A really great textbook.

An encyclopedic introduction to the history of ballet and modern dance. Au remains true to her historian role and presents the many events, works and developments of western dance from Louis XIV era to the present day in an organized, logical way. Unlike Jennifer Homans' highly subjective "Apollo's Angels," "Ballet and Modern Dance" is cautious and objective. Even though the last chapter on 1970s to the present day is very lacking (perhaps not her fault; it is difficult to comb through the last forty years and more so to predict what matters in the future), this is a worthwhile book for anyone interested in western dance history, 17th century onwards.

Detailed history with numerous names and titles and dates. One of the book's strengths is the presence of internal (within the ballet and dance world) and external (dance/ballet and its relation to the world outside) links showing the relevance of productions, choreographers and dancers. Compulsory reading for spectators trying to understand dance performances better Very wide scope.

A good overview of ballet and modern dance disciplines/art forms.

Solid info, easy to read, great pix of significant performances. The last two chapters, covering dance in the latter half of the 20th century, seem a bit scattered, with references to everything from Riverdance to Billy Elliot. I think a few more years and a third edition should lead to more perspective and better editing.

It was good... History book.

Why is it that academic writing is so completely devoid of personality? Objectivity? Hardly—everyone has their biases, and those biases ALWAYS make their way into the writing. There is this great thing now called literary nonfiction. It’s nonfiction with, gasp, personality! Incorporating some color (via character sketches, syntax, adjectives, metaphors, humor, etc.) keeps the reader engaged and makes the writing more effective. I’d also like to point out that academic writing more often than not is exclusive rather than inclusive and therefore fails to accomplish the goal of educating. OK, harangue over, but if you’re interested in this topic, particularly with how it pertains to art criticism, I recommend Dave Hickey’s “Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy.”

So, clearly, this book was written in an academic style. Also not a mystery is the fact that I’m not crazy about that kind of writing. However, this book provided a decent overview of the history of ballet and modern dance in the West. Certain figures in the development of the art are mysteriously given more weight than others (to be fair, a lot of ground is covered in this book, so inevitably some things do not get the development they deserve). It succeeded in giving me the time line of how things unfolded, but it almost read like a list, so not particularly compelling. This project could have been more sophisticated.

An interesting if admittedly uneven account of the history of dance. There were parts of this book which flowed like water, other parts which felt brittle and dry. Still, this book does what it seeks to accomplish—give the reader a brief introduction to the history of dance.

I read the third edition which was expanded to talk about some 21st century movements. It felt kind of hurried and could have done with some more lively writing to lubricate the reading a bit.