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5 New Biographies and Memoirs for the Dancer in Your Life

There’s no fighting it—winter is coming. And whether you’re looking for the perfect holiday gift for your favorite dancer or for a good excuse to curl up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate, we have the book for you. Five new ballet biographies and autobiographies are now available for either purchase or pre-order, covering the lives of luminaries ranging from Balanchine muse Tanaquil Le Clercq to groundbreaking modernist choreographer Bronislava Nijinska. Read on for a sneak peek into each title, and prepare to fall down the rabbit hole of ballet history.

Dancing Past the Light: The Life of Tanaquil Le Clercq , by Orel Protopopescu

In 1948, at the age of 19, Tanaquil Le Clercq became a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, making waves as the ideal “Balanchine ballerina.” In 1952, she married George Balanchine, becoming his fourth and final wife. And in 1956, at the age of 27, she contracted polio while on tour with NYCB in Europe and became wheelchair-bound, never to dance again.

In this new comprehensive biography, writer Orel Protopopescu provides an intimate portrait of the 20th-century icon, including her stage career, relationship with Balanchine, and later work as a teacher, coach, writer and photographer. Protopopescu also explores Le Clercq’s close friendships with figures including Jerome Robbins, Jacques d’Amboise and Arthur Mitchell. Dancing Past the Light ($35, University Press of Florida ) is a visual feast, including a trove of previously unpublished photos, letters, and sketches by Balanchine, and ultimately answers the question that plagues so many dancers: If you can no longer dance, who do you become?

Todd Bolender, Janet Reed, and the Making of American Ballet , by Martha Ullman West

In Todd Bolender, Janet Reed, and the Making of American Ballet ($45, University Press of Florida ), arts writer Martha Ullman West unpacks the influence of two dancers—Todd Bolender and Janet Reed—on the direction of 20th-century American ballet. West argues that these two lifelong friends had just as great an influence as Balanchine or Robbins, particularly on ballet outside of New York City. Having danced for choreographers including Lew and William Christensen, Eugene Loring, Agnes de Mille, Catherine Littlefield and Ruthanna Boris, these “unsung trailblazers” had sweeping careers beyond the stage as teachers, directors and choreographers. Bolender and Reed are responsible for laying the foundation for Pacific Northwest Ballet in the 1970s, and, shortly after, Bolender worked to raise the status of ballet in the Midwest, transforming Kansas City Ballet. In this new joint biography, West fleshes out the full expanse of American ballet from coast to coast.

Built for Ballet: An Autobiography , by Leanne Benjamin, with Sarah Crompton

Need a break from historical biography? Then look no further than former Royal Ballet principal Leanne Benjamin’s new autobiography Built for Ballet ($42.27, Melbourne Books), co-written with British dance critic Sarah Crompton. Born in Australia, Benjamin moved to London at the age of 16 to attend the Royal Ballet School and started her whirlwind professional career just two years later; she retired from the stage at age 49. In addition to her 20-year tenure with the Royal Ballet, Benjamin danced for English National Ballet and Deutsche Oper Berlin, and now travels the world as a sought-after coach, judge and speaker. In Built for Ballet Benjamin passes on the lessons she’s learned from those who came before her, and dives into the pressures of fame, dealing with injuries and childbirth, and how she’s coped with the ups and downs of a storied career. Available for U.S. readers from Book Depository or wherever books are sold.

La Nijinska: Choreographer of the Modern , by Lynn Garafola

A celebrated dancer with Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Bronislava Nijinska went on to have a remarkable 45-year choreographic career, creating works for companies around the world, most notably her 1923 modernist masterpiece Les Noces. Yet her accomplishments are regularly overshadowed by the fame of her brother, Vaslav Nijinsky. In La Nijinska: Choreographer of the Modern ($39.95, Oxford University Press ), out February 2022 and available for pre-order, premier dance historian Lynn Garafola returns Nijinska to her rightful place in the annals of dance history.

