Ballets Suedois (The Swedish Ballet)

London: Thames & Hudson, 1990. First Engish Edition. Hardcover. As New/As New. 4to 11" - 13" tall. A superior copy inside and out, being a sterling condition hardcover copy, with unbruised tips, tight binding, and clean internals, showing only very slight shelf- and edge-wear; not ex-library, with neither underlining nor highlighting anywhere. Bright and shiny dust jacket, illustrated, showing only very minor wear, protected by a plastic coat, dust jacket not being price-clipped. Gift-quality condition inside and out, and featuring brilliantly illustrated endpapers and hundreds of black-and-white and full, glorious color reproductions, printed on high-gloss paper. Light gray cloth covers that are stamped with arresting silver lettering and illustrations, to cover and spine. Translated from the original Swedish by Ruth Berman.From the publisher's blurb, "A comprehensive look at the brief, incandescent existence - a mere five years, from 1920-25 - of Ballets Suedois (The Swedish Ballet) during the explosively creative period in the Paris of the early 1920's. From the UK edition: "A masterly commentary, a fascinating selection of contemporary writings, and a profusion of illustrations bring the story alive." Bengt Hager, dance critic and founder of Stockholm's Dance Museum, examines how the company revolutionized the worlds of dance and art with its avant-garde productions, synthesizing drama, music, poetry, painting, film, acrobatics and folklore into an entirely new genre. The troupe, under the direction of Rolf de Maré, its star dancer and choreographer Jean Börlin (a student of Michel Folkine), worked in concert with many prominent artists, musicians,writers and designers of the period to achieve this new experimental vision of theatrical expression, among them: the composers Claude Debussy, Darius Milhaud, Isaac Albeniz, Alfredo Casella, Germaine Tailleferre, Erik Satie, Arthur Honegger, Cole Porter, the conductor Désiré-Emile Ingelbrecht, the poets Blaise Cendrars, Paul Claudel, Luigi Pirandello, Jean Cocteau, Riciotto Canudo, the painters Aleksandr Alekseev, Fernand Léger, Giorgio De Chirico, Pierre Bonnard, Jean Hugo, Foujita, Pierre Laprade, Gerald Murphy and Francis Picabia, the film director René Clair, designers André Hellé, Jeanne Lanvin, Paul Colin and many others. Hager offers a general introduction and a ballet-by-ballet analysis analysis of the company's 24-piece repertoire. Included are chapters on Rolf de Maré, Jean Börlin, brief biographies of the astonishing, multidisciplinary range of artists involved in Ballets Suedois' productions. This richly produced volume includes a profusion of performance photographs, reproductions of set and costume designs, posters, and programs, and excerpted writings." Translated from the French by Ruth Sharman. 303 pp.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.