Happy New Year!

Wishing Everyone a Magical 2015! 

Love Zoe xx

Book Review of Hope in a Ballet Shoe/ Taking Flight by Michaela and Elaine DePrince

Hope in A Ballet Shoe UK Title
Taking Flight US Title

Synopsis
The extraordinary memoir of Michaela DePrince, a young dancer who escaped war-torn Sierra Leone for the rarefied heights of American ballet.

Michaela DePrince was known as girl Number 27 at the orphanage, where she was abandoned at a young age and tormented as a “devil child” for a skin condition that makes her skin appear spotted. But it was at the orphanage that Michaela would find a picture of a beautiful ballerina en pointe that would help change the course of her life.

At the age of four, Michaela was adopted by an American family, who encouraged her love of dancing and enrolled her in classes. She went on to study at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre and is now the youngest principal dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She has appeared in the ballet documentary First Position, as well as on Dancing with the Stars, Good Morning America, and Nightline.

In this engaging, moving, and unforgettable memoir, Michaela shares her dramatic journey from an orphan in West Africa to becoming one of ballet’s most exciting rising stars.
My Musings
An extraordinary powerful story of a young girl who becomes orphaned in Sierra Leon against the backdrop of civil war. Despite seeing horrendous atrocities and experiencing personal tragedy she remains strong and stoic.
One day in the orphanage she sees a picture of a ballerina and from that day on it is her ambition to become one against all the odds. Michaela is adopted by wonderful and inspirational couple who take her to live in USA where they encourage her ambition. Again she has to deal with a new culture , racism in daily life and in the ballet world but still she is undeterred. Despite enormous obstacles Michaela never gives up on her dream and today she is a ballerina with the Dutch National Balet.
A young women with true grit and determination that is a role model for young women everywhere in all walks of life. A black female dancer in classical ballet is a rare thing but this book highlights and begins to address an issue. Michaela is breaking the mould, as far too few have done before her. I really hope this inspires others to follow in her footsteps and forces other ballet companies to take notice of talented dancers they have previously dismissed for no other reason than the color of their skin.  There is a very long way to go but every journey starts with one step. If Michaela has done all this by 19 I look forward to her future achievements.

This book is a triumph over extreme adversity. A must read whether your a ballet fan or not!

Out in the UK October 2014

Links 
Books for Ballet Lovers Non Fiction 
Taking Flight Official Website

Book Review The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

Synopsis

A gripping novel set in Belle Époque Paris and inspired by the real-life model for Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen and a notorious criminal trial of the era.

Paris. 1878. Following their father’s sudden death, the van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction from their lodgings seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opéra, where for a scant seventy francs a month, she will be trained to enter the famous ballet. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds work — and the love of a dangerous young man — as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir.

Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modelling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. Antoinette, meanwhile, descends lower and lower in society, and must make the choice between a life of honest labor and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde — that is, unless her love affair derails her completely.

Set at a moment of profound artistic, cultural, and societal change, The Painted Girls is a tale of two remarkable sisters rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of “civilized society.”

My Musings
Two sisters who struggle to survive in the underbelly of society in The Belle Epoque of Paris. Both have dreams that lead them to make wrong decisions and you are drawn into this dark and mysterious world of the not so glamorous life in the theatre. You can see and smell  their Paris in which young girls used and abused by rich men. This is fascinating tale based on fact that Buchanan has spun into a vibrant dark world. These few threads of truth draw the reader in and really make us care about the girls and their survival. There is something magical about The Little Ballerina by Degas and the book really imagines and brings life to the art of Degas. Particularly fascinating to me was the relationship between Degas and Marie, the younger sister who models for him for a couple of yearas. It is an impersonal and cold relationship of a voyeur studying his model and creating something beautiful and sensuous. This love and passion are strictly kept for his drawings, paintings and finally the creation of his statue. There is no real friendship from him or caring or interest. The love in the book is imbued into the relationship between the sisters and what they will sacrifice for each other. A beautiful dark novel for those interested in ballet, theatre, art and historical novels.

For more books on ballet or art see my two book lists below
A List of Books for Ballet Lovers
A List of Books For Art Lovers

Darcey Bussell talking about her life

Darcey Bussell talking about her life and career as a Prima Ballerina on BBC Iplayer

Darcey Bussell on Iplayer

A MUST SEE Laura Knight at the National Portrait Gallery, London until Oct 13th

Laura Knight Portraits at The National Portrait Gallery, London until Oct 13th 2013

My musings

This is a wonderful exhibition by one of my favourite artists. I really admire her because she was a pioneer for women artists and painted a variety of fascinating subjects portrayed in her own strong style. she painted the theatre, circus, gypsies, ballet dancers and was even captured the ww11. In the exhibition you can see her style become more refined never losing her strong sense of line and design but her paintwork becomes more confident over the years. How lovely to see an exhibiton of storng drawing, pastel, watercolour and oil. These are mediums usually not exhibited but these for me are my favourite pieces of work. Laura captures the character and strenght of her subjects as well as showing their setting, cirsuc giving the auienc a glimse into their lives.

National Portrait exhibition
Dame Laura Knight (1877 –1970) was one of the most popular and pioneering British artists of the twentieth century. Her artistic career took her from Cornwall to Baltimore, and from the circus to the Nuremberg Trials. She painted dancers at the Ballets Russes and Gypsies at Epsom races, and was acclaimed for her work as an official war artist.
Knight used portraiture to capture contemporary life and culture, and her paintings are remarkable for their diverse range of subjects and settings. This exhibition of over thirty portraits will reveal Knight’s highly distinctive and vivid work, and also illustrate her success in gaining greater professional recognition for women in the arts.

Points of Interest

Laura Knight (1877-1970) was the first woman artist to be made a Dame of the British Empire.

* She was a figurative Painter who was renowned for her drawing and graphical art skills and her paintings of the ballet and theatre and portraits of people at war.

* She was an official war artist at the Nuremburg Trials after World War 2.

* She was the first woman to be honoured with a retrospective Exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1965.

This website provides links to all the available online material which tells the story of Dame Laura Knight and shows you where you can see her paintings
National portrait exhibition webiste

http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/laura-knight-portraits/exhibition.php

For up to date information on forthcoming books and exhibitions
http://www.damelauraknight.com/