Ballet Steps: Practice to Performance Revised Edition

This is a beautiful book that include photographs of ballet performances from around the world, with pencil drawings that show, in detail, the positions in basic leotard. What I love about this book is that it covers a wide range of movements... from warming up and stretching, the basic positions, steps and movements, to pas de deux. Every line and stance is drawn perfectly - from finger tip to toe. My daughter's dance instructor borrowed the book to illustrate some of the pas de deux movements in her partnering class, and I wanted to buy a copy for her. It's a shame this book is out of print, I would highly recommend it - it's worth the search to acquire a copy!

I happened upon this book somewhat accidentally when I was accompaning the Southern Ballet Theatre in Orlando, Florida. Being new at accompanying, I searched for books that would help me learn the movements for class. Most of them were small and technical or very large (and expensive) with lots of photos of famous dancers. When I found "Ballet Steps" I just could not get over its beauty. It is very instructional, yet the book is an art in itself. All of the illustrations are hand-drawn and really convey the flow of movement and the elegance of the ballet. The author/illustrator based his drawings on photos of actual dancers perforing their art, usually in the class. Since he would do the drawings later at his own pace, he was able to make corrections to even the slightest imperfection so we end up with an incredibly beautiful book. The author's aim was to help the dance student or the ballet-goer to understand the language that ballet is based upon. He not only achieved this but he surpassed all of my expectations with this eye-inspiring volume.