Book Cover.
@ Angela Sterling. Click image for larger version, or one that fills the browser window.
Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet
by Stephen Manes
Cadwallader & Stern
ISBN: 978-0-9835628-0-1
Published: 7 September 2011
It is a well-known fact that it is morally virtuous to be non-judgemental about the covers of books. I would count myself among the open-minded in the world and can honestly say that I try my hardest to always open them and read page one before I make my mind up. But I do have to admit to judging a book recently by its weight problem… do you think that’s more or less morally deficient than only wanting to read pretty ones?
The jury’s out, but I have to admit that when Stephen Manes’ new book minutely describing a year of goings-on at Pacific Northwest Ballet arrived at my door, I baulked. Even I, avid consumer of literature and reader of lightning speed would call it chunky, but I bravely made a start and swiftly got my comeuppance when I began to read the chubby tome. Immediately rewarded with lively prose and an almost indecent amount of information about how the cogs in a ballet company all turn, I think the lesson here is always begin to read before making up your mind.
Romeo and Juliet rehearsal: Casey Herd, Bernice Coppieters; in background: Louise Nadeau, Gaby Baars, Batkhurel Bold. @ Angela Sterling. Click image for larger version, or one that fills the browser window.
The overwhelming impression the reader gets of the company right away is one of constant organised chaos. At the eye of the storm, doing his best to mastermind the chaos of the company and suffering the slings and arrows of the blame placed upon him when all does not go according to plan, is the company’s artistic director, Peter Boal. Swirling helplessly in the mayhem around him is the caustic wit of Rico Chiarelli, his technical director, various dancers who live out the drama of their lives to a backdrop of the ballets they dance, and a rotating cast of choreographers who invariably do not have enough time to stage their ballets.
Fancy Free rehearsal: Peter Boal with Josh Spell, Casey Herd, Jonathan Porretta.
@ Angela Sterling. Click image for larger version, or one that fills the browser window.
Manes delves so deeply into the people that populate this world he is painting for us that I found it hard to tear myself away from the characters after the book had ended. Maybe I am just an incurable gossip and should mind my own business, but I found the candour with which the dancers and technical staff talked to the author compelling. Manes is meticulous about giving us information from all viewpoints of the theatre; opinions about the way the company is run are given freely, but an experienced eye will see that there is still more juicy information to be gleaned from delicately picking between the lines.
But relentless professionalism is always the order of the day, particularly against the ticking clock. Time is money and money is time, and very few ballet companies have enough of either. We get glimpses into the boardroom, witnessing the juggling and conjuring tricks the directors play to get through the season in the black. We spend a lot of time in the studio, as ballet masters eke out limited rehearsal hours to the last second, and even stand beside ambitious children and anxious parents as they dedicate their young lives to what Manes calls ‘The Land of Ballet’. Each opening night counts down in a tense flurry of will-they-won’t-they-get-the-show-on disasters, wryly narrated by various performers. Everything is miraculously pulled off as if by magic by curtain up, prompting everyone to wipe their brow and say ‘never again’. Six weeks later, the impossible then becomes reality again when a new show opens. Tempus fugit.
Nutcracker dress rehearsal: Kent Stowell addresses the troops.
@ Angela Sterling. Click image for larger version, or one that fills the browser window.
What is maybe unparalleled in dance discourse is the attention Manes gives all departments. This is his first book about dance, having spent years writing about technology, so no detail is too small and no stone is left unexplained for the layman. The dancers usually get the lion’s share of the limelight but here, everyone’s triumphs and frustrations are given equal billing. Who knew (certainly not I) all the financial factors to be taken into account when staging any ballet? I did actually know how hard the technical staff and crew work to get a show on, but I bet many people don’t. ‘Creative problem solving’ was a term invented to describe the way that ballet companies present productions on a shoestring and this book is a detailed insight.
Romeo and Juliette: Noelani Pantastico and Lucien Postlewaite.
@ Angela Sterling. Click image for larger version, or one that fills the browser window.
The vast amount of information it gives on every page may not be for everyone; people with an intimate knowledge of ballet may put it down, feeling that this is uncomfortably close to the stressful situations they battle with everyday and may not be gentle escapist reading after all, while people with a casual passing interest who thought they were picking up a Princess Tina annual may find themselves swamped by its technicalities. But for everyone in between, ‘Where snowflakes dance and swear’ is an engrossing read and treats its huge cast of protagonists as ordinary people who happen to do extraordinary jobs in an extraordinary world.
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