a tribute to the resilience, craft, and humanity of dancers. For lifelong ballet lovers, students dreaming of the stage, or anyone interested in learning about the people behind incredible art, this book offers a rare and heartfelt look at the many ways a life in dance can unfold.

In 2012 Joy Womack made history when she became the first American ballerina to sign a contract with the Bolshoi Ballet Theater in Moscow, Russia.<BR>Dancing in Moscow was not the Onion Dome fairy tale she'd hoped for. The Bolshoi and its school were filled with cutthroat competition, acts of violence, and coaches who encouraged obsessive devotion. They sent her on stage with broken bones, helped her forge immigration paperwork, and encouraged her to toe a dangerous political line - all for the privilege of dancing on one of the world's most storied stages. <BR>As Joy's career took off and she made a name for herself in the Russian ballet world, she had to face a hard choice. Were the growing dangers of a professional lifestyle descending into corruption worth the realization of her life's dream?

For fans of Hidden Figures and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks<BR><BR>'The kind of history I wish I learned as a child dreaming of the stage!' MISTY COPELAND<BR><BR>'Vibrant, propulsive and inspiring' TIA WILLIAMS<BR><BR>Harlem 1969; it's the height of the Civil Rights era and the community is still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King. Arthur Mitchell, the first Black principal dancer at the New York City Ballet, takes his protest to the stage and establishes the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Here begins the story of the five extraordinary women at the heart of this book. <BR><BR>Both a group biography and a story of a particular time, this is a book about ballet, the enduring allure of ballet for young girls, and about how these pioneers broke into a world that was closed to them and changed ideas of what a classical dancer could be. It is about the heart-breaking impact of the AIDS epidemic which claimed the lives of so many of the male dancers. It's about racism and activism through art. And it's about the eternal glamour of ballet; these swans appeared at the grandest opera houses and theatres, dancing at the White House, and even for the Queen. Their fans included Mick Jagger and they performed alongside the likes of Michael Jackson and Josephine Baker. <BR><BR>But most importantly it tells the universal story of female friendship, and in particular how these five young women formed a bond - while experimenting with different ways of dying ballet shoes and tights to match their skin tones - which still endures many decades later.

Toni Bentley, a dancer for George Balanchine, the greatest ballet maker of the 20th century, tells the story of Serenade, his iconic masterpiece, and what it was like to dance—and live—in his world at New York City Ballet during its legendary era.<BR><BR>At age seventeen, Toni Bentley was chosen by Balanchine, then in his final years, to join the New York City Ballet. From both backstage and onstage, she carries us through the serendipitous history and physical intricacies and demands of Serenade: its dazzling opening, with seventeen women in a double-diamond pattern; its radical, even jazzy, use of the highly refined language that is ballet; its place in the choreographer’s own dramatic story of his immigration to the United States from Soviet Russia; its mystical—and literal—embodiment of the tradition of classical ballet in just thirty-three minutes.<BR><BR>Bentley takes us inside the rarefied, intense, and thrilling world Balanchine created through his lifelong devotion to celebrating and expanding female beauty and strength—a world that, inevitably, passed upon his death. An intimate elegy to grace and loss and to the imprint of a towering artist and his transcendent creation on Bentley’s own life, Serenade: A Balanchine Story is a rich narrative by a dynamic artist about the nature of art itself at its most ephemeral and glorious.

This book is about surviving grief, and charts a journey of exceptional love. Now, aged 77, the burden of ambition has left the author and she has, with the help of close confidantes, reconfigured her life.Petal Ashmole Winstanley grew up in Perth, Western Australia with two great loves: her mother and classical ballet. Spurred on by her natural talent and ambition to dance, she made the voyage on the SS Canberra to London in the swinging '60s-the start of a vibrant career encompassing the glamour, global travel and trials and tribulations of a life on the stage.Her journey has been one of creative fulfilment often offset by deep sadness and loss: that of a longed-for baby, and the ultimate grief of losing three husbands. Petal speaks with gut-wrenching honesty of the brutal circumstances leading to each of their deaths, and the heartbreaking aftermath of a grief that would not ease. Repeated hospice experiences allow her to share an intimate knowledge of what happens before, during and after death-and have made her an advocate for early AIDS and cancer detection, and a fierce believer in Dignity in Dying. Sometimes shocking but frequently funny, Petal's story of sorrow is peppered with optimism as she recounts how, even at the gates of hell, she found the strength to get up, dress up and show up, sporting a dash of red lipstick.

