Rating: 
Summary: Contains an excellent diet plan.
Review: Although my wife and I both had Jazz Dance experience in college, we bought the book mainly for the diet plan. It's relatively easy to stick with the two week plan. The dishes are tasty and the diet works!!! (My copy is written in Korean.)
Rating: 
Summary: Book Promotes Unhealthy Attitudes & Behaviors
Review: Anyone suffering from an eating disorder should not read this book, nor should adolescents! I am not convinced that this promotes healthy attitutes toward food, body image, and weight, and could be dangerous. For those professional ballerinas who have chosen to malnurish their bodies for the sake of their professional requirements, it may have some helpful tips. As a(non-professional)dancer, and someone who struggles with anorexia, I have discovered the world of classical ballet can be cruel to the body, and constant dieting leads to a mess of medical problems, and eating disordered behaviors associated with them. I don't need a book telling me what is a dietary, "sin," nor urging people to weigh snd examine their bodies each day. Healthy people are refered to as "heavy" in this book, as the dancer's world promotes one to be at an unhealthy weight. I returned this book, as it is toxic to me, as someone struggling with health issues.
Rating:
Summary: a dancer
Review: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. this book promotes eating disorders, plain and simple. i'm a dancer, and i have always been thin, but the "suggestions" this book gives are absurd. dancers are very conscious of their bodies, compare themselves to other dancers and hold themselves up to high standards. this book pretty much says that a dancer who is 5'3" should be 94 pounds. this is so messed up. the book suggests a diet of 1200 calories a day. look at the titles: "why a dancer should diet: you can't hide anything in tights" and "the chain around the refrigerator." it shows a dancer ready to "feast" on garden products. besides that, this book was written in 1984. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: No!!!
Review: I am a dancer and all I have to say for this book is NO!!! This book is basically telling people that you have to starve yourself to be a dancer or to look like one. And also it's giving the message that all dancers starve themselves as well!!! This is not going to accomplish anything except making yourself sick! Dancers *at least those who I know* stay in such great shape by devoting countless hours to dancing and practicing, and to eating healthy *not starving ourselves*...All in all I thought this was awful...it's promoting eating disorders and disgracing healthy dancers everywhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Helpful and Inspiring
Review: I bought this book mainly because it's about ballet, but after I started reading I discovered the book was more than that. The diet plan works so well and the pictures and interviews with other dancers are inspiring. I actually lost weight with this book, and always keep it on hand to refer to. Its definitly a must have.
Rating:
Summary: read this book with caution
Review: I have read this book several times, and as a dancer, it actually encourages me NOT to follow the outrageous diet plans of the dancers featured in the book. Admittedly, i can relate to the desperate measures that these people will take to lose weight perhaps temporarily, for a certain ballet or an important audition. However, these are not measures that I am proud of, and frankly I find it disturbing that Ms. Kent feels free to encourage extreme behavior, especially in young people (and ESPECIALLY young dancers!) The active lifestyle of a dancer needs to be supplemented by proper nutrition; the mere mention of Susan Jaffe's summer of drinking "a lot of iced tea" to help acquire her job with American Ballet Theatre is dangerous information for aspiring, developing young girls to have their hands on. We can only hope that anyone reading this book for the first time will take it with a grain of salt, considering it was written nearly twenty years ago.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit Outdated, but still Useful
Review: I like this book, cause it gives great reasons to be fit and in shape, for all kinds of people (dancers, dancer wanna-be's, and non-dancers alike) It also gives lost of quotes from different dancers on their different points of view and stradegies on how to maintain a good healthy diet and physical workouts, whether that be ballet or some other kind of workout. The great thing about this book is that there are diets that are very healthy and filling, and if one can follow them successfuly than one would be sure to drop a few pounds.The only problem that I have with this book is that it is at times contradictory of what alot of the new nutritional values are, and at times it seems to me that what some of the dancers suggest, contains an underlying tone of anorexia. But hey it was written in 1984--over 10 yrs. ago, so what do ya expect?!
Rating:
Summary: Great inside information on how dancers keep in great shape.
Review: LOVED THIS BOOK AND WILL KEEP IT TO REFER BACK TO. Allegra Kent interviews many dancers on how they stay in such super good shape. She interviews Fernando Bujones, Mikhail Baryshnikof, Gelsey Kirkland and so many others! It is very inspiring and honest. Many dancers confess to weaknesses - smoking, drinking, overeating, but tell how they compensate for it. When you put all the advice together it makes for a very informative book.
Rating:
Summary: Found This Book Very Helpful
Review: The diet outlined is this book is very easy to stick with, makes you feel better about your body (especially in a leotard and tights)and actually increases your energy level tremendously. After only a couple of days I noticed a change in my appearance, and my partner actually said I felt much lighter. I would recommend this book to dancers and nondancers alike.
Rating:
Summary: an honest diet guide for ballet dancer's
Review: This book is really only meant for dancers, and only for professional (or aspiring professional) dancers at that. Ms. Kent is up-front about a dancer's awkward situation: a ballet dancer must stay strong and energetic while maintaining an especially lean figure. And that's exactly what makes this book wonderful. While most fat-loss books address the needs of someone who is medically overweight and needs to slim down, this book focuses on dancers who are already thin to begin with, but need to slim down further.
I find Dancer's Body Book to be both motivating and honest. You get to hear the dieting struggles and successes of those who have made it to the top (NYCB and ABT company dancers,), which is quite inspirational. Plus, you learn exactly how these professionals manage to maintain their extraordinary bodies. A great portion of the text is dedicated to the "philosophy" of a dancer's diet, which I found very interesting and informative.
This book does not encourage unhealthy behavior of any sort. It acknowledges the fact that watching what you eat is a sacrifice inherent to ballet, but presents a healthy way of achieving and maintaining the proper figure. A 1,200-calorie diet (which is regarded as a healthy weight-loss intake for females) and a 1,600-calorie maintenance diet are provided. These sample meal plans along with the "seven diet sins" (snacking, eating junk food, undereating and bad nutrition, not getting enough rest, inactivity, not knowing your own limits, and neglecting your equipment) are excellent.
The bottom line is that a dancer must know the body and treat it well.
PS: I was recommended this book at a nutrition seminar that was offered at my pre-professional ballet school. As someone who has wasted a year of training due to anorexia and regrets it terribly, I found that my philosophy agreed 100% with Ms. Kent's: an eating disorder is completely counter-productive to the art of ballet.
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