Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet [Hardcover]

If you're thinking about being daunted by the length of this book -- don't be. It is rich with human drama, starring a cast of a hundred interesting people we get to follow through their various rôles in a season of a leading ballet company. Manes makes sure you get to see their individual personalities through vivid portraits he delivers by using their own words. The unfolding dramatic events and stories about people we care about make the book a page-turner.

Bypassing the apparent protocol of insider ballet writers, it's not just another retelling of ballet history through "heroic figures". It reveals the many previously unexamined or intentionally-ignored departments & people in a company, from costumes and sets to lighting and the orchestra, to marketers and ushers, all of whom are vital to the ballet experience.

I think every young dancer should read "Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear". Like baseball, ballet dancing has a remarkably competitive career path that winnows candidates. For every dancer who seems excellent at her or his own level, only a fraction make it at the next level up. As the book reveals, the commitment required to persist is enormous, the economic rewards pretty limited, the chance for personal satisfaction immense, the opportunities for ballet careers beyond dancing diverse and interesting. A young dancer will become both more realistic and more emotionally durable by reading the book.

I didn't know a ton about ballet before I started reading Manes' book. I now believe I have the kind of knowledge one gets from a really good "plant tour". I feel like I really know a lot of the individuals I met through this insightful and fun book. I will be following their careers and attending ballets more than ever, even having been presented with the complex, sometimes sad realities of the art.

A remarkably valuable guide book to the REAL Land of Ballet, unromanticized but Romantic nevertheless, the way no insider could ever have had either the guts or perspective to deliver.

Stephen Manes spent a little over a year at Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB), from preparation of the 2007-8 season, Peter Boal's third as Artistic Director with the company after a much-celebrated career as a Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet (NYCB), to the very beginning of the 2008-9 season, and he followed just about every aspect of life in the company and the hundreds -- thousands if you consider families and mentors -- of people that make a season possible. It is similar to Joseph Mazo's "Dance is a Contact Sport" in that Manes dedicated his life to a season with a company, but far from being just about dancers and choreographers. Manes takes an in-depth look at the school, classes, coaching, backstage, PR, the front of the house, administration, touring, auditions, fundraising, the orchestra, the Board: all of the aspects that come together to make the organization run and the performances happen. He even pays a visit to The Barn in Carlisle, PA. He also avoids the self-conscious cutesy style into which Mazo, a sportswriter, lapsed.

Many people have asked over and over, "How are works transmitted?" "How do the dancers learn them?" "How do dancers work?" This books describes all of this in great detail, including the contrast in style, approach, and expectation of different stagers/stager-choreographers/choreographers. Because that season boasted so many new works of different sizes and demands, there is quite a contrast. (The one thing they had in common, how many times they praised and encouraged, was the biggest surprise to me.)

The book gives a robust portrait of Peter Boal in a critical year in his first five-year term as Artistic Director, particularly through an in-depth description of the crucible of that period: a production of Jean-Christophe Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette", which replaced a much-loved version of former Co-Artistic Director Kent Stowell's, "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet". In addition, the book describes the creation process of Tony award-winning choreographer Susan Stroman's ("The Producers") new work for PNB, "Take Five...More or Less", and the staging of much-lauded choreographer Christopher Wheeldon's "Variations Serieuses".

2007-8 was also a critical point in the transition from Francia Russell and Kent Stowell to Peter Boal, two years away from the honeymoon, and the adjustment was huge, however well as it was handled publicly. The detailed descriptions of the making of each rep and special performance, presentation, and gala/party over the season, as well as the dancers' own words, establish context.

Whatever anyone thinks of Peter Boal, there is someone in the book who will validate her or her conclusion, because, ultimately, this is a book about work and, by extension, about business, and Peter Boal is the boss. There are limited resources -- time and money -- and limited opportunity, and no matter how much money he and his staff raise, time and opportunity are still limited, and dancers' careers live and die by opportunity.

PNB is run, at least in this period, on a strict business model, to produce a small operating surplus each year. The book was written about the season before the financial crisis hit, after PNB had deferred an endowment gift on which the next season's budget relied, only to find the value of the endowment reduced below contributions, and before "Nutcracker", upon which the company, like most companies in the US, relied to subsidize the rest of the season, suffered the triple-whammy of the financial crisis, a new Christmas show in town, and a massive snow storm just before Christmas that crippled the city, whose poor response to it helped to topple then-mayor Greg Nickels.

It's also a book about communication, and setting expectations, and often, the lack of both.

There are many profiles, both of dancers, stagers, choreographers, and people behind the scenes, and for NYCB fans, Carla Korbes, who was cast widely in the season, is a featured player, with appearances by Miranda Weese, Seth Orza, and Sarah Ricard Orza. I thought the most fascinating was the profile of Bruce Wells -- what a perspective Wells has, from his time as a soloist with NYCB under George Balanchine, resident choreographer, interim Artistic Director of Boston Ballet, and teacher. Choreographer Maillot's thoughts were also a highlight. There is also an epilogue, to bring the reader up-to-date through last season.

It's a fascinating story, regardless of whether the reader has ever seen Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Let me be clear, I am not a ballet fan, although after reading this book, I will surely go to see at least one. Mr. Manes' ability to tell a story combined with his apparently unlimited access to everyone involved in the Pacific Northwest Ballet company combined to keep me interested for all 900+ pages. His style of writing seems to flow effortlessly, mixing the mainstream narrative, as he takes the reader through an entire ballet season, with digressions into individual dancers' or staff biographies, or a bit of history of the PNB, other ballet companies, or possibly best of all the ballet schools that provide the dancers that make up the professional ranks.

If you are a fan of ballet, but have never been involved in actually getting one onto the stage, reading this book will enhance your understanding of what you are seeing and why. If you are a parent of a child that wants to dance or is already in ballet classes, the insight into how one goes from being a flower in the Nutcracker to playing Romeo or Juliet in Monte Carlo is invaluable.

The ungilded portraits Mr. Manes presents of not just the dancers, but everyone from those sitting on the company's board to the musicians, physical therapist and even the stagehands is delightful. These people are sometimes what you might expect, but usually are much, much more, and all contribute in ways I certainly didn't imagine was required to get each show up and running. The writing often reflects the tension of getting a ballet staged, dealing with problems with injured dancers, broken smoke machines, missing props, broken technology, and, of all things, intellectual property rights. The writing also reflects the humor and great generosity that is an everyday part of the individuals' and company's work.

Snowflakes Dance and Swear is a gift to those that inhabit "The Land of Ballet" and to those that take the time to learn about it. Rarely does one get to learn so much while getting to enjoy such a book.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 15 reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars