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cornball's review against another edition
5.0
quite literally an essential bible for modern balletomanes, and jennifer homans is #mother for this, even though she's lowkey the kenneth macmillan hater in chief (manon & mayerling fans rise up!!!!)
lisade's review against another edition
5.0
I rarely read nonfiction but plowed through this like it was a potboiler. A compelling book on a topic I used to have little interest in.
jenpen3's review against another edition
4.0
This book offers a rich historical context for the evolution of ballet – both in choreography and technique. Of course I struggled most with the era in which I have the least expertise (and to which Homans has dedicated considerable research) – early ballet and the European courts. Interestingly, the voice becomes increasingly subjective, and at times imbalanced as the book progresses, just as the subject matter became more accessible to me, so I found myself really wanting to engage with its many layers – appreciating its depth in some spots, and profoundly aware of lapses in others.
The book of course features many pivotal figures in the history of ballet, but I wonder if Homans has given them different weight, at times, based on her own interests and expertise as much as on their relative contributions. For example, the extensive and reverential analysis of everything that Balanchine did to advance and integrate the art form in the 20th century is warranted, informative, and beautifully written, but I was also disappointed to see such an overt dismissal of other choreographers, particularly those whose work emerged in continental Europe, who also continue to influence new directions (and occasional missteps) in contemporary ballet.
Ultimately, I felt Homans boxed herself into the need to pare this history down to a single (flawed) thesis: that ballet can evolve no further. As an avid audience member of both ballet and other forms of contemporary dance, I share her disappointment, perhaps too frequently, with flat performances and uninspired new choreography. That said, I also disagree with the Epilogue’s suggestion that such disappointments are so specific to our current era or to the loosening of geographic barriers and strong national identities in the art form. If anything, the geographic cross-pollination of technique and ideas, as well as the misfires and faltering she describes in the oeuvres of many of the great choreographers and companies highlighted throughout the book should serve as evidence that the process of creation and artistic innovation is inevitably a bit of a roller coaster, but we should never consider it over.
This history is hardly exhaustive (nor could it be), though I cannot fault the author for letting her most beautiful writing and natural voice flow most easily when she is clearly discussing work that she knows and admires best. There is indeed much to be learned from this book, but happily, even more out there to take in – it doesn’t end with this!
The book of course features many pivotal figures in the history of ballet, but I wonder if Homans has given them different weight, at times, based on her own interests and expertise as much as on their relative contributions. For example, the extensive and reverential analysis of everything that Balanchine did to advance and integrate the art form in the 20th century is warranted, informative, and beautifully written, but I was also disappointed to see such an overt dismissal of other choreographers, particularly those whose work emerged in continental Europe, who also continue to influence new directions (and occasional missteps) in contemporary ballet.
Ultimately, I felt Homans boxed herself into the need to pare this history down to a single (flawed) thesis: that ballet can evolve no further. As an avid audience member of both ballet and other forms of contemporary dance, I share her disappointment, perhaps too frequently, with flat performances and uninspired new choreography. That said, I also disagree with the Epilogue’s suggestion that such disappointments are so specific to our current era or to the loosening of geographic barriers and strong national identities in the art form. If anything, the geographic cross-pollination of technique and ideas, as well as the misfires and faltering she describes in the oeuvres of many of the great choreographers and companies highlighted throughout the book should serve as evidence that the process of creation and artistic innovation is inevitably a bit of a roller coaster, but we should never consider it over.
This history is hardly exhaustive (nor could it be), though I cannot fault the author for letting her most beautiful writing and natural voice flow most easily when she is clearly discussing work that she knows and admires best. There is indeed much to be learned from this book, but happily, even more out there to take in – it doesn’t end with this!
ifyouhappentoremember's review against another edition
3.0
I picked up this book to tide me over between the end of New York City Ballet's Spring Season and the beginning of American Ballet Theater's Summer Season. I did not anticipate being so disappointed. This book is so dry and dull to get through.
I think a better subtitle would be 'A Cultural History of Ballet.' If you wanted an in-depth look at elements such as the changes in ballet technique or the development of the pointe shoe, this book does not really cover this information. It spent its pages tracing the ever-fluctuating importance of ballet to the cultures in the various locales, from France, to Italy, to Denmark, to Russia, to England, and to America.
I have so many opinions and thoughts about the Epilogue, but the prevailing feeling is one of annoyance. On some level, I do agree that we are at a crossroads with Classical Ballet, but to say that it is dying? After explaining to us the reader that ballet has gone through cycles of importance and ambivalence in the public consciousness? By my count, according to this book, ballet has had like, 5 near-death experiences. Is this time really different? Personally, I'm not convinced. Before theaters had to shut down due to COVID, New York City Ballet was running a budget surplus for the past couple of years instead of their usual deficient. Ballet has slowly seeped into other avenues of entertainment outside of the dance world (such as in films like Black Swan and in Tony Award-winning musicals like An American in Paris). I don't know about you, but those are pretty promising signs. I realize that this book was published in 2010 and probably finished writing around 2008, when the future of ballet was looking pretty grim, but I would expect Homans of all people to be aware of ballet's Lazarus-like nature
I think a better subtitle would be 'A Cultural History of Ballet.' If you wanted an in-depth look at elements such as the changes in ballet technique or the development of the pointe shoe, this book does not really cover this information. It spent its pages tracing the ever-fluctuating importance of ballet to the cultures in the various locales, from France, to Italy, to Denmark, to Russia, to England, and to America.
I have so many opinions and thoughts about the Epilogue, but the prevailing feeling is one of annoyance. On some level, I do agree that we are at a crossroads with Classical Ballet, but to say that it is dying? After explaining to us the reader that ballet has gone through cycles of importance and ambivalence in the public consciousness? By my count, according to this book, ballet has had like, 5 near-death experiences. Is this time really different? Personally, I'm not convinced. Before theaters had to shut down due to COVID, New York City Ballet was running a budget surplus for the past couple of years instead of their usual deficient. Ballet has slowly seeped into other avenues of entertainment outside of the dance world (such as in films like Black Swan and in Tony Award-winning musicals like An American in Paris). I don't know about you, but those are pretty promising signs. I realize that this book was published in 2010 and probably finished writing around 2008, when the future of ballet was looking pretty grim, but I would expect Homans of all people to be aware of ballet's Lazarus-like nature
ciarajanae's review against another edition
3.0
I thought I was enough of a dance nerd for this. I thought wrong.
yanailedit's review against another edition
5.0
Finally, after years of study and watching, I realized our teachers were not just teaching steps or imparting technical knowledge, they were giving us their culture and their tradition. “Why” was not the point and the steps were not just steps; they were living, breathing evidence of a lost (to us) past—of what their dances were like but also of what they, as artists and people, believed in.
There really aren’t that many books about dance. There’s even less great books about dance.
So, you guessed it: Apollo’s Angels is a one-of-a-kind book. If you’re new to being fascinated with dance, congratulations, you’ve found a keeper.
Between being an accomplished Balanchine-era NYCB dancer (I only know what that means thanks to the last chapter) and an accomplished dance critic, Homans is uniquely positioned to successfully write about one of the subjects that absolutely refuses to sit still and be captured. She produces some of the most beautiful prose I have read to recount what is easily the most obscure and riveting Western art history. It’s wild how much culture as a whole is influenced by dance, yet how easy it is to move through life without ever needing to know anything about the history of the art itself.
How is no one else obsessed with the ephemerality and mystery of an art form that lives only as long as its dancers and choreographers? Why aren’t we talking about this in connection to sport and martial arts! How is no one else losing their shit over the fever dream linguistic conundrum that dance notation and physical movement notation systems are?
What I find even more impressive is that Homans writes hundreds of pages on the topic, drawing on and sifting through obscure history scholarship without once falling for the usual traps of critic-English. I’ve gotta say, it’s almost weird that she didn’t set off my bullshit-English meter at least once. If my tolerance for high art jargon and discourse was any lower, I’d have to climb into a deep sea trench every time I saw a quote from a critic, just to even out the pressure and keep all of my internals on the inside.
Even though I‘m a bona fide critic hater, I never even had time or a chance to get pissed off. Instead, I kept coming back to this brick of a book and its tiny font, surprising myself every time that I chose its chapters on long-dead dance teachers and their students over literally anything else I could have been doing. It had me stretching my morning coffee for hours and staring off out of café windows, trailing off in thought.
Not only did Apollo’s Angels give me a brief brush with intelligent thought, it also managed to completely sneak past my stubborn disinterest in the French Revolution, successfully leaving me with a passing understanding of the period, along with most other major political developments in the Western superpowers. Best of all, dance was explored in a historical context without ever devolving into trying to explain or justify why it’s important (unlike most other modern texts on art that seem to spend so much time grappling with their own existentialism in late stage capitalism). I will be rereading this in a year or two, after seeing and dancing a few of the ballet staples discussed at length. This is one of those texts that keeps on giving and only growing with the reader’s developing skills and knowledge.
There are, unfortunately, a few things Homans and I disagree on. I find her outlook on ballet’s present and future to be depressing and unforgiving as hell. Though she argues her view compellingly and with a serious dose of some moving feels, I was raised during the death throes of a Soviet regime and I could recognize the ‘everything that’s great is gone’ depressive nostalgism even if you were to hit me on the head with a brick. Them’s the words of someone who is grieving.
Grief or not though, I passionately disagree with her opinions on what ‘inclusion’ is doing to the quality of dance, among other things. In cultural evolution and revolution, some of the old guard is invariably left behind, or feels itself left behind.
Regardless, classical dance is dead, long live classical dance. If there’s one thing I hope to be when I start feeling the culture of my field getting away from me is gracious in my retreat into the past.