- Hardcover: 622 pages
- Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group; 1st Edition edition (May 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0399146520
- ISBN-13: 978-0399146527
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15.7 x 5.1 cm
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
385,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10 in Books > Biography > Theatre & Performance Art > Dancers
Dance with Demons
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Review
"If [he] hadn't been the way he was no one would have the careers they had." - Chita Rivera "Comprehensive and lively." - Publishers Weekly
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Despite becoming established as one of the century's greatest choreographic masters, in 1998, Jerome Robbins died a haunted man. All his life, he was tortured by private demons: his conflicting feelings about his sexuality and his religion; his bitter relationship with his parents; his scandalous betrayals during the McCarthy hearings; and a sadistic but genius drive for perfection. Now, this groundbreaking biography, based on hundreds of interviews with friends, family and colleagues, provides the first complete portrait of the man and the artist - a harrowing, heartbreaking and triumphant work as complicated and fascinating as the man himself.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Amazon.com:
9 reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
A real page-turner!
8 Jun 2001
Format:Hardcover
Jerome Robbins was an extremely complex and difficult man -- and a genius. His choreography was more highly rated than Balanchine's in France, for instance. In this very well written book the reader is able to go inside the worlds of ballet and musical theater through endless but never boring details. "West Side Story" is Robbins's most famous work; he won two Oscars for the movie, but had been fired from the production! Marvelous insights into the personalities and talents of a generation of theatrical wizards in New York, particularly in the '50s. You don't have to be a ballet fan to enjoy this book.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Thorough, gossipy, undefinitive -- maybe unnecessary
28 Sep 2001
Format:Hardcover
Despite, or because of, its inclusion of hundreds of interviews, much of Greg Lawrence's biography amounts to uncorroborated hearsay. Given the backbiting and jealous atmosphere of the theatre world, a more rigorous biographer would have carefully weighed and vetted the reliability of the sources. Lawrence apparently was not given access to Robbins' own papers and therefore the man himself is decidedly absent from these pages, as has been pointed out by reviews in The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and elsewehere. It's gossipy and full of facts and opinions, but curiously empty.
Another customer reviewer here compares Lawrence's book with Christine Conrad's compendium of photographs and Robbins quotes (Jerome Robbins,That Broadway Man, That Ballet Man), to Lawrence's benefit. Seems to me you get a stronger sense of Robbins the man AND the artist from Conrad's book, even though it doesn't pretend to be a biography.
I've read that two other full-scale biographies are in the works whose authors have been allowed to see Robbins's archives; hopefully they will provide a deeper and more balanced view of the man. If anyone still cares.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Highly recommended
13 Aug 2001
Format:Hardcover
This book is an extraordinary oral history covering more than fifty years of American cultural history, with Jerome Robbins at center stage. A vivid portrait of the artist is created by the voices of family, friends, and colleagues. Both loved and hated, Robbins emerges in these pages as an ingenious, tormented bundle of contradictions -- a classic Jekyl-Hyde bipolar personality. Dance With Demons is packed with marvelous anecdotes about all of Robbins' Broadway shows and ballets, as well as the "demons" of his life off-stage (his conflicts over his bisexuality and Jewish heritage, etc). A must-read for anyone interested in theater and dance.
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