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RECOMMENDED READING

by Cynthia Lair (Author), Scott Murdoch

In Feeding the Young Athlete: Sports Nutrition Made Easy for Players, Parents and Coaches, simple nutritional lessons are organized into 10 Essential Eating Guidelines and recipes for cooking healthy meals and snacks with whole grains and vegetables. These recipes and eating tips offer a gateway for young players, parents, and coaches to improve performance and establish lifelong eating habits.

Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet

by Jennifer Homans (Author)
For 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. Jennifer Homans, a historian, critic, and former professional ballerina, wields a knowledge of dance born of dedicated practice. Her admiration and love for the ballet, as Entertainment Weekly notes, brings “a dancer’s grace and sure-footed agility to the page.”
by Christina Ezrahi (Author)

Swans of the Kremlin offers a fascinating glimpse at the collision of art and politics during the volatile first fifty years of the Soviet period. Ezrahi shows how the producers and performers of Russia’s two major troupes, the Mariinsky (later Kirov) and the Bolshoi, quietly but effectively resisted Soviet cultural hegemony during this period. Despite all controls put on them, they managed to maintain the classical forms and traditions of their rich artistic past and to further develop their art form. These aesthetic and professional standards proved to be the power behind the ballet’s worldwide appeal. The troupes soon became the showpiece of Soviet cultural achievement, as they captivated Western audiences during the Cold War period.

The Perfect Pointe Book and Training Turnout

by Lisa Howell B.Phty (Author)

The Perfect Pointe Book
This unique book gives you the extra help you need to really get strong enough for pointe work. It includes lots of exercises, divided into four simple stages to work on the flexibility of your feet and ankles, the strength of your little foot muscles, your turnout and your core control. It also guides you through tests for each stage so that you can work out where your problem areas are! This book is essential for any student preparing for, or already en pointe, and any teacher wanting to learn more about safely preparing students for the most beautiful of dance forms!


Training Turnout
Discover the maximal potential for your hips without pain or strain!- Learn how to assess and understand the structure of your own hips including what are true restrictions and what can be improved on- Discover your deep turnout muscles and how to train each of them for ultimate control in all positions- Recognise the relationship between core stability and turnout range and control- Learn modified physiotherapy release techniques to improve range in second splits- Find out how to effectively improve stability of the hips and pelvis while maintaining full range- Strengthen standing leg turnout control in a progressive sequence of exercises- Learn how to control turnout en fondu for optimal leg alignment during jumps- Condition the hamstrings for their essential role in supporting the led in retire- Specifically train the deep hip flexors for their very important role of supporting the leg during adage- Develop extraordinary control in a la seconde without irritating the front of the hips- Demystify the secrets of a beautiful arabesque line by addressing each component separately.


Of Swans, Sugarplums and Satin Slippers: Ballet Stories for Children
by Violette Verdy (Author), Marcia Brown (Illustrator)
A former principal ballerina with the New York City Ballet (1958-76) recounts the stories of six of the best- loved ballets: The Firebird, Copp‚lia, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Giselle, and Sleeping Beauty. Though Verdy varies her tone to suit the flavor of each dance, and while her narrative style is clear, it's not especially distinguished; what's special here is that the author's retellings are actually careful explications of the dancers' movements, making them excellent sources for anyone seeing the ballet. Brief introductions give each ballet's history and Verdy's personal experience with it. The splendid Marcia Brown (three Caldecotts plus three Honors) contributes three or four full-page, mixed-media (watercolor, pastel, pencil) illustrations for each ballet. Classical in feeling, they represent the characters as dancers, exquisitely capturing their movement and grace; the backgrounds are appropriately theatrical and impressionistic, the compositions dynamic yet skillfully balanced, the use of color adroit and sometimes daringly imaginative. A fine addition to any collection.

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Ballet Épaulement.

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Preserving The Life of Your Pointe Shoes

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Pointe shoes—those tiny, shiny, glorified piñatas, which today, make it possible for ballerinas to dance complete, three-act ballets on their pointes .   They can be expected to last anywhere from 3 months to 3 hours, depending on the demand placed on them.   For a dancer in a professional company, they are considered work supplies, and the cost is put on the company she/he dances for.   In the case of students, the cost of these educational tools, which can run between $40-$85 a pair, is often on the parents or the student themselves to cover.   The more the student is dancing, the quicker this pointe shoe budget adds up.   Why do the shoes break down so fast?   The answer is simple:   most pointe shoes are made from natural materials (leather, cardboard, burlap, layers of paper, glue, and satin).   These materials create a supportive structure that is also pliable enough to move with the dancers feet.   As the dancer’s feet bend a...
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Pointe Shoe Prep

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