HAVANNA - PARIS: EIN AFROKUBANER IN DER WEIßEN WELT DES BALLETTS <BR> <BR> Er ist einer der ganz wenigen schwarzen Principal Dancer in den großen Ballet-Compagnien. Er war der erste "Black Romeo" an der Pariser Oper, für seine Interpretation des Sklaven Spartakus wurde er in Deutschland zum 'Tänzer des Jahres' gewählt. Doch Zeit seines Lebens und auch auf seinem Karriereweg hat er immer wieder Rassismus und Ausgrenzung erfahren. Osiel Gouneos Autobiographie ist das Zeugnis einer eindrucksvollen Selbstermächtigung jenseits aller Klischees von Schwarz und Weiß. <BR> <BR>Osiel Gouneo ist einer der großen Balletttänzer unserer Zeit. Er wuchs in ärmlichen Verhältnissen im sozialistischen Kuba auf und lernte früh, dass Talent im Ballett vor allem harte Arbeit ist. Nach seinem Durchbruch in Havanna verließ er seine Heimat Richtung Europa und wurde ein international gefeierter Ballerino. Der Afro-Kubaner ist einer der wenigen schwarzen Principal Dancer in der weißen Welt des klassischen Balletts. Gouneo aber besteht nicht darauf und sagt: 'Ich bin kein schwarzer Balletttänzer, ich bin ein Balletttänzer.' Das ist auch deshalb erstaunlich, weil seine Großeltern noch zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts in Kuba versklavt wurden und er selbst auch in der Ballettwelt immer wieder Rassismus erlebt hat. Osiel Gouneos Autobiographie ist nicht nur eine unglaubliche Aufstiegsgeschichte, sondern ein ebenso überraschender wie relevanter Debattenbeitrag in Zeiten aufgeregter Diskussionen um Cancel Culture und kulturelle Aneignung. <BR> <BR>"Eine Gleichbehandlung unter den Ethnien und Geschlechtern sollte so normal sein wie das Ein- und Ausatmen. Im Ballett ist es das leider nicht." <BR> <BR> - Von den Armenvierteln in Kuba an die Spitze der europäischen Ballettwelt - Eine Geschichte von Aufstieg und Empowerment - Osiel Gouneo ist derzeit Erster Solist beim Bayerischen Staatsballett in München

Can ballet ever be reconciled with feminist ideals?'Beautiful, difficult, and compelling.' VANITY FAIR'Don't think, dear,' said Balanchine. 'Just do.'For centuries, being a ballerina has been synonymous with being beautiful, thin, obedient and feminine. It is the crucible of womanhood, together with the harassment, physical abuse and eating disorders endemic at top schools. Can we abide this in a post #MeToo world?Weaving together her own time at America's most elite ballet school with the lives of renowned ballerinas throughout history, Alice Robb interrogates what it means to perform ballet today. She confronts the all-consuming nature of the form: the obsessive and dangerous practices to perfect the body, the embrace of submission and the idealisation of suffering.Yet ballet also gifts its dancers 'brains in their toes', a way to fully inhabit their bodies and a sanctuary of control away from the pressures of the outside world. Perhaps it is time to reimagine its liberating potential.***'Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, the book weaves [Robb's] early experiences as a dancer with those of her contemporaries, and of famous ballerinas... Don't Think, Dear is powered by a fundamental love of the art form while exposing the toxic culture that runs through it.' GUARDIAN'[Robb's] timely book is a critical yet personal examination of classical ballet - a performing art highly dependent on the talent of women - filtered through the lens of 21st-century feminism... she brings a welcome academic rigour to a subject clearly born of deeply held emotions.' THE TIMES'A study of an obsession remarkable for its nuance and insight... It might be easy... to assume that Don't Think, Dear is Robb's litany of grievances about a demanding art form in which she failed to flourish. Rather, it is a book about love, even if that love is ultimately unrequited... fascinating.' TLS

