Books: Portrait of a Danish Dancer

[Guest Giannina]

Oh, dear; I'm so computer stupid. I'll have to wait til my husband gets home from work and see if he can do it. I'd just type it but it's quite long since it describes the book in some detail.

 

Giannina

[dirac]

I would enjoy reading it also (and glad to hear it's a favorable review) but scanning or typing the review in its entirety might raise copyright issues, I think?

[Guest Giannina]

You're right. Got the Dancing Times web site and tho they publish an article or two from that issue, the book review isn't one of them. I guess you'll just have to take my word on it; it's very flattering.

 

Giannina

[glebb]

As Alexandra describes him, Henning Kronstam must have been one very special artist.

 

A friend of mine who recently staged "Prodigal Son" for Ballet Arizona told me how incredible Ib Anderson is at directing rehearsals. It must come from the tradition of great direction set by Kronstam.

 

Thank you for the wonderful book Alexandra. I was turned on to a whole world of art that I will miss.

[Alexandra]

Thanks again Glebb -- I'm glad to hear that about Andersen, as I think he's one of themost gifted people directing a company today. I think Andersen is carrying on Kronstam, but Kronstam was carrying on Lander and Brenaa, who were carrying on Beck, who was carrying on the first Mr. B. Each changing a bit and incorporating things they learned and observed from their own careers, but sticking to the detail and the sense of making it live, living rather than acting on the stage.

[Alexandra]

Update and fyi:

 

According to our web stats, people are still clicking on the link to the photo of Kronstam in the Ashton solo from Sleeping Beauty (thank you!). When I redid www.danceview.org this week, I moved all of the Kronstam pages on to a new site -- www.kronstam.com (yes, yes, a year late, but what they hey. This isn't to sell books, but to have material about Kronstam on the web.)

 

Here's the url to the cabriole photo:

 

Kronstam as Florimund

 

Also, fyi, the Kronstam site is only about half-finished, so if links don't work, or if one page is a different color from the rest, I know about it and will get to it some day.

 

I've corrected the url in the initial post about the photo.

[carbro]

I am in the final pages of this wonderful book. I do not want to finish it, because I do not want to lose Kronstam.

 

Thanks for a book that is meticulously researched, fascinating, heartfelt and beautifully written, Alexandra. How often do we find a work like that?

[BW]

I'm almost half way through this book and I, too, love it. I just read everyone's posts and they're all very heartfelt and I find myself nodding throughout.

 

As Ed Waffle wrote

It is the type of book that has become scarce—one written for the normally literate layperson with an interest but not much specialized knowledge in an art form. There are now many more books devoted to science that do this than the performing arts. The reader doesn’t have to know much about the technical side of ballet to appreciate this book—although those with that knowledge certainly may have a more profound understanding of it.

Even the "normally literate layperson" can not only read this book - but fall in love with Henning Kronstam as well. And the photographs within the book are fantastic, too - they're a great touch stone and show the maturing process of this dancer from that of a young boy to a man, as well - very important.

 

Speaking of photos - I love that picture of a 10 year old Kronstam as McDuff's son.

[Alexandra]

For those of you who are new to the board, this is an unabashed commercial for my book: "Henning Kronstam, Portrait of a Danish Dancer." It's not that you have to buy the book -- your library should have it by now -- but I hope some of you will be inspired to READ it). It was reviewed in Dance Magazine this month. So this is a reminder for anyone who's looking for something to read in the summer.

 

Also, I've been meaning to post this for awhile, I put up a site for the book. There are a lot of photos there. Go look: Kronstam There's also a chapter from the book there.