A ballet-maker's handbook: Sources, vocabulary, styles

From a lifetime's experiences of teaching, lecturing and writing about ballet technique and history, Joan Lawson explores in depth all aspects of the choreographer's taks and art. The book, which is a result of the prompting of the late Sir Frederick Ashton, falls into four parts. The first part is "Sources of Inspiration" - music, literature, painting and dance itself; "Ballet Materials" - music and dancers; "Ballet Making" - style, basic structure, the grammar of choreography; "Styles of Ballet" - classical, demi-caractere, romantic, national and modern. Each part contains numerous examples from a huge range of ballets of the 19th and 20th centuries, some of the best known choreographed by Coralli and Perrot ("Giselle" 1841), Petipa and Ivanov ("Swan Lake" 1895), Nijinska ("Les Noces" 1923), Balanchine ("Apollo" 1928), Ashton ("La Fille Mal Gardee" 1960) and MacMillan ("Romeo and Juliet" 1965).