new dance books and dvds

Marcia B. Siegel’s 100+ edifying pieces for Hudson Review, the Boston Phoenix, and others collected in Mirrors & Scrims: The Life and Afterlife of Ballet will inspire anyone interested in ballet's survival post-Balanchine.

Siegel admits her subjectivity in the twenty-first century manner, “I thought the dance was about…” She has a conversation with us and earns our participation— even while teaching us about post-structuralism or “the gaze.” She points out important storytelling devices the casual consumer dismisses, for example, the way a ballerina and her partner act toward each other after their pas de deux.

For the dance critic, Siegel is a model. Admit it, it’s OK if you don’t remember who ended up with who on the stage. Siegel brings back bits of history, lest we forgot (or never heard of) them. Who has thought about Léonide Massine and his ballroom ballets?

Mirrors & Scrims should be required reading for anyone who wants to benefit from Siegel's years of watching. The book is a shortcut to the enrichment that ballet offers.

Lori Ortiz's Disco Dance is in Ralph G. Giordano's The American Dance Floor series published by ABC-Clio. 3/2011