Body of a Dancer

"A remarkably clear-eyed descent into New York's surreal world of modern dance peopled by the obsessed, dispossessed, sexy, suicidal, brutal, broke, and absurd."—Lance Olsen, author of Nietzsche's Kisses

The award-winning writer Renée E. D'Aoust draws from her experiences as a modern dancer in New York during the nineties. Her luminous prose spotlights this passionate, often brutal world. Trained at the prestigious Martha Graham Center, D'Aoust intertwines accounts of her own and other dancers' lives with essays on modern dance history. A dancer's body, scarred, strained, and tough, bears witness to the discipline demanded by the art form. Body of a Dancer provides a powerful, acidly comic record of what it is to love, and eventually leave, a life centered on dance.

"With exquisite description, absolute honesty, and a clear compelling voice, Body of a Dancer offers an unforgettable account of one artist’s bittersweet journey."—Dinty W. Moore

Renée E. D'Aoust's essays have been featured as notable essays in Best American Essays in 2006, 2007, and 2009. Her nonfiction work has been included in the anthology Reading Dance, edited by Robert Gottlieb and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. D'Aoust is the recipient of an NEA Dance Criticism fellowship and grants from The Puffin Foundation and the Idaho Commission on the Arts.


"1101064279"
Body of a Dancer

"A remarkably clear-eyed descent into New York's surreal world of modern dance peopled by the obsessed, dispossessed, sexy, suicidal, brutal, broke, and absurd."—Lance Olsen, author of Nietzsche's Kisses

The award-winning writer Renée E. D'Aoust draws from her experiences as a modern dancer in New York during the nineties. Her luminous prose spotlights this passionate, often brutal world. Trained at the prestigious Martha Graham Center, D'Aoust intertwines accounts of her own and other dancers' lives with essays on modern dance history. A dancer's body, scarred, strained, and tough, bears witness to the discipline demanded by the art form. Body of a Dancer provides a powerful, acidly comic record of what it is to love, and eventually leave, a life centered on dance.

"With exquisite description, absolute honesty, and a clear compelling voice, Body of a Dancer offers an unforgettable account of one artist’s bittersweet journey."—Dinty W. Moore

Renée E. D'Aoust's essays have been featured as notable essays in Best American Essays in 2006, 2007, and 2009. Her nonfiction work has been included in the anthology Reading Dance, edited by Robert Gottlieb and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. D'Aoust is the recipient of an NEA Dance Criticism fellowship and grants from The Puffin Foundation and the Idaho Commission on the Arts.


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Body of a Dancer

Body of a Dancer

by Renee D'Aoust
Body of a Dancer

Body of a Dancer

by Renee D'Aoust

eBook

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Overview

"A remarkably clear-eyed descent into New York's surreal world of modern dance peopled by the obsessed, dispossessed, sexy, suicidal, brutal, broke, and absurd."—Lance Olsen, author of Nietzsche's Kisses

The award-winning writer Renée E. D'Aoust draws from her experiences as a modern dancer in New York during the nineties. Her luminous prose spotlights this passionate, often brutal world. Trained at the prestigious Martha Graham Center, D'Aoust intertwines accounts of her own and other dancers' lives with essays on modern dance history. A dancer's body, scarred, strained, and tough, bears witness to the discipline demanded by the art form. Body of a Dancer provides a powerful, acidly comic record of what it is to love, and eventually leave, a life centered on dance.

"With exquisite description, absolute honesty, and a clear compelling voice, Body of a Dancer offers an unforgettable account of one artist’s bittersweet journey."—Dinty W. Moore

Renée E. D'Aoust's essays have been featured as notable essays in Best American Essays in 2006, 2007, and 2009. Her nonfiction work has been included in the anthology Reading Dance, edited by Robert Gottlieb and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. D'Aoust is the recipient of an NEA Dance Criticism fellowship and grants from The Puffin Foundation and the Idaho Commission on the Arts.



Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780983934615
Publisher: Etruscan Press
Publication date: 11/29/2011
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 171
File size: 378 KB

About the Author

Trained as a dancer at the Pacific Northwest Ballet and later at the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance, Renee D'Aoust performed on proscenium stages and black box theaters. Now as a writer she has numerous publications and awards to her credit, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts Journalism Institute for Dance Criticism, support from the Puffin Foundation, and grants from Idaho Commission on the Arts. D'Aoust holds degrees from Columbia University and the University of Notre Dame.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Authors Note xii

Overture: Body of a Dancer 3

Act One: Graham Crackers 13

Act Two: Attending a Wedding: NYC 25

Act Three: Dancing in the Park 35

Act Four: Daniela Can Fly 41

Act Five: Letting the Weight Fall Forward 49

Act Six: Living Figure 67

Act Seven: Audition # 99 85

Act Eight: Theatrical Release 93

Act Nine: Holy Feet 113

Act Ten: Island Rose 125

Act Eleven: Dream of the Minotaur 133

Act Twelve: Attending a Wedding: Paris 147

Coda: Ballerina Blunders & a Few Male Danseurs 157

A Note About Gratitude 167

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Ultimately, Renee E. D'Aoust's, Body of a Dancer is a strong collection, offering new readings as the reader's eye recognizes the complexity of the movement between noun and verb, text and subject, body and mind."
—Karen Babine, University of Nebraska, Mid-American Review

"D’Aoust focuses on a dancer’s body with such acute observation that she hooks a reader to follow her on her necessarily peripatetic tour of dance venues in New York City…"
—George Held, Wilderness House Literary Review

"Body of a Dancer fills a void in the dance literature that has existed for far too long.… As D'Aoust reveals in her wonderful memoir, the "Body of a Dancer" is also shaped by an entire life led both inside and outside the studio.”
Ballet-Dance Magazine

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