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  • Catherine Littlefield: A Life in Dance

    Catherine Littlefield by Skeel, Sharon;

    A Life in Dance

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      • Publisher's listprice GBP 36.49
      • The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.

        16 475 Ft (15 690 Ft + 5% VAT)
      • Discount 10% (cc. 1 648 Ft off)
      • Discounted price 14 827 Ft (14 121 Ft + 5% VAT)

    16 475 Ft

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    Availability

    Estimated delivery time: In stock at the publisher, but not at Prospero's office. Delivery time approx. 3-5 weeks.
    Not in stock at Prospero.

    Why don't you give exact delivery time?

    Delivery time is estimated on our previous experiences. We give estimations only, because we order from outside Hungary, and the delivery time mainly depends on how quickly the publisher supplies the book. Faster or slower deliveries both happen, but we do our best to supply as quickly as possible.

    Product details:

    • Publisher OUP USA
    • Date of Publication 30 April 2020

    • ISBN 9780190654542
    • Binding Hardback
    • No. of pages376 pages
    • Size 157x236x27 mm
    • Weight 680 g
    • Language English
    • Illustrations 39 photos.
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    Short description:

    This is the first biography of Catherine Littlefield, one of the most important figures in twentieth-century American ballet. As a dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director, Littlefield built a ballet infrastructure in Philadelphia that was crucial to the proliferation of the art form in the United States.

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    Long description:

    While she is best remembered today as founder of the Philadelphia Ballet and the director and driving force behind the famous Littlefield School of Ballet, from which Balanchine drew the nucleus for his School of American Ballet, Catherine Littlefield (1905-51) and her oeuvre were in many ways emblematic of the full representation of dance throughout entertainments of the first half of the 20th century. From her early work as a teenager dancing for Florenz Ziegfeld to her later work in choreographing extravagant ice skating shows, a remarkable dance with 90 bicyclists for the 1940 World's Fair, and on television as resident choreographer for The Jimmy Durante Show, Littlefield was amongst the first choreographers to bring concert dance to broader venues, and her legacy lives on today in her enduring influence on generations of American ballet dancers.

    As the first biography of Littlefield, Catherine Littlefield: A Life in Dance traces her life in full from birth through childhood experiences dancing on the Academy of Music's grand stage, and from her foundation of the groundbreaking Philadelphia Ballet Company in 1935 to her later work in television and beyond. Littlefield counted among her many glamorous friends and colleagues writer Zelda Fitzgerald, conductor Leopold Stokowski, and composer Kurt Weill. This biography also provides an engrossing portrait of the remarkable Littlefield family, many of whom were instrumental to Catherine's success. With the unflagging support of her generous husband and indomitable mother, Littlefield gave shape to the course of American ballet in the 20th century long before Balanchine arrived in the United States.

    This extensively researched book fills in the knowledge gap about Americas first independent ballet company (i.e. not affiliated with an opera house), which helped lay the groundwork for ballet to flourish in this country.

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    Table of Contents:

    Introduction
    Chapter 1: "I had never had a dancing lesson in my life, but somehow, I knew I could train those other children, and I did." Caroline Doebele Littlefield
    Chapter 2: "The whole family was so enthusiastic and so colorful and so interesting." Elizabeth Goldsmith
    Chapter 3: "Mommie was the sparkplug and Catherine was the inspiration." Peggy Becker
    Chapter 4: "What a lugubrious tale!" Fanya Levene
    Chapter 5: "If you don't have money, you can't dance." Angelo Pinto
    Chapter 6: "She was 9/10ths a performer and 1/10th a wife." Thomas Cannon
    Chapter 7: "Here came these five beautiful Littlefield girls, good dancers all." Yvonne Patterson
    Chapter 8: "There is going to be a permanent ballet company in Philadelphia." Catherine Littlefield
    Chapter 9: "Now I know that it was really real." Ruth Sefarbi
    Chapter 10: "We took 25 curtain calls and the stage looked like a florist shop." Leonard Ware
    Chapter 11: "Her ballet, Barn Dance, was the first truly American balletic composition that we have ever seen." Walter Terry
    Chapter 12: "An enormous macédoine of musical comedy, patriotism, and burlesque, spangled with American history-that is 'American Jubilee.'" Anonymous
    Chapter 13: "For Broadway one must be clever and Catherine Littlefield is very clever." Anonymous
    Chapter 14: "It is only 8 o'clock-the sun is streaming in and God is good." Catherine Littlefield
    Epilogue

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