Conversations with Choreographers

This book contains interviews with a dozen choreographers on and about their technical approach to choreography.

Library Journal

The craft of choreography is somewhat mysterious. What is the source of inspiration? How does one prepare for the career? Anne Livet's conversations with modern- dance choreographers are recorded in Contemporary Dance (Abbeville, 1978), and interviews with well-known ballet choreographers have appeared in journals and newspapers, but Grody and Lister have focused on the overlooked venues of Broadway, film, and television. With a string of Broadway dance credits themselves, the authors are on familiar ground. Over a period of two decades they have interviewed 17 choreographers, including Hermes Pan, Ernest Flatt, Joe Layton, Michael Bennett, and Tommy Tune. Most have little formal music training, work best with time limitations, and made a transition from dancer to choreography as opportunity presented itself. But as each responded to a similar set of questions set forth by the authors, the choreographers reveal individual approaches to their work. The audience for this book, dance students and professionals and musical theater enthusiasts, are sure to enjoy it.Joan Stahl, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.

DOROTHY DANIELS LISTER is presently on the faculty and heads the Children's Department at the American Ballet Center, the Official School of the Joffrey Ballet Company. Her earliest exposure to the stage was the famed Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and her Broadway credits include George M., Here's Where I Belong, Sweet Charity, and Ballroom .

SVETLANA MCLEE GRODY has been a professional dancer since age thirteen. Her credits include the original Broadway productions of Me and Juliet, Damn Yankees, Happy Hunting, Ballroom, and the 1981 revival of My Fair Lady; Gene Kelly's American in Paris and Fred Astaire's Let's Dance, among other films and numerous television shows.