I of course knew of George Balanchine, many of his famous ballets, and the NYCB. But I knew nothing about Balanchine's life, so this book was an interesting journey. The way Homans describes the dances and the dancers themselves is gorgeous, and by far my favorite thing about this book.

This was an excellent biography in general, but I do still struggle with the tone- Balanchine was incredibly problematic. Very thorough though, and Homans is a great writer.

Prepare yourself: This is a long haul. But worth it.

It took me several months to get through this, in part because it’s not something you can burn through in a binge-read approach if you want to get the most out of it and, and of course because it is both very dense and very long. I think the audiobook is something like 24 hours long.

This is a very thoroughly researched and highly detailed account of Balanchine’s life and career. Parts of it are riveting, others less so, but on the whole it’s exceptionally well constructed and well told.

I think if asked to choose I would say I preferred Apollo’s Angels, mostly because it’s the history of ballet in general rather than one individual specifically. That said, the books feel like companions to one another, and if you love ballet and/or want to educate yourself on the subject, an immersive tome on Balanchine feels necessary.

A well-written, deeply researched biography! I learned so much about Balanchine that I didn't know before. It's long, and has a very traditional biography style, but anything for the ballet. <3

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance audio copy of this title. This is not only a biography of George Balanchine, but a sweeping history of the 20th Century. Balanchine was the premier architect of the NYCB, but his story encompasses so much more. Born in Geogia (Russia) before the revolution, his formative years were shaped by living in Tsarist Russia, and then the deprivations during the Russian revolution. He left Russia for other parts of Europe, and travelled with dance companies before emigrating to the U.S. He did a significant amount of choreographing for Hollywood movies, but spent the bulk of his career choregraphing for various ballet companies before shaping the New York City Ballet with his unique style. He was an inveterate ladies man, and married 5 times. Although, a long book, it was infinitely interesting; perhaps the most interesting fact was that upon his death, the intellectual property of his choreography was willed to his heirs, and lengthly legal issues had to be ironed out in order for the NYCB to continuing to stage productions created for the company!