How to Dance Forever: Surviving Against the Odds

One of the country's most distinguished and critically acclaimed solo dancers and choreographers debunks the myth that dancers must retire from professional life as performers in their early forties. A performing artist since 1940, Daniel Nagrin initiated his own career as a solo performer in 1957 at the age of forty. With great wisdom and wit, this fiercely passionate veteran gives us an unusual and much-needed book that combines theory, personal philosophy, experience, and knowledge about dancers, dancing, teachers, mentors, and technique with practical information that ranges from nutrition, healers and treatments, sex, meditation, kneepads, and toe grips to the special problems and needs of dancers over fifty.

One of the country's most distinguished and critically acclaimed solo dancers and choreographers debunks the myth that dancers must retire from professional life as performers in their early forties. A performing artist since 1940, Daniel Nagrin initiated his own career as a solo performer in 1957 at the age of forty. With great wisdom and wit, this fiercely passionate veteran gives us an unusual and much-needed book that combines theory, personal philosophy, experience, and knowledge about dancers, dancing, teachers, mentors, and technique with practical information that ranges from nutrition, healers and treatments, sex, meditation, kneepads, and toe grips to the special problems and needs of dancers over fifty.

Library Journal

For those who understand that a dancer's career is short, Nagrina leading modern dancer, choreographer, and teacher for more than 40 yearsis here to say that that need not be the case. The book includes chapters on diet, doctors, meditation, and tricks of the trade. But although the subject matter is of interest, the book has serious failings: Nagrin's writing style is uneven and irritating, and at times overly flamboyant and didactic; and most of his observations are so personal that they seem inapplicable to others. Concluding this work, he writes: ``Not for one moment am I certain of a single statement or thought.'' Recommended only for dance collections. Joan Stahl, Enoch Pratt Free Lib., Baltimore

Daniel Nagrin has been dubbed "the great loner of American dance" by Dance Magazine. His career as a master dancer/choreographer and teacher spans over four decades — from Broadway, where he was once voted Best Male Dancer, to films to being a solo concert artist, a lecturer, and an artist-in-residence on the university touring circuit. Mr. Nagrin studied with a variety of modern dance teachers, including Helen Tamiris, Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, and Anna Sokolow. He is currently Professor of Dance at Arizona State University in Tempe.