RETROSPEKTIVE UND BILANZ: DAS BUCH ÜBER JOHN CRANKOJohn Cranko verhalf in einer unvergleichlichen 12-jährigen Schaffensphase dem Stuttgarter Ballett zu Weltruhm und wurde zum international bedeutenden Ballettchoreografen. Seine richtungsweisenden Handlungsballette schreiben bis heute Tanz- und Kulturgeschichte. Eindrucksvoll und sehr persönlich kommen in diesem Band zwanzig Weggefährt:innen John Crankos zu Wort. Ihre Erinnerungen erlauben einen einzigartigen Blick auf das Leben, das Wirken und das Vermächtnis des Ausnahmechoreografen und Ballettdirektors - von 1961 bis heute und darüber hinaus. Komplettiert wird der Band durch zahlreiche, zum Teil unveröffentlichte Fotos von John Cranko, eine anschauliche Biografie und das komplette Verzeichnis seiner Werke.- John Cranko - visionärer Ballettdirektor und meisterhafter Choreograf- Erinnerungen der Tänzer:innen, Biografie John Crankos, Werkverzeichnis- Mit Texten von Marcia Haydée, Birgit Keil, Richard Cragun, Egon Madsen, John Neumeier, Peter Wright u.v.m.- Crankos Choreografien 'Romeo und Julia', 'Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung' und 'Onegin' begeistern bis heute Millionen- Das perfekte Geschenk für alle TanzfansBALLETTDIREKTOR, CHOREOGRAF, TANZVISIONÄRAusgebildet am Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, kam der in Südafrika geborene John Cranko 1961 nach Stuttgart. In den folgenden 12 Jahren war er Direktor und Choreograf der Ballettcompagnie, versammelte mit einem sicheren Gespür für Talent die außergewöhnlichsten Tänzerpersönlichkeiten um sich - darunter Marcia Haydée, Birgit Keil und Egon Madsen. Mit diesem Ensemble läutete er die große Ära des Stuttgarter Balletts ein, ein steiler Aufstieg, den Zeitungen als das "Stuttgarter Ballettwunder" feierten. Nach dem Grundsatz der individuellen Förderung einer jeden Tänzerin und eines jeden Tänzers war die Ausbildung des Nachwuchses eines von John Crankos größten Anliegen. So legte er 1971 auch den Grundstein für die erste staatliche Ballettschule der Bundesrepublik, die John Cranko Schule. Sie ist bis heute eine der renommiertesten Ausbildungsstätten für Balletttänzer:innen der Welt.DAS VERMÄCHTNIS EINES AUSNAHMEKÜNSTLERSMit seiner spannungsvollen Dramaturgie und Figurencharakteristik gilt John Cranko als Erneuerer klassischer Handlungsballette, die auch 50 Jahre nach seinem Tod nicht an Faszination verloren haben. Begleitet von zahlreichen Fotografien ist diese hochwertige Buchpublikation ein einzigartiger und persönlicher Blick auf das Vermächtnis John Crankos.

'Swan Dive is to ballet what Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential was to restaurants, a chance to go behind the serene front of house to the sweaty, foul-mouthed, psychofrenzy backstage.' - Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times<BR><BR>In this love letter to the art of dance, Georgina Pazcoguin, New York City Ballet's first Asian American female soloist, lays bare the backstage world of elite ballet.<BR><BR>With an unapologetic sense of humour about the cut-throat mentality required, Pazcoguin takes us from her small home town in Pennsylvania to training for one of the most revered ballet companies in the world - a company that was rocked by scandal in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Pazcoguin continues to be one of the few dancers openly speaking up against harassment, abuse and racism - all of which she has painfully experienced firsthand.<BR><BR>Tying together Pazcoguin's fight for equality with an infectious passion for her craft, Swan Dive is a page-turning, one-of-a-kind memoir that guarantees you'll never view a ballerina or a ballet the same way again.<BR><BR>'Always arresting onstage, Georgina Pazcoguin gives us a take on the ballet world that is witty and from the heart. An eye-opening read.' - Mikhail Baryshnikov<BR><BR>'A funny, poignant and shocking read . . . [Pazcoguin] punctures, with enormous glee, the stereotype of the ballet dancer as an elegant, ethereal being.' - Fiona Sturges, Guardian

