First Position: A Century of Ballet Artists

The dancers profiled in First Position represent the pinnacle of their art over the last century. Author Toba Singer polled scores of dance critics, dance teachers and professors, and active and retired professional dancers to create a list that represents the best of the various styles of ballet from the last hundred years. The result is a collective biography that introduces the reader to dancers both with household names and those known mostly to ballet aficioinados. Profiled dancers include Carlos Acosta, Alicia Alonso, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Erik Bruhn, Lazaro Carreno, Margot Fonteyn, Carla Fracci, Gelsey Kirkland, Li Cunxin, Muriel Maffre, Natalia Makarova, Arthur Mitchell, Rudolf Nureyev, Anna Pavlova, and Maya Plisetskaya.

An introductory chapter addresses the audience for this work: ballet fans, professional dancers, aspiring dance students, and those new to ballet. It also touches on the contributions of dancers who, owing to limits of time and space, are not among the selected, but whose influence has nonetheless been lasting. Each of the fifteen chapters begins with a biographical portrait and includes discussions of the dancer’s style and artistic background; associations with noted choreographers, composers, artistic directors, and dance partners; relationship with the audience; and critical reception. The author has utilized published and unpublished interviews and source material from dance archives in San Francisco, New York, Havana, and European cities that have served as centers of the ballet world over the last century. Each chapter features photographs and concludes with a list of works performed.