Right now I am reading Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet. It was a little daunting at first because it is 672 pages and it looks much longer than that. I love history and I love ballet so this book is a match made in heaven for me. It is really well written and thought provoking. For instance ballet began as a physical representation of geometry. I had never thought about that before, but it makes so much sense because many of the movements we do make circles, we move within a square, are very concerned about "our line," and dancers usually make interesting shapes on the stage as well. It is also amazing to make direct correlations with something that I presently do with the renaissance and the enlightenment. Check out this article about how Jennifer Homan's wrote the book.
(Degas Painting "The Rehearsal" 1873, source)
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