Dance Me a Story: Twelve Tales from the Classic Ballets
Author:
Jane Rosenberg
Illustrator:
Jane Rosenberg
Publication:
1985 by Thames and Hudson
Genre:
Dance, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Historic Tales and Legends
Pages:
127
Current state:
Basic information has been added for this book.
It is under consideration and will be updated when it is evaluated further.
Book Guide
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Dance Me a Story retells twelve great ballets as fairy tales—fairy tales set to music and told through the medium of dance. It is the first collection of ballet stories in which the characters and the worlds they inhabit exist as they do at the ballet, on stage behind the proscenium arch.
Jane Rosenberg has re-created as fully as possible, in words and pictures, the actual experience of a ballet performance. Here are the romantic arabesques of Giselle and the classical attitudes of The Sleeping Beauty. Here are ballerinas partnered by their cavaliers; villains in the guises of sorcerers, witches, and magicians; comic characters and noble, tragic ones.
Whether the tales are read as an introduction to ballet or to relive a production already seen, text and art combine to give a clear understanding of plot, scene, and character. Young children in particular will enjoy reading the stories—or having them read—both as lovely fairy tales and to help them share in the magic of the ballet.
Here is a book for young and old alike, for all those who love fairy tales and the enchanted world of the ballet.
From the dust jacket
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Resource Guide
Podcast
Episode 70: Why Read Fairy Tales?
Released in 2020 by The Literary Life
Available formats: Streaming Audio
Length: 1 hr. 29 min.
View on the The Literary Life site
"Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins tackle the topic of fairy stories, discussing the what, why and how of reading them. Angelina shares the distinctive characteristics of fairy stories in contrast to other types of stories, such as myths. They deal with the question of whether fairy tales are 'escapist', the influence of the Grimm brothers scholarly work on interpreting fairy stories, and allowing the story to unveil its deeper truths without forcing meaning onto it.
Angelina gives an illustration of how to see the gospel messages in fairy tales by talking us through the story of Sleeping Beauty. She refutes the ideas that fairy tales are about human romance or are misogynistic. She also highlights some of the Enlightenment and Puritan responses to fairy tales that still linger with us today. Cindy and Angelina also discuss some common concerns such as the magical, weird, or scary aspects of fairy tales. Angelina also makes a distinction between folk tales, literary fairy tales, and cautionary tales."
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