cover image Looking Back in Wonder

Looking Back in Wonder

Walter Sorell. Columbia University Press, $90 (284pp) ISBN 978-0-231-06278-7

In these diary entries a noted writer on dance vividly describes and reflects on choreographers, performers and critics who have filled his life with pleasure and delight. The pieces range in time from a 1950 review of Frederick Ashton's Illuminations to 198384 reminiscences about Balanchine, Graham, Horst and Denby. He also affectionately recalls artists Calder, Cocteau and Schlemmer, composers Ellington and Satie, comedian Bert Lahr, sitarist Uday Shanker and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. At the age of 80, Sorell has retained the child's ability to wonder. And having retired as a critic and teacher, he has become active as an artist: some of his drawings embellish this book, along with photos of his favorite dancers. Sorell is attracted to people like himself, such as Hanya Holm and Angna Enters who also painted, wrote, designed, directed and engaged in lives of fullness and accomplishment. (July)