Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Buckle at the Ballet

Buckle at the Ballet

Buckle, Richard

Hardcover

Series: Selected Criticism

DanceGeneral Drama

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0903102536
ISBN13: 9780903102537
Publisher: Dance Books
Published: Jan 2 2012
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.63
Height: 0.94 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
For sixteen years, from 1959 to 1975, Richard Buckle's articles in the Sunday Times were the most eagerly awaited and passionately perused ballet criticism in the English-speaking world. Before that he had written for the Observer and for his own magazine Ballet. Although most of the pieces included in this book are from the Sunday Times, a few date from as far back as the mid-1940s: this anthology is therefore the harvest of thirty-five years' ballet going. The qualities which brought Buckle a wide readership beyond the specialist circle of balletomanes were undoubtedly his wit and humour. Most weeks his column could be relied upon for a laugh, for some unexpected burst of fantasy or for an unexpected comic twist to a shrewd opinion. Yet Buckle himself always counted it a blessing that he was not tied down to writing a humorous article every week; for the enforced jocularity of the professional comedian soon grows wearisome, and after a year or two nobody wants to read him any more. Everyone always wanted to read Buckle. In addition, Richard Buckle had a knack for putting his finger on a ballet's strong point or weak spot, for extracting the essence of a work and expressing it in evocative prose. Prose, however, is not all this book contains. Buckle's 'occasional verse', some of it published for the first time, also finds a place in this book. The author can parody Shakespeare in blank verse as well as he can write heroic couplets and ballads, or can encapsulate the book of Genesis in a limerick. Perhaps Buckle's most important work was as a talent-spotter and prophet of new forms. He was the first to champion Balanchine when the New York City Ballet came to London in 1950; but this did not prevent him from acclaiming Martha Graham's very different kind of dance four years later. For a quarter of a century, as editor and exhibition designer, Richard Buckle worked with some of the outstanding artists of the day; and some of them have illustrated this book.

Also in

Dance

View All