› › Life Is Better When You Are Ballet Dancing

Life Is Short, Don't Wait to Dance

Author : Valorie Kondos Field

Publisher : Center Street

Page : 225 pages

File Size : 26,31 MB

Release : 2018-10-02

Category : Sports & Recreation

ISBN : 1546077138

Get eBook

Book Description

Highly acclaimed UCLA Women's gymnastics coach of 7 NCAA championships Valorie Kondos Field shares insights on how to use uniqueness and authenticity to achieve success. Former professional ballerina Valorie Kondos Field--or Miss Val, as she's affectionately known--has never tumbled, flipped, or even played any type of organized sports, and yet she has been able to craft a legendary coaching career through curiosity, creativity, attention to detail, and unwavering care for the overall well-being of her athletes. For Miss Val, it's not about winning and losing, it's about choreographing your life and owning the choices you make. Miss Val has shaped her UCLA Gymnastics program as a life skills class and now she's sharing those lessons with you, whether you're an athlete, business leader, or simply someone who wants to own their destiny. Miss Val's philosophies are timeless. Her coaching style is unorthodox. Life Is Short, Don't Wait to Dance is a thought-provoking, fun journey through the anecdotes of the 35-year career of a dancer/choreographer turned athletic coach. The book includes unforgettable stories of the Olympians and athletes with whom she's worked-including the inspirational journey of Katelyn Ohashi, whose joyful transformation under the tutelage of Miss Val was evident to the world when her perfect 10 floor routine went viral -- reaching over 100 million viewers. Other triumphs include Olympian Jamie Dantzscher, who found her confidence at UCLA and learned the tools to combat her previous abuse; and sensation Christine Peng Peng Lee, who helped the Bruins clinch the 2018 NCAA championship with back-to-back 10's. Miss Val also shares her favorite memories of her mentor, legendary basketball coach John Wooden, as well as her thoughts on Larry Nassar and the gymnastics sexual abuse scandal. Miss Val reveals how her coaching journey had a rocky start before she found her own best approach. In time she realized that her dance background wasn't a detriment, it was a gift. When she embraced this, Miss Val led the Bruins to victory. Life Is Short, Don't Wait to Dance is packed with great advice for anyone on a quest for success, delivered in Miss Val's reassuring and inspirational tone. She took the same approach to her breast cancer diagnosis, explaining how she made that struggle into one of the best years of her life. For Miss Val, it's all about attitude. Life Is Short, Don't Wait to Dance is a powerful book that shows you how to make the leap of faith in choosing your own path to greatness.



Being a Ballerina

Author : Gavin Larsen

Publisher : University Press of Florida

Page : 268 pages

File Size : 42,80 MB

Release : 2021-04-27

Category : Performing Arts

ISBN : 081306595X

Get eBook

Book Description

Finalist, the Arts Club of Washington Marfield Prize A look inside a dancer’s world Inspiring, revealing, and deeply relatable, Being a Ballerina is a firsthand look at the realities of life as a professional ballet dancer. Through episodes from her own career, Gavin Larsen describes the forces that drive a person to study dance; the daily balance that dancers navigate between hardship and joy; and the dancer’s continual quest to discover who they are as a person and as an artist. Starting with her arrival as a young beginner at a class too advanced for her, Larsen tells how the embarrassing mistake ended up helping her learn quickly and advance rapidly. In other stories of her early teachers, training, and auditions, she explains how she gradually came to understand and achieve what she and her body were capable of. Larsen then re-creates scenes from her experiences in dance companies, from unglamorous roles to exhilarating performances. Working as a ballerina was shocking and scary at first, she says, recalling unexpected injuries, leaps of faith, and her constant struggle to operate at the level she wanted—but full of enormously rewarding moments. Larsen also reflects candidly on her difficult decision to retire at age 35. An ideal read for aspiring dancers, Larsen’s memoir will also delight experienced dance professionals and fascinate anyone who wonders what it takes to live a life dedicated to the perfection of the art form.



Turning Pointe

Author : Chloe Angyal

Publisher : Bold Type Books

Page : 298 pages

File Size : 39,19 MB

Release : 2021-05-04

Category : Performing Arts

ISBN : 1645036723

Get eBook

Book Description

A reckoning with one of our most beloved art forms, whose past and present are shaped by gender, racial, and class inequities—and a look inside the fight for its future Every day, in dance studios all across America, legions of little children line up at the barre to take ballet class. This time in the studio shapes their lives, instilling lessons about gender, power, bodies, and their place in the world both in and outside of dance. In Turning Pointe, journalist Chloe Angyal captures the intense love for ballet that so many dancers feel, while also grappling with its devastating shortcomings: the power imbalance of an art form performed mostly by women, but dominated by men; the impossible standards of beauty and thinness; and the racism that keeps so many people of color out of ballet. As the rigid traditions of ballet grow increasingly out of step with the modern world, a new generation of dancers is confronting these issues head on, in the studio and on stage. For ballet to survive the twenty-first century and forge a path into a more socially just future, this reckoning is essential.



