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I have often sat in the audience in a dance recital, performance and admired so much the athleticism and grace without much thought to all that goes into it. Of course we have all heard the horrors of the diet regime and then The Black Swan, to showcase the pushy parent and the paranoia. So, I was in awe of all the great descriptive passages to take the "audience" backstage and home to the apartment with aching joints, raw skin, etc. I really had no idea.And still the author conveys her love of
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A haunting insight into the world of a dancer. This young woman's journey gives a reader the behind-the-scenes look at the sacrifices needed to make it in the dance world. No one could walk away from this story without being moved by the beautiful, yet painful story of the people on the back side of the stage. Enjoyed the read!
This is a wonderful book being a woman, being a dancer, being a New Yorker, and just living in a body.
This is the first dance-related memoir I've ever read I was drawn to the book after hearing the author give a bold, funny, dramatic, moving reading from it. For me, successful memoir usually achieves a remarkable balance of voice and structure, and BODY OF A DANCER does that and more. The structure is innovative, and D'Aoust writes lyrically and honestly about the challenges of dance, particularly her time at the Martha Graham School. She's also clear-eyes about the costs of art on the body and
This book reads like a series of essays about the author's life as a dancer, told in chronological order as "acts." My favorite parts of her memoir were those where she described the effects that dance had on her body and the constant pain and fatigue she endured. She also writes about the mental anguish, even to the point of suicide, that some of the other dancers faced. The most poignant moment for me was near the end when she described attending a performance as an audience member and acknowl...
This interests me from a yoga perspective, since I've taught yoga to a couple of dancers and the way their bodies work is so utterly different from that of non-dancers.
This book captures the enigmatic and sick truth of being a professional dancer. As someone about to pursue this career it scared the shit out of me, and I appreciate that. If you've ever wondered why we beat our bodies black and blue for art - read this book. It also captures beautifully the internal fight around "giving up" your passion, because at some point we all have to say goodbye.
Even if you think you know nothing about dance you probably know, or at least can guess, two aspects of it: 1.) Dancers are body conscious, sometimes to the extreme, and 2.) their bodies experience fantastic pain to bring a dream to the stage.Renée E. D'Aoust gives these aspects their due in her insightful collection of essays recalling her time in the 1990s as a New York City dancer aspiring to the Martha Graham Dance Company. But what makes this book truly soar is when she goes beyond the phys...
One of the most beautifully written and original pieces of creative nonfiction I've read in my entire life. And that's not hyperbole. If the control, the power, the cadence, and the sheer gorgeousness of the writing itself don't all make you weak in the knees, then the pure conceptuality of this memoir, the conceit, the motif of the body as text and cultural signifier will absolutely hit you in the heart. This is an immediate classic. A memoir that will be used as a point of reference for all fu...
Foreword Reviews "Book of the Year" Finalist. Published by Etruscan Press, Dec. 2011.