About this item
NATIONAL BESTSELLERFor more than four hundred years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully told, Apollo’s Angels—the first cultural history of ballet ever written—is a groundbreaking work. From ballet’s origins in the Renaissance and the codification of its basic steps and positions under France’s Louis XIV (himself an avid dancer), the art form wound its way through the courts of Europe, from Paris and Milan to Vienna and St. Petersburg. In the twentieth century, émigré dancers taught their art to a generation in the United States and in Western Europe, setting off a new and radical transformation of dance.
About the Author
Jennifer Homans is a former professional dancer trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts, the American Ballet Theater School, and the School of American Ballet. She performed with the Chicago Lyric Opera Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet and the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Currently the dance critic for The New Republic, she has also published with The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The New York Review of Books and The Australian. She holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a PhD in Modern European History from New York University. She is presently a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at New York University. "