The Dance Cure

Author : Peter Lovatt

Publisher : HarperCollins

Page : 141 pages

File Size : 48,70 MB

Release : 2021-01-26

Category : Self-Help

ISBN : 006304689X

Get eBook

Book Description

The founder of the Dance Psychology Lab, Dr. Peter Lovatt, reveals the surprising cognitive and emotional benefits of dancing and prescriptive ways to dance yourself happy. Dancing isn’t just good exercise. Surrendering yourself to the beat can have a far-reaching impact on all areas of your life –it can help you communicate better, to think more creatively, and can be a powerful catalyst for change. Losing yourself in the moment to a song or piece of music can also alleviate anxiety, depression, and feelings of isolation, Dr. Peter Lovatt has found. Drawing on great stories from dance history as well as fascinating case studies from his Dance Psychology Lab and his own life, Dr Lovatt shares his best steps and routines, as well as top dance anthems to inspire everyone—even those who believe they “can't dance”—to turn the music on, stand up, and dance themselves happy. The Dance Cure is filled with surprising prescriptions covering a variety of needs, revealing how a particular type of dance can help. Looking to become more empathetic? Pair up for a Scottish country dance Eager to enhance your creativity? Shake it up with contemporary dance Need to de-stress? Let loose with punk-era pogo Looking to prolong your life? Zumba is the secret In need of showing yourself more love? Go solo as you trip the light fantastic. Want to bolster your self-confidence? Try ballet and belly dance. An irresistible blend of science and whimsy, The Dance Cure shows you how to turn the beat—and your life—around.



The Healthy Dancer

Author :

Publisher :

Page : 119 pages

File Size : 20,62 MB

Release : 2008

Category : Ballet

ISBN : 9780615227795

Get eBook

Book Description



Ballet Dancers in Career Transition

Author : Nancy Upper

Publisher : McFarland

Page : 279 pages

File Size : 43,69 MB

Release : 2015-10-03

Category : Performing Arts

ISBN : 1476616728

Get eBook

Book Description

A professional dancer's career, like a professional athlete's, lasts an average of 10 to 15 years. Once the prime years of physical prowess have passed, retirement is inevitable, but dancers still have many years of adult life ahead. The challenge for many is making the transition into a new career. Motivated by her own career transition, author Nancy Upper interviewed former ballet dancers who made successful transitions into new careers after they stopped performing. Part 1 of the book features dancers who remained in ballet-related careers. Part 2 features four individuals who chose careers outside the field of dance. Part 3 focuses on dancers who pursued non-dance careers that help dancers and other performing artists. Appendices include the marketable qualities dancers develop as a result of their training, career transition tips, transition resources, and a graph mapping the transition process.



Good Words

Author :

Publisher :

Page : 898 pages

File Size : 28,80 MB

Release : 1882

Category : English periodicals

ISBN :

Get eBook

Book Description







Johanna Krause Twice Persecuted

Author : Carolyn Gammon

Publisher : Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press

Page : 181 pages

File Size : 21,23 MB

Release : 2013-05-21

Category : History

ISBN : 1554580919

Get eBook

Book Description

Persecuted as a Jew, both under the Nazis and in post-war East Germany, Johanna Krause (1907–2001) courageously fought her way through life with searing humour and indomitable strength of character. Johanna Krause Twice Persecuted is her story. Born in Dresden into bitter poverty, Krause received little education and worked mostly in shops and factories. In 1933, when she came to the defence of a Jewish man being beaten by the brownshirts, Krause was jailed for “insulting the Fürer” After a secret wedding in 1935, she was arrested again with her husband, Max Krause, for breaking the law that forbade marriage between a Jew and an “Aryan.” In the years following, Johanna endured many atrocities—a forced abortion while eight months pregnant and subsequent sterilization, her incarceration in numerous prisons and concentration camps, including Ravensbrück, the notorious women’s camp near Berlin, and a death march. After the war, the Krauses took part enthusiastically in building the new socialist republic of East Germany—until 1958, when Johanna recognized a party official as a man who had tried to rape and kill her during the war. Thinking the communist party would punish the official, Joanna found out whose side the party was on and was subjected to anti-Semitic attacks. Both she and her husband were jailed and their business and belongings confiscated. After her release she lived as a persona non grata in East Germany, having been evicted from the communist party. It was only in the 1990s, after the reunification of Germany, that Johanna saw some justice. Originally published as Zweimal Verfolgt, the book is the result of collaboration between Johanna Krause, Carolyn Gammon, and Christiane Hemker. Translated by Carolyn Gammon, Johanna Krause Twice Persecuted will be of interest to scholars of auto/biography, World War II history, and the Holocaust.