02/14/2022
Former dancer Bentley (Winter Season) revisits “the man and the ballet that are the story of my life” in this touching and eloquent tribute to choreographer George Balanchine (1904–1983). The author was 17 when she was chosen by Balanchine in the late ’70s to perform with the New York City Ballet. In 10 years she danced his 1934 masterpiece, Serenade, more than 50 times—knowing it, she writes, “as a part of my own body.” Using the dance’s various movements and scenes as an underpinning for the narrative, she tells Balanchine’s story, and her own, as one of many who were entranced by the choreographer’s “no-nonsense Sufi master soul.” In lithe prose, she dissects the artistry behind Serenade—brushing past its “pale blue tulle” to meditate on its symbolism and wavelike motion—then glissades to thoughtful reflections on Balanchine’s fairy tale–like early life in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he went from dancing at the tsar’s Imperial Ballet School to “all-but-orphaned starvation” to studying music at St. Petersburg’s famed observatory. Alongside this runs a rich elegy to Bentley’s dancing career, which ended when she was 25 due to sustained injuries. Her command of ballet and its history is breathtaking, and her reverence for Balanchine’s genius is consistently moving. This behind-the-scenes tour of a rarefied world will enchant ballet lovers. (Apr.)
★ 03/01/2022
Former ballerina and prolific writer Bentley (Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal) painstakingly deconstructs Serenade, George Balanchine's masterpiece and his first American ballet. Bentley writes as she once danced, with grace and elegance, as she captures the haunting beauty of an art form that exists to be seen and experienced. Sprinkled throughout her breakdown of Serenade is an exploration of Balanchine's life; a look at his New York City Ballet in the 1970s; a history of ballet focusing on France's Louis XIV, who started the first ballet school; and even brief biographies of composer Tchaikovsky (whose music Serenade is set to) and choreographer Marius Ivanovich Petipa. But Bentley saves her effusive descriptions for the dance, for her very personal experiences in the 10 years she spent with the company (from the mid-1970s to the '80s), and for the brilliance of Balanchine, who was "primarily, after all, an architect of spirit, wrangling its evanescence to the stage, into our bodies, and then out again in our movement." Included is a moving story of her visit to his deathbed, when he made "an invisible girl feel visible—one final adjustment." VERDICT A touching tribute to a master, this work will delight balletomanes.—Lisa Henry
2021-12-29
A former dancer describes her relationship with George Balanchine and one of his most famous ballets.
Reading a book about ballet is like listening to ice skating on the radio: One can imagine the scene, but the strengths of one medium don’t fully translate the beauty of the other. Bentley gamely tries to translate the majesty of one ballet in her latest book, and with more success than one might expect. The ballet is Balanchine’s groundbreaking Serenade, which premiered in 1934, a piece she danced 50 times for New York City Ballet in the late 1970s, starting when she was 16. The author admits that she sees the choreographer only through “clarifying tears,” writing that her book is “the story of Balanchine, his masterpiece, and my own experience in the vicinity of both.” Bentley describes the ballet’s three movements and the steps that constitute the piece: every arabesque and tendu and turnout. Wisely, she expands her focus to include a brief history of ballet, including France’s King Louis XIV, “a very good dancer of professional quality,” and his establishment of the Académie Royale de Danse, “the first academic national ballet school in the world”; Balanchine’s early years in Russia, where he was born in St. Petersburg in 1904, an upbringing that swung from riches to destitution and back; and brief biographies of Tchaikovsky, “the undisputed musical father of classical ballet,” and Marius Ivanovich Petipa, the pioneering 19th-century choreographer whose life included duels and a scandalous elopement. Bentley’s tone is uneven: effervescent when she describes Balanchine’s ballet—“Serenade is a slant shadow on my heart. She bifurcates my being, my life”—but more restrained in historical passages. Yet the book endearingly captures her passion for ballet and the genius of a man who could incorporate a ballerina’s fall during rehearsal into a permanent part of his dance.
A heartfelt tribute to an influential choreographer and one of his crowning achievements.
