Natalie Portman won the 2011 Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of a ballerina, pushed to the edge of a breakdown, in Black Swan (DVD PN1997.2 .B53 2010). Moira Shearer plays another troubled ballerina in Red Shoes (DVD PN1997 .R43 R43 1999) a dancer torn between two forces: the composer who loves her and the impresario determined to make her a star. These poor ballerinas! In Limelight (STEE VIDT PN1997 .L629 1990), Charlie Chaplin portrays a broken down music hall comedian determined to save a young ballerina, performed by Claire Bloom, from suicide.
A new first novel Russian Winter (GV1787 .H58 2010) by Daphne Kalotay tells the story of Nina Revskaya, once a star ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet, who escaped from Soviet Russia, taking her jewelry and leaving her husband behind. Now in a wheelchair, she decides to auction her remarkable jewelry collection to benefit the Boston Ballet Foundation. As the auction house curator catalogs her jewelry, Nina finds herself overwhelmed with memories of her childhood and career in Russia, plus her defection to a new dancing career, romance, mystery and fame in Boston.
Jennifer Homans, an historian and critic as well as a professional dancer, has written a new history of ballet, Apollo’s Angels (GV1787 .H58 2010). While all dancers share ballet movement, each ballet troupe reflects distinct national styles, cultures and traditions. Homans traces the origin and history of the ballet with vivid descriptions and includes many of the artists who helped make the art enduring, including what, at first, was a spectacular trick by Amalia Brugnoli who blithely danced on her toes creating what we know as en pointe.
Aronofsky, D. (Director). (2010) Black Swan [Film]. United States: 20th Century Fox.
DVD PN 1997.2 .B53 2010
Chaplin, C. (Director). (1990) Limelight [Film]. Farmington Hills, MI: Playhouse Video. STEE./VIDT PN1997 .L629 1990
Homans, J. (2010) Apollo’s Angels: a History of Ballet. New York: Random.
CV1787 .H58 2010
Kalotay, D. (2010) Russian Winter: a Novel. New York: Harper.
PS3611 .A4555 R87 2010
Powell, M. & Pressberger, E. (Directors). (1999) The Red Shoes [Film].
New York: Criterion Collection. DVD PN1997 .R43 R43 1999
