Book Review : Apollo's Angels

  Ok, so I'm finally going to take this book reporting seriously. So here is my first entry, Apollo's Angels by Jennifer Homans. My grandmother, Momsey, got this for me when she went to Manila.

  This book really unfolded the whole story of Ballet. From when it started, to it's slow decline into the modern days of our 21st century. The book was very detailed in describing the great choreographers and Ballet pioneers,  including, even, their personal lives, and how it affected their work. The author divided the chapters according to places. Not time. This is helpful if you want to know how ballet evolved in a certain place; Ms. Homans did chapters on the ballet in , France, Italy, Denmark, England, and America. Before I realized this, I was getting a little confused with the time frame but I figured it out after reading the chapter titles... Call me slow, I know :P


  I found the chapter of France in the Romantic period, and Russian Ballet, intriguing. I did skip most of the first chapter, though, which was about the very beginning of Ballet; court entertainment in Italy, and as an elaborate means to show reverence to the 'Sun King'. I was excited to get to the more recent Ballet and see some familiar names like the legends Pavlova, Plisetskaya, and Fonteyn among others, all of whose performing styles, Ms. Homans describes in detail. :)


  I recommend this book to anyone who likes history, art, and to the scholarly dancer. It is a book balletomanes will have conversations about. And one dancers will learn much from.