The Critics: Arlene Croce

[Guest Phaedra392]

I'm a new poster here. Has anyone out there heard anything about a book Arlene Croce is writing that analyzes each of Balanchine's major ballets? I could swear I heard a few years ago that she was working on this project, but I have heard nothing since. I've searched the net far and wide. Am I waiting in vain?

[Guest Calliope]

There was a book that came out a while ago it's called

"Writing in the Dark, Dancing in New Yorker" it was her writings from the New Yorker magazine and her reviews of NYCB were in there.

You can get it at Amazon by using the link on the board.

 

I'm not sure about a specific book on each of Balanchine's ballets though.

[Guest Phaedra392]

Thanks, Calliope. I have that book, so that's not the one I mean. I understood she was working on a book strictly about Balanchine.

[Guest Calliope]

I forgot to say "welcome aboard" to Phaedra392!

 

From the New York Review of Books in 1999.

 

Arlene Croce will publish a collection of her dance reviews from The New Yorker next year. She is currently working on a book about the ballets of George Balanchine. (August 1999)

 

 

There's nothing current that I could find though.

[Guest Leigh Witchel]

Hi Phaedra -

 

I'm glad you made it here!

 

I have heard similar rumors of a book by Croce in the works that was not a compendium of previous writing, but I haven't heard anything on the subject for several years.

 

Has anyone here heard more than me?

[Alexandra]

Just that she's still working on it I was told by a colleague that the intention is to get the book out in time for the Balanchine Centennial.

 

Welcome, Phaedra!

[Guest Phaedra392]

Thanks for the welcome, guys. And Calliope, bless you for finding a reference to the book. I'm not crazy after all. I'm dying to know if the project is still on, and when it's going to be released. It must not be near completion, since there's no news anywhere about it. I think Croce's Balanchine criticism is exquisitely written and almost as pleasurable as the ballets themselves. I cannot wait for this book!

[Guest Phaedra392]

And thank you, Alexandra, for the confirmation. Now that I feel more certain that the book is actually being worked on, I can cool my jets and settle down to wait.

[Farrell Fan]

Was "Writing in the Dark" a collection gathered from her earlier collections -- "Afterimages" (1977), "Going to the Dance" (1982), and "Sight Lines" (1987) -- or did it involve new writings? As for her Balanchine book, I've been looking forward to it for nearly twenty years now.

[Guest Phaedra392]

"Writing in the Dark" contains later material not included in earlier collections.

[Guest Nanatchka]

It's a marvelous book. What amazes me most, after the brilliance, beauty and wit of the writing, this time around, is how prescient some of her commentary is. What was true when she wrote it has become even truer. As if she were writing the future.