In this first biography to document the full scope of Nijinska’s work, Garafola tracks the choreographer’s journey back and forth between Russia and France and then, before the outbreak of World War II, to Southern California, where she remained until her death in 1972. La Nijinska not only explores the world of 20th-century modernism, it reveals the sexism in the ballet world that until now has denied so many female choreographers their due.

Balanchine’s Apprentice: From Hollywood to New York and Back , by John Clifford

Many dancers can claim the influence that George Balanchine had on their careers, but for John Clifford, those ties run long and deep. Balanchine first spotted Clifford at the young age of 11, casting him as the Prince in a touring production of The Nutcracker . Not so many years later Clifford joined Balanchine in New York City, where he went on to become a principal with New York City Ballet, leading the company in a vast repertoire of 47 ballets from 1966 to 1974. Balanchine also gave him his first opportunity to choreograph on the company at age 20; he’d go on to create seven more works for NYCB.

In his new memoir Balanchine’s Apprentice ($30, University Press of Florida ), Clifford analyzes his close relationship with Balanchine, as well as his childhood raised in Hollywood by vaudevillian parents, and his later founding of Los Angeles Ballet, which he helmed until its close in 1984. This is a colorful portrait of mid-20th-century dance from someone who lived through it.

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To Dance, to Live: A Biography of Thalia Mara (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography) Hardcover – April 25, 2023

Thalia Mara’s story spans the history of dance in the twentieth century and the rise of the arts in her adopted city of Jackson, Mississippi. As an adolescent Mara (1911–2003) studied with renowned Russian teacher Adolph Bolm, who recommended she go at age sixteen to Paris for further study. During a tour in Europe and South America, she met her partner in dance and life, Arthur Mahoney, and they dazzled the world with their breathtaking performances during the 1930s and '40s. The two were named codirectors of Jacob’s Pillow in 1947, gracing the cover of Life magazine that year. Later they started two schools of dance in New York City, but despite much success, they closed due to lack of funding. That misfortune, however, was Jackson’s boon as it led Mara to the second phase of her career: reviving the Jackson Ballet Company and bringing the USA International Ballet Competition (IBC) to the state. Thalia Mara was recognized at the end of her life not only for the USA IBC’s decision to locate in Jackson, but also for her efforts as a patron of the arts. Her extraordinary fundraising and planning attracted international performers to the city in the 1980s and '90s. To Dance, to Live: A Biography of Thalia Mara gives the first full account of a life devoted to the arts.

• Print length 200 pages
• Language English
• Publisher University Press of Mississippi
• Publication date April 25, 2023
• Dimensions 7.5 x 0.75 x 10.5 inches
• ISBN-10 1496845307
• ISBN-13 978-1496845306
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ University Press of Mississippi (April 25, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 200 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1496845307
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1496845306
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.6 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 0.75 x 10.5 inches
• #437 in Dancer Biographies
• #495 in Classical Dancing
• #638 in Classical Musician Biographies

About the author

Carolyn j. brown.

Carolyn J. Brown is a writer, editor, and independent scholar. She is the author of The Artist's Sketch: A Biography of Painter Kate Freeman Clark, and the award-winning biographies A Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty and Song of My Life: A Biography of Margaret Walker. Her most recent book is A de Grummond Primer: Highlights of the Children's Literature Collection. All her books are published by University Press of Mississippi. Find her at www.carolynjbrown.net.

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‘Movement Never Lies’: The Genius of Martha Graham

The most revealing statements in a new biography come from the dancers who gave their lives and bodies to her experiments.

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By Brian Seibert

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MARTHA GRAHAM: When Dance Became Modern: A Life, by Neil Baldwin

“Martha always wanted to leave behind a legend, not a biography.” So wrote the highly successful American choreographer Agnes de Mille about an American choreographer she was far from alone in considering a genius: Martha Graham. And a legend is what Graham left behind: not just of the chief creator of what is still called modern dance and the founder of a company now approaching its centennial, but of an all-consuming flame, a world-changer and a sacred monster, both the abusive high priestess and the sacrificial victim of a cult of art.

