A delightful gift for ballet fans.
The career of an acclaimed choreographer.
Dance writer Harss makes a lively book debut with an appreciative, richly detailed, generously illustrated biography of dancer and choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, formerly director of the Bolshoi Ballet, artist in residence at the American Ballet Theatre, and presently artist in residence at the New York City Ballet. Born in Leningrad in 1968 to Ukrainian parents, he began studying dance at the famed Bolshoi Academy. Because students from the Soviet republics were referred to by their place of origin, the young Alexei became known as “the boy from Kyiv.” Harss recounts the trajectory of Ratmansky’s dancing career: the National Ballet of Ukraine, which sent him touring to Western Europe, Japan, and Mexico; the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, where he was promoted to principal dancer; and the Royal Danish Ballet. Besides dancing, he began to create works, and by the end of 2002, he had made nearly 30 ballets, including two full-length pieces. Invited to become the director of the Bolshoi Ballet in 2003, Ratmansky faced a difficult challenge: The venerable company, with nearly 230 dancers, was suspicious of him. At first, his strategy “was to simply ignore the grumblings and keep moving forward,” but the struggle wore him down. In 2009, he accepted an invitation from the American Ballet Theatre. Harss insightfully chronicles Ratmansky’s works, many characterized by “youthful nonchalance” and irreverent charm, others paying homage to acclaimed choreographers such as Petipa and Bournonville. Ratmansky, Harss writes, “is a playful absurdist, an artist who combines the oddity of Lewis Carroll and Daniil Kharms with the glow of Tiepolo and the vulnerability of Mozart.” Although Ratmansky has drawn from international influences, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has inspired in him “a sense of belonging,” he told Harss, “and it’s something very new to me. I feel it is my duty to support Ukrainian culture.”
A delightful gift for ballet fans.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780374102616
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