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year
“A breath of fresh air. . . . Bentley’s words not only illuminate Balanchine, they also unveil the lifelong devotion, love and unending fascination that come along with a career in ballet.” —Sophie Bress, NPR
“Insightful. . . . In endeavoring to conjure the transcendent lyricism of Balanchine’s vision and Tchaikovsky’s score, the book goes further, touching on deeper, stranger ideas about the symbiosis between life and art.” —New Yorker
“Written from the heart as much as the head…Serenade: A Balanchine Story, [Bentley’s] brilliant new book-length meditation on Balanchine’s greatest ballet . . . is ultimately far more interesting than just another cultural history: With her rare combination of access to Balanchine and her genuine literary ability . . . she writes with grace and gratitude . . . It’s [her] personal voice that makes this book consistently engaging, and her enthusiasm is catching . . .Bentley is no longer a young girl, but her love for Balanchine has remained true, and with this splendid account, she has honored an incomparable artistic romance.” —Peter Tonguette, National Review
“Beautifully composed, [Serenade] provides a three-dimensional experience of Balanchine’s titular ballet: historical, artistic and personal. Between chapters narrated in the first person—putting readers onstage within the ballet's split-second timing and exact positioning—Bentley provides fascinating background on Balanchine . . . As in all her books, she gives generously of her finely tuned emotions, her experience and her own polished opinions. In short, Serenade: A Balanchine Story has earned a place on the shelf.” —Pointe Magazine
“Bentley, who danced under Balanchine’s direction at the New York City Ballet for a decade in the 1970s and 80s, tells a history that is as vivid and poetic as the dance itself . . . Serenade is about more than the making of a single ballet; it is an introspective nod to the life lessons taught through movement . . . I felt the spirit of the movements through Bentley’s descriptive prose. She weaves in impressive detail about the actual technique of ballet, articulating the dancer’s physical experience for the reader . . . Reading Bentley’s Serenade made me feel as alive as I felt on the stage the moment that I fell in love with ballet: with its grounded fantasy, physical demands, intellectual challenge, structure and beauty . . . Serenade is a book that will delight balletomanes for generations to come; but it will also appeal to those newer to the dance world, with its delicate balance of personal memoir, rarefied elegance, history of the arts and pure human interest.” —Misty Copeland, The New York Times Book Review
"In this beautiful, affecting book . . . an unabashed, heartfelt love letter to Balanchine . . . Bentley, a poetic writer, eloquently captures the essence of “Serenade” . . . [which] she describes as a map of Balanchine’s soul . . . She dissects this 32-minute ballet in precise, unflinching detail, interweaving reminiscences of her time at the School of American Ballet, which she attended from the age of 10, and life inside the New York City Ballet . . . This moving book will not only appeal to lovers of ballet, it will make wistful reading for those dancers who will never have the good fortune to work with such a genius as George Balanchine." —Moira Hodgson, Wall Street Journal
“Serenade is not only for ballet and Balanchine lovers, but for lovers of art. It is a peeling apart of what it takes to be a ballerina, and for the ballet master and genius known as Mr. B to his dancers. . . . Her language, like the dance, is poetic and she paints a moving picture with every tendu and plié.” —Montecito Journal
“Toni may have been born a dancer, but she is also a born writer. . . . Now comes Serenade, her intelligent, expansive, and beautiful exploration of this signature ballet. . . . A writer of exquisite sensitivity and talent, Toni’s latest contribution gives breadth and depth to Serenade as a ballet of great significance.” —FF2
"A beautiful read about one of the greatest ballets ever created. A unique document, propulsive and rich in substance. Balanchine's image emerges powerfully, in wonderful detail. Personal, authentic, and revealing about what it took to be one of his dancers." —Mikhail Baryshnikov
"Toni Bentley’s Serenade is in a category all its own—at once an ode to the rigor and passion necessary to create great art and a pointillist description of its making. It is also the story of the embracing yet exacting Balanchine, lending his genius to a young woman’s life. It will consume anyone interested in the generative force that comes from the devoted pursuit of a vocation; you needn't know the difference between a tendu and an arabesque, a prima ballerina and a member of the corps, to be captured by its poetic prose and ingenious structure. This is a transporting reading experience, written with fervor and discernment, and a moving testament to the possibilities that lie within each of us." —Daphne Merkin
“Bentley’s focus is on Balanchine’s genius, his impact on her own life, and the legacy of the phenomenal ballets that he left behind—Serenade, she asserts, is the finest of them all. . . . Bentley makes a striking case for the enduring and profound impact of his brilliant choreography.” —Artillery
“[A] touching and eloquent tribute . . . a rich elegy to Bentley’s dancing career . . . Her command of ballet and its history is breathtaking, and her reverence for Balanchine’s genius is consistently moving. This behind-the-scenes tour of a rarefied world will enchant.” —Publishers Weekly
“Bentley writes as she once danced, with grace and elegance, as she captures the haunting beauty of an art form that exists to be seen and experienced . . . [she] saves her effusive descriptions for the dance, for her very personal experiences in the 10 years she spent with the company (from the mid-1970s to the ’80s), and for the brilliance of Balanchine . . . A touching tribute to a master, this work will delight balletomanes.” —Library Journal
"Effervescent . . . Serenade endearingly captures Bentley’s passion for ballet . . . A heartfelt tribute to an influential choreographer and one of his crowning achievements." —Kirkus Reviews
Author Toni Bentley delivers the opening chapters of this evocative ode to her career as a dancer for the legendary choreographer George Balanchine of the New York City Ballet. The main narrative, performed by Leslie Howard, is a minute-by-minute, movement-by-movement deconstruction of Balanchine’s first original American ballet, SERENADE. Bentley’s thorough research and insider perspective provide fascinating details on topics that range from the history of ballet to Balanchine’s life story, diverse aspects of SERENADE’s origins and evolution, and Bentley’s years as a devoted Balanchine ballerina. Howard’s narration serves this memoir well. With her bright, engaging tone and nuanced inflections, she seems perfectly chosen to voice this intimate portrait of a ballet, the creative genius behind it, and the impact of both on the author’s life. S.A.A. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Author Toni Bentley delivers the opening chapters of this evocative ode to her career as a dancer for the legendary choreographer George Balanchine of the New York City Ballet. The main narrative, performed by Leslie Howard, is a minute-by-minute, movement-by-movement deconstruction of Balanchine’s first original American ballet, SERENADE. Bentley’s thorough research and insider perspective provide fascinating details on topics that range from the history of ballet to Balanchine’s life story, diverse aspects of SERENADE’s origins and evolution, and Bentley’s years as a devoted Balanchine ballerina. Howard’s narration serves this memoir well. With her bright, engaging tone and nuanced inflections, she seems perfectly chosen to voice this intimate portrait of a ballet, the creative genius behind it, and the impact of both on the author’s life. S.A.A. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
