Dancing Lives: Five Female Dancers from the Ballet d'Action to Merce Cunningham

"Chronicles the lives of five female 'underdog' dancers ... focusing on such details as their social and economic status, education, dance training, and how they came to dance professionally. Amusing anecdotes abound... Dancing Lives shines a spotlight on the lives of five lesser-known dancers." Dance Teacher "An engaging read for all those who enjoy the ephemeral qualities of dance." ForeWord "Eliot's writing is a labor of love, and her affection toward her subjects is inspiring." Time Out Chicago "This accessible resource offers ... easy entry into studying dance as cultural history. ecommended." Choice "Uniting a uniquely embodied knowledge of the dancing body with historic social and aesthetic concerns, Karen Eliot's Dancing Lives creates a gallery of fresh and compelling portraits of women who dance. Eliot illuminates the hidden dimensions of their emotional and psychological lives in her focus on developments in ballet and modern dance since the eighteenth century. In writing that is clear, accessible, and gently affectionate, this dance historian and former member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company makes the persuasive argument that a close and careful look at the full lives of past dancers affords a unique view of world history, cultural evolutions, and historical dance events." Janice Ross, author of Anna Halprin: Experience as Dance