Free (K) Out of Step: A Dancer Reflects by Alida Blair (Memoir)

[mitford13]

Self-published, previously published by Melbourne University Press.

Free on Amazon US, by Alida Blair:

Out of Step: A Dancer Reflects

"Out of Step traces the extraordinary story of Alida Belair's ascent to the summit of the international ballet world, her striving to develop artistically and personally despite that world's tight constraints, and her struggle with anorexia.

Alida Belair was born in South West France, where her family was being hidden from the Nazis. She came to Australia in 1949, and at a young age was discovered by the Borovanskys who recognized her prodigious and precocious talent. In her late teens, she was discovered anew, this time by the Bolshoi which invited her to study at its school in Moscow. When her studies were cut short by the Cuban Missile Crisis, her passion and her talent saw her travel west to dance leading roles in London, New York and Washington–and to work with Marie Rambert, Rudolf Nureyev, George Balanchine, and other greats. Then, in her late twenties, self-starvation, isolation, and exhaustion called her career to a halt.

In Out of Step, Alida Belair tells of her battle to reconcile her demanding and exhilarating art with her emotional needs and intellectual development, and of her eventual emergence as an adult into the world outside the cloisters of the ballet which she had entered as a child."

[pendragginp]

Lovely,