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63 books
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3 voters
Ballet Books
Showing 1-50 of 2,825
Bunheads (Hardcover)
by (shelved 129 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.72 — 7,271 ratings — published 2011
Tiny Pretty Things (Tiny Pretty Things, #1)
by (shelved 109 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.66 — 16,161 ratings — published 2015
Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina (Hardcover)
by (shelved 105 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.93 — 10,035 ratings — published 2014
Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet (Hardcover)
by (shelved 101 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.02 — 2,117 ratings — published 2010
Ballet Shoes (Paperback)
by (shelved 100 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.07 — 39,145 ratings — published 1936
The Swan Lake Murders (Mary Wandwalker #4)
by (shelved 95 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.32 — 16,645 ratings — published
Astonish Me (Paperback)
by (shelved 93 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.62 — 20,069 ratings — published 2014
Dancing on My Grave (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 90 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.88 — 2,532 ratings — published 1986
The Ballerinas (Hardcover)
by (shelved 79 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.44 — 11,955 ratings — published 2021
The Painted Girls (Hardcover)
by (shelved 78 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.62 — 36,941 ratings — published 2012
Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal (Paperback)
by (shelved 75 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.96 — 716 ratings — published 1982
A Company of Swans (Paperback)
by (shelved 72 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.00 — 10,691 ratings — published 1985
The Cranes Dance (Paperback)
by (shelved 69 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.72 — 3,728 ratings — published 2012
The Turnout (Hardcover)
by (shelved 65 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.11 — 24,435 ratings — published 2021
Don't Think, Dear: On Loving and Leaving Ballet (Hardcover)
by (shelved 61 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.81 — 2,211 ratings — published 2023
Holding On to the Air (Paperback)
by (shelved 55 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.17 — 762 ratings — published 1990
Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina (Hardcover)
by (shelved 54 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.25 — 5,798 ratings — published 2014
Russian Winter (Hardcover)
by (shelved 52 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.75 — 10,436 ratings — published 2010
Dancing Through It: My Journey in the Ballet (Hardcover)
by (shelved 49 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.82 — 976 ratings — published 2014
The Ballet Companion: A Dancer's Guide to the Technique, Traditions, and Joys of Ballet (Hardcover)
by (shelved 48 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.36 — 615 ratings — published 2005
Firebird (Hardcover)
by (shelved 45 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.07 — 2,564 ratings — published 2014
Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina (Hardcover)
by (shelved 44 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.82 — 2,065 ratings — published 2021
Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself (Hardcover)
by (shelved 43 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.02 — 787 ratings — published 2021
Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova (Hardcover)
by (shelved 43 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.31 — 1,619 ratings — published 2015
To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel (Hardcover)
by (shelved 42 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.84 — 3,954 ratings — published 2006
Basic Principles of Classical Ballet: Russian Ballet Technique (Paperback)
by (shelved 40 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.49 — 358 ratings — published 1969
They're Going to Love You (Hardcover)
by (shelved 38 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.04 — 19,025 ratings — published 2022
Shiny Broken Pieces (Tiny Pretty Things, #2)
by (shelved 38 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.78 — 7,258 ratings — published 2016
Girl Through Glass (Hardcover)
by (shelved 38 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.38 — 3,418 ratings — published 2016
Ballerina: Sex, Scandal, and Suffering Behind the Symbol of Perfection (Hardcover)
by (shelved 38 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.59 — 466 ratings — published 2012
Mao's Last Dancer (Paperback)
by (shelved 38 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.14 — 32,966 ratings — published 2003
Ballerina (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 37 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.01 — 531 ratings — published 1979
City of Night Birds (Hardcover)
by (shelved 36 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.62 — 13,849 ratings — published 2024
Up to This Pointe (Library Binding)
