August 16, 2002

Dance Loses Its History, Book by Book by Book

By MINDY ALOFF

Received wisdom has it that dances are ephemeral while books are enduring. For dance books in English, the opposite may well be the case.

You can still see live performances of Agnes de Mille's ballet Rodeo, but you won't find Dance to the Piper, her memoir describing the work's genesis, in the bookstore. Dance to the Piper, perhaps the finest literary memoir by a dancer in English, is out of print. You can still see Martha Graham's Appalachian Spring, Diversion of Angels, and other

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