Days with Ulanova

Simon & Schuster, 1962-01-01. Hardcover. Very Good. Simon & Schuster (A Fireside Book) [Published date: 1962]. Hard cover, 239 pp. First Fireside Books printing (full number line). Very good/ NO dust jacket. Glossy pictorial paper over boards have light bumping along edges and light overall scuffing and faint soiling. Binding tight. Pages lightly yellowed with age but otherwise clean and unmarked. NOT Ex-library. NO remainder marks. Black and white photos throughout. [Excerpt from Introduction by Arnold L. Haskell.I have been fortunate enough to have had some forty years of experience watching dancing all over the world and discussingthe art with its greatest exponents. But I have the strong feeling that all my years of watching dancing have been a preparation for the few fleeting moments of watching Ulanova. Now, through this book, those moments are prolonged and intensified.My memories of Ulanova are, to me, a part of life itself ~, bringing a total enrichment of experience. To me, hers are not theatrical miracles but triumphs of the human spirit. Where Pavlova was supremely conscious of her audience and could play uponits emotions as upon an instrument, Ulanova is remote in a world of her own—which we are privileged to penetrate. She is so completely identified with the character she impersonates that nothing outside exists. The master craftsman by an act of humility has become the truth-revealing, life-giving art1st. When Ulanova takes her curtain call, it is immediately obvious that she has been called from afar, and that the salvos of applause are as much of an intrusion to her as they are to the more sensitive in her audience. For once this grateful noise seems horribly out of place.Uhnova's complete concentration carries us with her through the period artificialities of Giselle to a statement about life and love, through the highly skilled ballet-making of Romeo and Juliet to a true communion with the mind of Shakespeare. Working throughthe medium of what has sometimes been called the most sophisticated, stylized and artificial form of theatre, she has brought the dance for a brief moment back to itsprimitive origins in ma-gic. I have felt, no, I feel, this strongly, for the enchantment persists. I have talked with Ulanova of her art; she is exceptionally intelligent andhighly articulate.