140×215 (60×90/16), paperback, ill., 328 pp., 2005
ISBN 5-86793-402-0

Dance is an art form existing purely in the moment of execution, impossible to re-capture or to convey through visual images. Yulia Yakovleva’s book is a unique attempt to present the entire story of the Mariinsky Ballet in a single, balletic impulse: in this, the first ever history of the Mariinsky, the author avoids heavy analysis and dogma, so alien to the ephemeral nature of dance. Punctuating her impressive material with portraits of ballet masters (the “cultural heroes”) and dancers (the “stars”), Yakovleva strives to portray ballet through words. Light, sharp, inevitably subjective, her finely honed journalistic style allows us to experience the semantics of her story, re-living historical moments in the life of the theatre.

World rights available