Celestial Bodies, Laura Jacobs
Celestial Bodies, Laura Jacobs
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Celestial Bodies
How to Look at Ballet

Author: Laura Jacobs

Narrator: Tiffany Morgan

Unabridged: 6 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 05/08/2018

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

A distinguished dance critic offers an enchanting introduction to the art of ballet

As much as we may enjoy Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, for many of us ballet is a foreign language. It communicates through movement, not words, and its history lies almost entirely abroad -- in Russia, Italy, and France. In Celestial Bodies, dance critic Laura Jacobs makes the foreign familiar, providing a lively, poetic, and uniquely accessible introduction to the world of classical dance. Combining history, interviews with dancers, technical definitions, descriptions of performances, and personal stories, Jacobs offers an intimate and passionate guide to watching ballet and understanding the central elements of choreography.

Beautifully written and elegantly illustrated with original drawings, Celestial Bodies is essential reading for all lovers of this magnificent art form.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Marks54 on June 29, 2018

Laura Jacobs is an accomplished dance critic whose new book is an introduction to the art form aimed at the audience members. The book is a series of semi-connected introductions that audience members need to know to make sense of what they are watching - and what they have paid a lot to see. The bo......more

Goodreads review by Kirsten on May 04, 2019

Laura Jacobs is definitely a skilled viewer of ballet and there is a lot of good information here thanks to her encyclopedic knowledge of technique. To her credit, she is comprehensive, though she'd gain more trust from her readers if she were keener on citing archival sources and explaining her rese......more

Goodreads review by Billy on January 21, 2020

Written by a prominent ballet critic, it reads almost like a parody of how a prominent ballet critic would write. Lots of gushing language, lots of praise of ballerinas the critic could not possibly have seen (i.e., women who danced before the age of video recording) and lots of self references. The......more

Goodreads review by Margaryta on June 27, 2018

"Celestial Bodies" is not a detailed book about ballet, about its history or the inevitable problems it has. Jacobs makes this clear in the introduction: if you want a book that gives you a flowing narrative across time, you will need to do more research. Instead, this is more of a crash-course on b......more

Goodreads review by Luna on May 26, 2021

It's been so long since I've left a Goodreads review, but I want to try keeping up to date with this again. With that in mind - I'm a sucker for ballet and tend to devour anything even remotely related, so when I saw this in my local bookstore, I quickly snapped it up. As other reviewers have mentione......more

Quotes

"Jacobs's book opens the door, offering a meticulous introduction to the art form and welcoming readers to have a seat and stay a while.... It's from this insider's perspective that Jacobs is able to offer an all-encompassing guided tour behind the curtain, then circling back to the auditorium where the balletomane, the occasional fan and the newcomer sit side by side as they interpret the performance according to their individual experiences and beliefs."

—Misty Copeland, New York Times Book Review

"A lively guide, for the newcomer and enthusiast alike, to an art form that is meticulously controlled yet ever-changing."—Wall Street Journal

"Our dance critic Laura Jacobs is the best writer on ballet there is. So you can bet that her new book, Celestial Bodies: How to Look at Ballet, will be the best primer on ballet there is."—New Criterion

"In 12 chapters Jacobs provides readers a whirlwind tour of ballet, effortlessly weaving together history, technique, music, choreography, drama."—Ballet Focus

"Whether you are budding balletomane or a lifelong dancer, Celestial Bodies will inspire you to look more closely at our beloved art form-and fall more deeply in love with it."—Pointe Magazine

"This sparkling, eloquent book will make going to the ballet a richer experience for both the novice and the passionate."
—Haglund's Heel

"Lyrical and accessible...Jacobs brings over two decades' worth of her experience as a dance critic to this elegant introduction to all aspects of the art form: its cultural history, the development of its aesthetics, its famous works and epic personalities."—Times Literary Supplement

"Written like a true dancer...It's from this insider's perspective that Jacobs is able to offer an all-encompassing guided tour behind the curtain, then circling back to the auditorium where the balletomane, the occasional fan and the newcomer sit side by side as they interpret the performance according to their individual experiences and beliefs."—New York Times Book Review

"According to the artist and critic Alexandre Benois, 'Ballet is perhaps the most eloquent of all spectacles.' This book is one of the most eloquent ever written about it."—Booklist

"The author ably explains the technical aspects of ballet, as when she explains that turnout's 'symmetrical torque in the hips engages energy and concentrates it' and in her beautiful description of pas de deux: 'a form of close-up, the theatrical equivalent of the camera's lavish gaze.' 'They're doing choreography,' Danny Kaye sang in White Christmas. As Jacobs demonstrates, however, ballet is so much more."—KirkusReviews

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