The Royal Ballet is in the midst of its 75th anniversary season and tributes, parties and special performances (including for The Queen on June 8) abound. Author Zoe Anderson has written the literary companion piece to all this quite understandable hoopla. The Royal Ballet: 75 Years, released by Faber and Faber on April 20, has thus far been reviewed by Clement Crisp for The Financial Times of London and by John Percival for Danceviewtimes.com.
Anderson herself tells us about the research and the people she encountered in writing the book in a first person narrative for The Independent on April 14. Here's a snip:
"'I remember having a V2 rocket go off in the third act, during the Black Swan pas de deux,' says the ballerina Beryl Grey. 'At the beginning, you do posé turns and then' - she gestures to suggest the steps - 'you go backwards, whomp. As I went backwards, whomp, the whole theatre shook with this V2 bomb exploding. But nobody moved in the audience - you know, people were wonderful.' It doesn't seem to occur to her that, as she went on dancing in a shaking theatre, she was wonderful, too."
Read all of The Royal Ballet: Behind the Scenes.
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