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The Ballet Pre-Theatre Guide: 80 World-Famous Ballets Summarised Act by Act Pocket Theater Companion
Paperback
Series: The Arts Edge Pre-Theatre
Publisher Price: $14.99
ISBN13: 9781919121994
Publisher: Ian Mac: The Arts Edge School
Published: Aug 5 2026
Pages: 92
Weight: 0.30
Height: 0.22 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Curtain up in twenty minutes - and you've no idea what's about to happen on stage.
Eighty ballets. One entry each. Everything you need before the lights go down.
Ballet tells its stories without words. That is the glory of it, and also the reason so many people spend the whole of Act I quietly wondering who the man in the feathered hat is supposed to be, or why everyone has suddenly gone mad. The programme tells you the cast. This tells you the story.
The Ballet Pre-Theatre Guide covers eighty of the world's most performed ballets - from Swan Lake, Giselle and The Nutcracker to Mayerling, Manon, La Bayadère and Le Corsaire - with one self-contained entry for each. Read it in ten minutes on the train, in the interval, or in the last few seconds before the house lights dim.
What's inside
- 80 world-famous ballets, arranged alphabetically, one entry each
- The story told act by act - so you always know where you are and what just happened
- Composer, choreographer, premiere date and venue, and running time at a glance
- Why It Matters - a short note on each work's place in the repertoire, and what to watch for
Written to be read before the performance, not studied afterwards
Who it's for
- Theatregoers who want to follow the story instead of guessing at it
- Newcomers to ballet - no technical vocabulary, no assumed knowledge, nothing to look up
- Dancers and drama students preparing or learning a role
- Dance students and teachers needing a quick, reliable reference across the standard repertoire
- Anyone buying tickets as a gift who wants the recipient to enjoy the evening properly
- Eighty ballets, eighty entries, and never again that sinking feeling in the second interval
Companion to the Ballet Stories series on YouTube. Part of The Arts Edge Pre-Theatre Series.
Time is knowledge.
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