Ballet Arizona 2022 Book Club
Free and open to the public, Ballet Arizona invites you to join them in their 2022 Book Club as they build community around, and appreciation for, the incredible art form of dance. They meet once each quarter to discuss pre-selected books. Book Club meetings will be via Zoom with access information being sent out closer to the meeting date. These virtual gatherings will be facilitated by Claire Schmaltz, Education & Community Engagement Assistant.
The winter quarter Book Club will take place on Wednesday, January 19. Join as they discuss Bunheads by Sophie Flack. Bunheads is a vibrant and absorbing novel about the competitive world of professional ballet, written by a former New York City Ballet dancer. As a dancer with the ultra-prestigious Manhattan Ballet company, nineteen-year-old Hannah Ward juggles intense rehearsals, dazzling performances, and complicated backstage relationships. But when she meets a spontaneous and irresistibly cute musician named Jacob, her universe begins to change. Don’t miss this behind-the-scenes look at the life of a young professional ballet dancer, written by an insider who lived it all.
The spring quarter Book Club will take place on Wednesday, April 20. This discussion will center on Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina by Michaela DePrince and Elaine DePrince. Michaela DePrince was known as girl Number 27 at the orphanage, where she was abandoned at a young age and tormented as a “devil child” for a skin condition that makes her skin appear spotted. But it was at the orphanage that Michaela would find a picture of a beautiful ballerina en pointe that would help change the course of her life.
At the age of four, Michaela was adopted by an American family, who encouraged her love of dancing and enrolled her in classes. She went on to study at the Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre and at the age of seventeen Michaela performed with the Dance Theatre of Harlem professional company. At eighteen she joined the Dutch National Junior Company as a second-year member and apprentice to the main company. Now at the age of twenty-five, Michaela is now ranked as a soloist at Dutch National Ballet. She has appeared in the ballet documentary First Position, as well as on Dancing with the Stars, Good Morning America, and Nightline. In this engaging, moving, and unforgettable memoir, Michaela shares her dramatic journey from an orphan in West Africa to becoming one of ballet’s most exciting rising stars.
Don’t miss out on either opportunity to join Ballet Arizona’s Book Club! Visit here for more information.