While ballet invites all manner of writing from critics, admirers and academics, the thoughts and experiences of the dancers themselves are seldom recorded. Here, those who scaled the heights of their art hand down their wisdom and recount lives spent in this most enduring of art forms.
Barbara Newman has written extensively on dance for Dance Magazine (USA), the Dancing Times (UK) and many other periodicals and major reference works. She has written numerous books on ballet, including Striking a Balance (1982), Grace under Pressure (2003), and The Illustrated Book of Ballet Stories (1997), as well as contributions for BBC Radio 4, The Daily Telegraph, and Ballet Review.