El esplendor y las miserias de Los Ángeles y Hollywood. Una magnífica indagación en los secretos más inconfesables de una ciudad mítica. En la ciudad de Los Ángeles el sol brilla prácticamente los trescientos sesenta y cinco días del año; en una de sus colinas el legendario cartel de Hollywood anuncia la fábrica de sueños más potente del mundo y en otras se suceden las mansiones. Varias de estas fastuosas residencias forman parte de este libro, que reconstruye la desmesurada historia de la ciudad a través de cinco familias emblemáticas, con su glamour, sus excesos, sus secretos de alcoba, sus extravagancias, su acumulación de riqueza y poder y sus destructivas tensiones.La autora nos presenta a los Doheny, cuyo patriarca inspiró ¡Petróleo!, de Upton Sinclair, y Pozos de ambición, de Paul Thomas Anderson; a Jack Warner y sus hermanos, que levantaron uno de los grandes estudios de Hollywood; a Jane Garland, una joven aspirante a actriz psíquicamente desequilibrada; a la estrella Jennifer Jones, su marido, el megalómano productor Selznick, y sus vástagos, de trágico destino, y, por último, a su propia familia y la figura de su padre, fundador de la Music Corporation of America, pieza clave de la poderosa industria musical.Al oeste del Edén explora un siglo de historia de Estados Unidos, con sus luces y sus sombras, e indaga en el mito del sueño americano y en su tenebroso reverso, con la Gran Depresión, el Comité de Actividades Antiamericanas, la Mafia, los tabloides... El libro, fruto de dos décadas de trabajo, está escrito con el método de la 'historia oral' a partir de entrevistas con figuras como Joan Didion, Gore Vidal, Arthur Miller, Lauren Bacall, Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Frank Gehry, Naomi Klein, Stephen Sondheim, miembros de las familias Warner, Jones, Selznick y Stein, terapeutas, chóferes, criadas... El intenso resultado es un imponente fresco de Los Ángeles.

„Nur wenige Choreografen können in reiner Bewegung derart tiefe Gedanken versinnbildlichen." (Angela Reinhardt)Wer heute an Tanz denkt, muss an ihn denken: Martin Schläpfer ist einer der bedeutendsten Tänzer und Choreografen unserer Zeit. Im Sommer 2020 wechselt er als Direktor vom Ballett am Rhein zum berühmten Wiener Staatsballett und nimmt damit eine weitere große Herausforderung in seinem Berufsleben an. Als Sohn eines Appenzeller Bergbauern hat der heute Sechzigjährige eine verblüffende Karriere vom Solotänzer zum Choreografen gemacht. Nach nur zwei Jahren professioneller Ausbildung im Ballett gewann Schläpfer 1977 den Prix de Lausanne. Er wurde ein Bühnenstar, galt als charismatischster Solist seiner Generation. Doch bald reizte ihn die tänzerische Ausbildung anderer sowie die choreografische Arbeit. - die erste Biografie des Künstlers, in Gesprächen erzählt- ein aufrichtiges, kluges, reich bebildertes Buch- visionär und stark: der Tänzer über Kunst, Kreativität und den Zwiespalt zwischen Bühne und Privatheit- mit über achtzig Fotos, gedruckt auf separatem Papier und per Hand eingebunden- für alle Kultur- und Tanzbegeisterten sowie für alle, die sich für außergewöhnliche Künstlerbiografien interessierenAtemberaubende choreografische ArbeitenMehr als siebzig Choreografien umfassen sein Werk, darunter das berühmte „Forellenquintett" sowie eine atemberaubende Neuinterpretation von „Schwanensee". Schläpfer choreografiert minimalistisch und dennoch monumental, Kostüm und Lichttechnik unterstützen die feinsinnige Wirkung seiner Stücke. In der Musikwahl dem klassischen Repertoire verpflichtet, sind seine Inszenierungen die zeitgenössische Weiterentwicklung des neoklassizistischen Balletts.Intensives Porträt eines kraftvollen Tänzers und SchöpfersIn neun sehr persönlichen und tiefgründigen Gesprächen spricht Martin Schläpfer überraschend offen mit der Journalistin Bettina Trouwborst über ein Leben voller Brüche, seine Tanzkunst, die Glücksmomente auf der Bühne und die Verletzungen im Beruf, und er reagiert sensibel auf kulturelle und politische Entwicklungen, die sich auch in seinem choreografischen Kosmos widerspiegeln. In den langen Interviews wird nachvollziehbar, wie man erst durch erlernte Tanztechnik und Beherrschung wirklich frei wird oder wie man den Konflikt in der Kreativität braucht. Deutlich wird auch, wie Schläpfers Ballette entstehen, wie er unterrichtet und führt.Alle, die sich für Tanz, Ballett, Choreografie und außergewöhnliche Künstlerbiografien interessieren, erwartet hier eine intensive Lektüre, die – auch mithilfe starker Fotos von seinen Choreografien – tiefgründige Einblicke in das Leben und Denken des Ausnahmekünstlers Martin Schläpfer gewährt.

