cover image Dance Writings

Dance Writings

Edwin Denby. Alfred A. Knopf, $40 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-394-54416-8

For more than 30 years the most distinguished American dance critic of his time, Denby (19031983) wrote for Modern Music, the New York Herald Tribune, Ballet, Dance Magazine and other periodicals. In this mammoth volume, Cornfield and Mackay have brought together revised versions of many of the pieces collected in two previous volumes, plus others not hitherto published in book form, and rearranged them chronologically and topically. Courtly, unassertive but precise, concerned, concise and sometimes severe in his criticism, Denby was convinced that dance was not only a social and physical activity but also a joyous, moral one that ""affirmed the beauty of the human spirit.'' His exemplary artists were Alicia Markova, Alexandra Danilova, Martha Graham and George Balanchine, but he also wrote with care and generosity about dancers as varied as Nijinsky, Pearl Primus, Merce Cunningham and Sonja Henie. Cornfield's introduction is both appreciative and discerning; Mackay's biography sensitively describes a poet, dancer, novelist, translator and critic of high standards who was widely liked and admired. Essential for serious balletomanes. Photos not seen by PW.(January 8)