People Who Dance: 22 Dancers Tell Their Own Stories

In a collection of interviews first published in Dance Magazine and the New York Times , Gruen ( Close-up , etc.) shows his talent for coaxing dancerssometimes reproached for being less deft of tongue than of limbto speak their minds. In his startling interview with the late Antony Tudor, notorious for his reclusiveness, that seminal choreographer takes a diabolical pleasure in piercing the myths surrounding him. The incomparable late dancer Erik Bruhn grumbles, ``What people don't understand is that my so-called moodiness and my desire to be alone usually occur at times when I am in the process of replenishing myself as a human being.'' Modern-dance choreographer Mark Morris, hailed for his originality, notes: ``Often, my things look cliched. But cliches were all true at one time.'' Gruen himself tends to gush (dance is ``a field that more than any other offers contact with the unparalleled joys of human movement''), and some interviewees seem bent on self-justification, but in general the collection bears out its blithe claim that dancers ``are indeed people.'' Photos not seen by PW. (Nov . )