The Art of Teaching Ballet: Ten Twentieth-Century Masters

Rating:
Summary: An Inspiring Book!
Review: Every ballet teacher must own this book. You will gain enormous insight into how 10 master teachers pass on the art of ballet to their students. You may not be drawn to the teaching styles of each teacher but you will learn something from everybody. Each chapter begins with a short essay in which Ms. Warren weaves what she learned from interviewing the master teachers about how they developed their method of teaching with specific accounts of what she observed in their classes. Each chapter concludes with "Classroom Quotes," the order of exercises in a technique class, and the pedagogical lineage of the master teacher. At the end of the book, Ms. Warren includes several exercises constructed by each of the master teachers. For non-teachers, this book will give you renewed appreciation for the work that goes into making a dancer.

Rating:
Summary: Informative
Review: Two years ago, we purchased this book for our son for his 16th birthday for several reasons. The major two were that his own ballet teacher -- Larry Long -- was one of the teachers written about in the book. Also, he had taken classes with the author one summer, loved her as a teacher, and continually referred to her previous book -- Classical Ballet Technique. After we purchased the book, he discovered that several teachers with whom he had either taken classes or about whom he had heard were also covered in the book. He enjoyed the book because of the biographies of each of the teachers and because of the descriptions of their techniques and classes. He assumes that if he ever teaches he will enjoy rereading the book to see the information from a different perspective. We, his parents, have enjoyed it because we have little knowledge of the world of ballet and it gave us more insight into it. Of course, our favorite chapter was the one about his teacher as we learned more of his background, many of the people we knew were mentioned, it gave us greater insight into his teaching style, and the pictures were great. However, the other chapters were very informative and helpful to parents of a serious ballet student. (Since we had no background in ballet, it helped us understand the field a little more.)