by (shelved 34 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.94 — 1,659 ratings — published 2016
Bright Burning Stars (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 33 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.49 — 1,266 ratings — published 2019
Angelina Ballerina (Hardcover)
by (shelved 33 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.02 — 10,758 ratings — published 1988
Classical Ballet Technique (Paperback)
by (shelved 33 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.56 — 356 ratings — published 1989
Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet from the Rule of the Tsars to Today (Hardcover)
by (shelved 31 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.23 — 463 ratings — published 2016
The Walls Around Us (Hardcover)
by (shelved 31 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.68 — 10,789 ratings — published 2014
Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet (Dover Books on Dance)
by (shelved 31 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.39 — 562 ratings — published 1967
The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History (Hardcover)
by (shelved 29 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.16 — 3,315 ratings — published 2024
Midnight in Everwood (Hardcover)
by (shelved 29 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.52 — 11,537 ratings — published 2021
White Swan, Black Swan (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by (shelved 28 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.53 — 341 ratings — published 2001
Once a Dancer: An Autobiography (Paperback)
by (shelved 28 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.03 — 360 ratings — published 1997
101 Stories of the Great Ballets: The Scene-by-Scene Stories of the Most Popular Ballets, Old and New (Paperback)
by (shelved 28 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.03 — 232 ratings — published 1975
Nocturne (Hardcover)
by (shelved 27 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.23 — 2,367 ratings — published 2023
Kisses and Croissants (Hardcover)
by (shelved 27 times as ballet)
avg rating 3.76 — 22,412 ratings — published 2021
Margot Fonteyn (Paperback)
by (shelved 27 times as ballet)
avg rating 4.00 — 347 ratings — published 2004
“I wanted to be recognized in the stories I loved so badly. With ballet, it doesn't matter where you come from. It matters how good you are."
"That's why you trained so hard."
"Yes, but it wasn't just that." Before things were bad, my mother used to ask why I was so drawn to the sea. I told her that although the sea is dangerous beneath the surface, people still find beauty in it from above. It's still something to be adored, even if it is usually only ever loved at a distance. That's why I loved performing. For a moment, I could just be admired. Not a danger to everyone around me.
Like the sea, I have a tendency to destroy things. Beautiful things. Sacred things. The sea takes things she loves--- like coral or shells--- and obliterates them to sand. I've always told myself she doesn't mean to; it's just the way she is. She can't choose when the hurricanes roll in or when the tsunamis rise. They flow out of her as they should. Maybe even in ways she doesn't understand.
Ballet makes me feel like the ocean--- silently unfurling with all the rage I've buried deep down, yet still manifesting in something beautiful. For those few moments, with all eyes on me, I'm heard. Ballet tells stories, and this is how I tell mine.”
― Dance of the Starlit Sea
"That's why you trained so hard."
"Yes, but it wasn't just that." Before things were bad, my mother used to ask why I was so drawn to the sea. I told her that although the sea is dangerous beneath the surface, people still find beauty in it from above. It's still something to be adored, even if it is usually only ever loved at a distance. That's why I loved performing. For a moment, I could just be admired. Not a danger to everyone around me.
Like the sea, I have a tendency to destroy things. Beautiful things. Sacred things. The sea takes things she loves--- like coral or shells--- and obliterates them to sand. I've always told myself she doesn't mean to; it's just the way she is. She can't choose when the hurricanes roll in or when the tsunamis rise. They flow out of her as they should. Maybe even in ways she doesn't understand.
Ballet makes me feel like the ocean--- silently unfurling with all the rage I've buried deep down, yet still manifesting in something beautiful. For those few moments, with all eyes on me, I'm heard. Ballet tells stories, and this is how I tell mine.”
― Dance of the Starlit Sea
“I feel his arm
Lightly
Over me.
He takes one of my outstretched hands.
Draws it beneath my stomach.
"One more time..."
This is not sex,
Not friendship.
Something
Strange
Special
In the stillness of his breath,
The waterlike way he moves.
He is making a dance.
We are making a dance.”
― Audition
Lightly
Over me.
He takes one of my outstretched hands.
Draws it beneath my stomach.
"One more time..."
This is not sex,
Not friendship.
Something
Strange
Special
In the stillness of his breath,
The waterlike way he moves.
He is making a dance.
We are making a dance.”
― Audition