But there have also been biographies, many of them, above all de Mille’s idiosyncratic and unsurpassed “Martha” (1991). Now comes Neil Baldwin’s “Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern.” Like the Graham biographers before him, Baldwin complains, in his introduction, about the difficulties — about how Graham, who lived from 1894 to 1991, destroyed letters and otherwise thwarted biographers. And this on top of the usual challenges of dance history, especially when the writer is so far removed in time from the ephemeral, unevenly documented works and performances at the heart of the matter.

Why face those perils, risking what Baldwin, taking on the rhetorical style of his subject, calls “psychic injuries”? Having written biographies of William Carlos Williams, Man Ray and Thomas Edison, among other books on American history, Baldwin says that he had an epiphany in 2008 while watching a student rehearsal of Graham’s 1936 “Steps in the Street.” Feeling the kinetic force of Graham’s technique and design, he realized that he had missed “the connective tissue” of American cultural identity.

This epiphany, in its small way, is a testament to the enduring power of Graham’s work, even in attenuated form, if also to the pervasive dance ignorance of otherwise highly educated Americans. It’s the spark of a potential justification for yet another Graham biography, one that would situate her work more firmly in the historical context of American modernism. That’s what Baldwin’s subtitle promises, alongside what he calls “the story of how Martha Graham became Martha Graham .”

Rather than that story, though, Baldwin mainly gives us facts.

He tells Graham’s beginnings: her upbringing near Pittsburgh; the influence and loss of her father (a doctor who specialized in mental disorders and who taught her that “movement never lies”); her move to California and her discovery through an advertisement of the pioneering dancer Ruth St. Denis and then of St. Denis’s younger husband, Ted Shawn, who became Graham’s first artistic mentor. He covers her breakthroughs: the formation of her own group of insanely dedicated women, her hard-won invention of a new dance language of great difficulty and intensity, the astonishingly prolific creation of difficult and intense dance works (most lost long ago) that a growing number of people considered life-changing.

Throughout all this, Baldwin deploys what his extensive bibliography and endnotes show to be an enormous amount of research, little of it new. He buries Graham in undiscriminating heaps of it. Just about every time a new person enters her life — and it’s a long and impressive list of the influential and once-famous in American theater, music and visual art — he offers a dispiritingly formulaic capsule biography: date and place of birth, alma mater. His method is the opposite of hers: Where Graham cut down to the essentials, Baldwin amasses the tangential.

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Book Reviews

2022 was a big year for ballet books: here are 5 to check out.

Sophie Bress

It's not often you find whole sections of bookstores or libraries devoted to books on dance. But this doesn't mean that there's a shortage of good books on the topic — especially this year.

2022 was particularly prosperous for books about ballet, with many notable memoirs, biographies, and works of fiction making their debuts. So, we're taking a moment to highlight some of those. Our selection of titles sheds light not only on some of the form's most iconic figures, but also provides a glimpse into the state of ballet culture today — and the direction it will be heading next year and for years to come.

The Wind at My Back

When all eyes were on Misty Copeland in advance of her promotion to principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre — which made her the first Black woman to achieve the highest rank in the iconic company — audiences saw an inspirational woman, a beautiful dancer, and a watershed event for the overwhelmingly white art form. What they didn't see, however, were Copeland's private struggles with imposter syndrome, internalized trauma, and the still present systemic racism in the ballet world.

In her latest book, Copeland (writing with with Susan Fales-Hill) candidly recounts these experiences with the same grace and strength that imbue her dancing, all while paying homage to her mentor, Raven Wilkinson, and the many other Black ballerinas that laid the foundation for Copeland to soar. Part memoir, part tribute to the late Wilkinson, who toured the country with the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, The Wind at My Back chronicles Copeland's relationship with her mentor, draws parallels between their paths in dance, and ends with a call to action. Through Wilkinson, Copeland taps into her deeper purpose of being a role model for other ballet dancers of color, and her words tell readers exactly what it will take to continue to move the form forward and ensure bright futures for these young artists.

