Dancing Lives

Karen Eliot closely examines the lives and careers of five popular female dancers: Giovanna Baccelli, Adele Dumilatre, Tamara Karsavina, Moira Shearer, and Catherine Kerr. Notable dancers in European and Russian ballet and American modern dance genres, these women represent a historical cross section of performance, training, and technique. Elegantly guiding the reader through the Russian Revolution, stage fright and illness, liaisons with aristocracy, movie stardom, and dancing rivalries, Dancing Lives provides behind-the-curtain insight into the culture in which each woman performed. Karen Eliot is a professor of dance at Ohio State University. Trained in ballet and modern dance, she is an alumna of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.