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University of California Press

About the Book

Written with wit, insight, and candor, Balanchine is a book that will delight lovers of biography as well as those with a special interest in dance. For this edition the author has added a thoughtful yet dramatic account of the working out of Balanchine's legacy, from the making of his controversial will to the present day. The author explores the intriguing legal, financial, and institutional subplots that unfolded after the death of the greatest choreographer of the century, but the central plot of his epilogue is the aesthetic issue: In the absence of their creator, can the ballets retain their wondrous vitality? Taper illuminates the fascinating transmission of Balanchine's masterworks from one generation to another, an unprecented legacy in the history of ballet, that most evanescent of the arts.

About the Author

Bernard Taper is Emeritus Professor of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword

CHAPTER ONE: Choreographer in His Element
CHAPTER TWO: Childhood in Russia
CHAPTER THREE: Monkey-A Student
CHAPTER FOUR: First Choreography
CHAPTER FIVE: Ballet Master to Diaghilev
CHAPTER SIX: Apollo and Prodigal Son
CHAPTER SEVEN: Rootless Years
CHAPTER EIGHT: But First a School
CHAPTER NINE: An Ace Job on the Terp Angle
CHAPTER TEN : Second Beginnings
CHAPTER ELEVEN: God Creates, Woman Inspires, and
Man Assembles
The Making of Agon-A Photo
Essay
CHAPTER TWELVE: Come Back, Come Back, Come
Back
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Essential Tradition
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: What's the Matter with Now?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: At Seventy
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: An Appetite for Renewal
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: The Last Year
EPILOGUE: Choreographing the Future
Appendix
Photo Credits
Index