By Barbara Quick The Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina became a writer at the age of 46, when — against all odds as someone who only learned English as an adult — she penned a richly detailed, wonderfully written memoir for the English-speaking world: Theatre Street, first published in London in 1931. I sought out the
By Deborah Jones “A dancer’s life may be glamorous in many ways, but there’s a huge amount of laundry,” writes Leanne Benjamin in her autobiography, Built for Ballet, published by Melbourne Books. The sentence neatly sums up the highs and lows of her art. The adrenalin rush of performing, rapturous applause, and after-party mingling with
By Kristen Lawson Ahmad Joudeh is the grandson of two Palestinian refugees who fled to Syria in 1948. His moving memoir Dance or Die: From Stateless Refugee to International Ballet Star (Charlesbridge Publishing) demonstrates the powerful role that storytelling plays in our lives, for better and for worse. The day Joudeh first encountered ballet shaped