They're Going to Love You

In this novel by Meg Howrey, Carlisle Martin — born to a ballerina mother and a balletomane father — dreams of dancing with the New York City Ballet. After her parent's separation, the NYC home her father shares with his partner, James, becomes a place of wonder — and someplace she wants to belong, but doesn't quite feel at home. After her above-average height dashes her hopes of ballet stardom, and a betrayal estranges her from her father and James, Carlisle charts her own path, moves to Los Angeles, and starts her career as a choreographer. When she receives the news that her father is dying, she is forced to reckon with her past, all while preparing for the biggest commission of her career.

They're Going to Love You oscillates between present-day reflections and flashbacks to Carlisle's life as an adolescent and young adult, ultimately emerging as a beautiful and relatable portrait of a woman, her regrets, and her successes. As Howrey unflinchingly and honestly dives into the intricacies of relationships and the inevitable growing pains that come with life, she also mines her history as a ballet dancer to deliver an honest portrayal of the dance world, the realities of working artists, and the obstacles facing female choreographers, revealing real-world truths through a fictional setting.

La Nijinska

Most balletomanes are familiar with Vaslav Nijinsky, the famous 20th-century dancer and choreographer who was widely hailed for his virtuosity and who made waves with his original works. Fewer though, are intimately familiar with his sister, Bronislava Nijinska, despite the fact that, as author and dance historian Lynn Garafola asserts, her myriad contributions far outweighed Nijinsky's comparatively brief foray into the limelight.

La Nijinska is the first biography written about the female choreographer, who created nearly 80 original ballets and was a guiding force for the development of 20th-century modernism. The book mines interviews, archival reviews, reflections of the dancers who worked with Nijinska, and the choreographer's own letters and diaries to paint a picture of the prolific dancemaker. Nijinska is wholly deserving of the nearly 500-page opus, which, given today's movement to foster and support women choreographers, comes at just the right time.

Three Muses

Author Martha Anne Toll's first novel uses a post-WWII ballet world as the backdrop to weave an intimate portrait of romance and heartbreak. Three Muses follows prima ballerina Katya Symanova, who is immersed in an abusive yet creatively generative relationship with choreographer Boris Yanakov, as she meets and falls in love with John Curtin, a young psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor.

Toll's novel is not only notable for its poignant prose, clever foreshadowing, and deeply moving ending, it also comments on many of the harsher truths present in the ballet world, acknowledging the reality without glamorizing it. The author, a freelance book critic who has written reviews for NPR, not only uses a true-to-life version of the 1950s dance world as her stage, she uses choreography as a key element of the plot, with the dances she creates for her characters perfectly echoing their inner lives.

In the ballet world, George Balanchine, the co-founder of the New York City Ballet, has almost been raised to superhuman status. His signature modern, plotless approach to dancemaking is still widely lauded, his choreography is performed by some of the most successful dancers and companies, and words like "legend," "icon" and "seminal" are often used to describe him. Hearing about Balanchine from someone who actually knew him and danced for him — like author Toni Bentley — is a breath of fresh air, revealing the human behind the history.

Bentley's Serenade is grounded by a minute-by-minute recollection of Balanchine's 1934 masterpiece of the same name, interspersed with the author's own memories of the choreographer, stories from his past, as well as forays into topics like the development of the pointe shoe, the life and work of composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and the choreography of Marius Petipa. Bentley's words not only illuminate Balanchine, they also unveil the lifelong devotion, love and unending fascination that come along with a career in ballet.

Sophie Bress is a dance writer and former dancer based in Utah. She holds a master's degree in arts journalism from the University of Southern California and writes for Dance Magazine, Fjord Review, Pointe and others.