Apollo's Angels

"It has never been done before, what Jennifer Homans has donein Apollo's Angels. She has written the only truly definitive history ofthe most impossibly fantastic art form, ballet....Homans accomplishment is akinto setting the most delicate and beautiful of all the imperial Faberge eggsinto a fissure high on Mount Rushmore and tracking its unlikelysurvival...Inspired...The story of Balanchine has been told before, and at greaterlengths, but never better...An eloquent and lasting elegy to an unlastingart."

-COVER REVIEW, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"A tour de force...the publication of Apollo's Angels isitself a moment in the magnificent history of classical dance."

-THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

"Magisterial... Apollo's Angels is a cultural history ofthe highest order...Homans brings to the page a practical knowledge gained in anearlier career as a dancer. Thus she leaps easily from big picture politicaltrends in one sentence to the minutiae of a dancer's steps in the next, fromhow dances were made to who the patrons were...Fascinating reading."

-BOOKFORUM

"Here is a book of immense ambition-a one volume history ofballet-and of considerable accomplishment....Homans shows herself to be bothdogged and graceful as a historian-a rare and welcome combination ofqualities...I follow her gratefully through the centuries as she traces theprogress of ballet from its beginnings...Her deft intelligence and lively voicekeep the book from sounding too academic, and its vast stock of information iscogently organized."

-NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

"It's hard to believe that a book like Jennifer Homans's Apollo'sAngels, on a topic of such obvious interest and importance, has never beenwritten before, but it apparently hasn't, and lovers of the ballet are luckythat it is Homans-herself a former dancer and the dance critic for The NewRepublic--who took up the task."

- Harper's Magazine

"A magisterial and often moving history of the silent art...Theauthor artfully choreographs a huge, sometimes unruly cast, producing a work ofelegance, emotion and enduring importance."

-KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred review «

"Homans brings her intimate experience as a dancer and herdiscerning dance critic's eye to her fascinating and exquisitely detailedhistory of ballet, an art that combines rigor and idealism....[a] gloriouslandmark study of ballet's ideals and enchantment."

- BOOKLIST, starred review «

"An important and original work of cultural history...Hercultural critique, as well as her expansive and penetrating view of ballet'shistory, recommend this book to all readers who care about the history of thearts as well as their present and possible future."

- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review «

"Apollo's Angels" is an important addition to theliterature on ballet: intellectually rigorous, beautifully written, brilliantlystructured... an illuminating history much needed now."

- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"Each page of this luminous work delights, enlightens andbeckons. Every dancer should live with this book, of course, butevery person who loves literature and history, is word-struck andstory-addicted, should give themselves a treat with Apollo's Angels.Treasure this treasure."-Jacques d'amboise

"This is a wonderful book about how ballet evolved. Written bya gifted dancer, Apollo's Angels is dance history seen from theinside. The wonder to me is how much this accessible, beautifully-craftedbook reveals about the times and places in which ballets were made; it makesculture come alive." -Richard Sennett, author of The Craftsman

"A dancer who is also a historian -- who ever dreamed of suchan improbable creature? But here is Jennifer Homans and her indispensable book.She puts the understanding of ballet on a whole new footing. Finally thedelicacies of ballet have been restored to the indelicacies of history, and theart seems even more wondrous for it. Apollo's Angels is anenlightenment, a remarkable feat of scholarship and sensibility, an affectingmixture of criticism and devotion, an intellectual joy."-Leon Wieseltier