The Young Person's Guide to the Ballet

by Anita Ganeri

In this sumptuous volume, readers will learn everything about the rich and varied art of ballet, from dance steps and their meanings to the evolution of the ballet slipper and the tutu and more. Following the history of the dance from the first ballets in the French court of Louis XIV to the modern productions of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, The Young Person's Guide to the Ballet introduces the greats of ballet - Fonteyn, Baryshnikov, Balanchine - as well as the choreographers, costume designers, and composers who together create a unique work of art every time a ballet is performed. Photographs from the world of dance illustrate the book, and the scores of Tchaikovsky's classic ballets - The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and The Sleeping Beauty, performed by the Munich Symphony Orchestra - are featured on the accompanying CD.

Genres: Childrens

64 pages, Hardcover

First published September 17, 1998

About the author

Anita Ganeri is a highly experienced author of children’s information books, specialising in religion, India/Asia, multiculturalism, geography, biography and natural history. She became a freelance writer after working at Walker Books (as foreign rights manager) and Usborne Publishing (as an editor). Since then, she has written over 300 titles, including the best-selling Horrible Geography series for Scholastic. The series won the Geographical Association Silver Award in 1999 and was cited as being ‘an innovation that all geographers will applaud’. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society where she conducts most of her research for the books.