To many people, Lucia Chase (1897-1986) was the American Ballet Theatre, and her reign as the queen of American ballet lasted for more than four decades.It was Chase who brought Nureyev, Bujones, Kirkland, and eventually Baryshnikov to ABT. Under her leadership, the company worked with such legends as Agnes de Mille, Anthony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, and Twyla Tharp. Her drive, ambition, tenacity, and money kept the doors open even during the lean years.A dancer when the company made its debut in 1940, she was artistic director for an unprecedented thirty-five years, from 1945 to 1980. Over the course of her career, she received numerous honors and awards, including the U.S. Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.Combining unique personal insights as Chase's son along with experience garnered from his own professional dance and administrative career, Alex Ewing offers the definitive story of one of the true pioneers in the world of American ballet.

Rudolf Nureyev, uno dei più grandi ballerini del ventesimo secolo, aveva tutto: bellezza, genio, fascino, passione e sex appeal. Nessun altro interprete della danza classica ha mai suscitato nel pubblico la stessa vibrante eccitazione, sopra e fuori il palco. In questa biografia, Julie Kavanagh racconta le tappe straordinarie della sua carriera e della sua vita: l'educazione alla scuola del Kirov a Leningrado, il controverso allontanamento dall'Unione Sovietica nel 1961; la relazione lunga e tormentata col ballerino danese Erik Bruhn; lo spettacolare sodalizio artistico con Margot Fonteyn al Royal Ballet di Londra. Seguiamo tra le pagine le infuocate collaborazioni con i maggiori coreografi dell'epoca ¿ tra cui Ashton, Balanchine, Robbins, Graham, Taylor ¿ e il rivoluzionario impegno presso il Balletto dell'Opéra di Parigi nei primi anni ottanta, prima della morte prematura per le complicazioni dell'Aids nel 1993. Das Urheberrecht an bibliographischen und produktbeschreibenden Daten und an den bereitgestellten Bildern liegt bei Informazioni Editoriali, I.E. S.r.l., oder beim Herausgeber oder demjenigen, der die Genehmigung erteilt hat. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

NOW A MAJOR FILM BY RALPH FIENNES, THE WHITE CROW<BR><BR>'A gripping account of an extraordinary life' Daily Telegraph<BR> <BR>Born on a train in Stalin's Russia, Rudolf Nureyev was ballet's first pop icon. No other dancer of our time has generated the same excitement - both on and off stage.<BR><BR>Nureyev's achievements and conquests became legendary: he rose out of Tatar peasant poverty to become the Kirov's thrilling maverick star; slept with his beloved mentor's wife; defected to the West in 1961; sparked Rudimania across the globe; established the most rhapsodic partnership in dance history with the middle-aged Margot Fonteyn; reinvented male technique; gatecrashed modern dance; moulded new stars; and staged Russia's unknown ballet masterpieces in the West. He and his life were simply astonishing.<BR><BR>'Magnificent, a triumph. Captures every facet of this extraordinary man' Mail on Sunday<BR><BR>'The definitive study of a man who, in his combination of aesthetic grace and psychological grime, can truly be called a sacred monster' Observer<BR><BR>'Undoubtedly the definitive biography' Sunday Telegraph

David Hallberg, the first American to join the famed Bolshoi Ballet as a principal dancer and the dazzling artist The New Yorker described as “the most exciting male dancer in the western world,” presents a look at his artistic life—up to the moment he returns to the stage after a devastating injury that almost cost him his career.<BR><BR>Beginning with his real-life Billy Elliot childhood—an all-American story marred by intense bullying—and culminating in his hard-won comeback, Hallberg’s “moving and intelligent” (Daniel Mendelsohn) memoir dives deep into life as an artist as he wrestles with ego, pushes the limits of his body, and searches for ecstatic perfection and fulfillment as one of the world’s most acclaimed ballet dancers.<BR> <BR>Rich in detail ballet fans will adore, Hallberg presents an “unsparing…inside look” (The New York Times) and also reflects on universal and relatable themes like inspiration, self-doubt, and perfectionism as he takes you into daily classes, rigorous rehearsals, and triumphant performances, searching for new interpretations of ballet’s greatest roles. He reveals the loneliness he felt as a teenager leaving America to join the Paris Opera Ballet School, the ambition he had to tame as a new member of American Ballet Theatre, and the reasons behind his headline-grabbing decision to be the first American to join the top rank of Bolshoi Ballet, tendered by the Artistic Director who would later be the victim of a vicious acid attack. Then, as Hallberg performed throughout the world at the peak of his abilities, he suffered a crippling ankle injury and botched surgery leading to an agonizing retreat from ballet and an honest reexamination of his entire life.<BR> <BR>Combining his powers of observation and memory with emotional honesty and artistic insight, Hallberg has written a great ballet memoir and an intimate portrait of an artist in all his vulnerability, passion, and wisdom. “Candid and engrossing” (The Washington Post), A Body of Work is a memoir “for everyone with a heart” (DC Metro Theater Arts).

This is the HARDBACK version. In an era when aspiring actors desperately sought studioconnections, young Dickie Jones did not. Possessor of aload of multiple talents and under the guidance of hismother, he moved from studio to studio - dancing, acting,riding. Dickie had that most desirable gift for every actor -believability.In his independence, Dickie walked off with one of the plumjuvenile roles of his time - the voice of Pinocchio for WaltDisney. As he geared up to sing "No Strings on Me" hemight have been singing his personal theme song.In NO STRINGS: IN SEARCH OF DICKIE JONES, AnnSnuggs has shared Dick's stories from his days on the silverscreen in combination with her research on the films andpeople involved. Come search for the real Dick "Dickie"Jones.

Hope in a Ballet Shoe tells the story of Michaela DePrince. Growing up in war-torn Sierra Leone, she witnesses atrocities that no child ever should. Her father is killed by rebels and her mother dies of famine. Sent to an orphanage, Michaela is mistreated and she sees the brutal murder of her favourite teacher.Michaela and her best friend are adopted by an American couple and Michaela begins to take dance lessons. But life in the States isn't without difficulties. Unfortunately, tragedy can find its way to Michaela in America, too, and her past can feel like it's haunting her. The world of ballet is a racist one, and Michaela has to fight for a place amongst the ballet elite, hearing the words 'America's not ready for a black girl ballerina.'And yet . . . Today, Michaela DePrince is an international ballet star, dancing for The Dutch National Ballet at the age of nineteen. This is a heart-breaking, inspiring autobiography by a teenager who shows us that, beyond everything, there is always hope for a better future.