Agent Amelia returns with three more spooky-but-funny adventures as she secretly saves the world! The three secret agent case files in this book are: The Case of the Spooky Ballet, in which Amelia is tricked into taking a dance class, but the teacher uses her class to take revenge on the local theater. It takes all of Amelia's mind control to foil her! The Case of the Gobbledygook Books, in which a new librarian has reprogrammed all the school’s computers with intent to rule the world. But Amelia overcomes her—with a little help from the real librarian and the works of William Shakespeare! The Case of the Whispering Scarecrow, in which Amelia goes on a picnic with her mother, only to find out a phantom is stealing the food! Amelia soon uncovers the thieves—a flock of crows led by a scarecrow. But who’s the real mastermind? Trust Amelia to find out!

Winner of the Selma Jeanne Cohen Memorial Prize (2010) In this stunning new collection of reviews and essays, dance critic Marcia B. Siegel grapples with the floating identity of ballet, as well as particular ballets, and with the expanding environment of spectacle in which ballet competes for an audience. Drawn from a wide variety of published sources, these writings concentrate on canonical works of ballet and how the performances of these works have been changing in significant ways. Siegel writes with a keen awareness of the history and mythology that surround particular works, while remaining attentive to the new ways in which a work is interpreted and re-presented by contemporary choreographers and dancers. Through her readable and provocative writings, Siegel offers critical insight into performances of the past twenty-five years to give us a new understanding of ballet in performance. The volume includes over one hundred pieces on a variety of ballet topics, from specific dances and dancers to companies and choreographers, ranging from Swan Lake and The Nutcracker to Nijinsky, Balanchine, Tharp, and Morris to the Bolshoi, the Joffrey, the Miami City Ballet, the Boston Ballet, to name just a few. Ebook Edition Note: All images have been redacted.

Maple syrup, madness, and monsters. Welcome to the “go-to destination for every reader who enjoys fast-paced adventure and spooky mystery” (Q.L. Pearce, author of Ghost Hunters). It’s tough being the new kid in town. In fact, in a town like Whistlebrass, it can be a downright killer. Halloween is here, but the creatures roaming the night aren’t hunting for candy. One by one, the denizens of Whistlebrass are disappearing, including the kid sister of teen newcomer, Casey Wilde. Finding her won’t be easy—Casey is up against a suave sociopath, a legion of living shadows, and a reptilian humanoid capable of stealing his life force and crushing him into dust. It’s going to be a Halloween you’ll never forget. Don’t miss the next two books in the series: The Whistlebrass Storm Watcher and The Whistlebrass Clock People!

During her twelve years with Ballet Society and the New York City Ballet, Barbara Milberg worked under the direction of George Balanchine. She rose from corps de ballet to soloist, danced leading roles in Swan Lake and Illuminations, and performed in celebrated world premieres. In this observant and poignant memoir, she shares her recollections of Balanchine, his craft and his values, and lends insight into surprising aspects of his personality. Fisher gives readers a rare glimpse inside Balanchine’s artistry, including vivid accounts of the makings of such important ballets as Schoenberg’s Opus 34, AGON, and the world-famous Nutcracker. Told through the eyes of a young dancer in what seemed a truly magical place and time, In Balanchine’s Company is ideal for ballet fans young and old. Rich in anecdote, insight, and humor, it offers a unique perspective on one of the twentieth century’s cultural giants. Ebook Edition Note: All illustrations have been redacted.

"Nearly four hundred and fifty years in, ballet still resonates-though the stages have become international, and the dancers, athletes far removed from noble amateurs. While vibrations from the form's beginnings clearly resound, much has transformed. Nowadays ballet dancers aspire to work across disciplines with choreographers who value a myriad of abilities. Dance theorists and historians make known possibilities and polemics in lieu of notating dances verbatim, and critics do the daily work of recording performance histories and interviewing artists. Ideas circulate, questions arise, and discussions about how to resist ballet's outmoded traditions take precedence. In the dance community, calls for innovation have defined palpable shifts in ballet's direction and resultantly we have arrived at a new moment in its history that is unquestionably recognized as a genre onto its own: Contemporary Ballet. An aspect of this recent discipline is that its dancemakers, more often than not, seek to reorient the viewer by celebrating what could be deemed vulnerabilities, re-construing ideals of perfection, problematizing the marginalized/mainstream dichotomy, bringing audiences closer in to observe, and letting the art become an experience rather than a distant object preciously guarded out of reach. Hence, the practice of ballet is moving to become a less-mediated and more active process in many circumstances. Performers and audiences alike are challenged, and while convention is still omnipresent, choices are being made. For some, this approach has been drawn on for decades, and for others it signifies a changing of the guard, yet however we arrive there, the conclusion is the same: Contemporary Ballet is not a style. That is to say, it is not a trend, phase, or fashionable term that will fade, rather it is a clear period in ballet's time deserved of investigation. And it is into this moment that we enter"--

“Spiders, snakes, ghosts, skeletons, vampires? She loved them all. The scarier the better, in her opinion. But ballerinas? She couldn’t imagine anything worse.” Meet Bongi. She loves aliens. She loves spiders and she loves all sorts of scary stuff! There are only two things Bongi doesn’t like: pink and ballet. So when her mom signs her up for ballet classes for a term, Bongi can’t think of anything worse! But then she comes up with the perfect plan: She’s going to sabotage the class so much that she gets kicked out! Will Bongi be able to weird her way out of tutus and pink leotards or will she learn to love pirouettes and pliés?

The title of a great musical composition is not always a clear or simple matter. An allusive title, particularly in a foreign language, or a title that does not seem related to the work, can confuse even the most devoted music lover. Here are histories of the creation of 3,500 titles for symphonies, operas, oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, choral works, chamber music, keyboard compositions, and songs, ranging from the popular to the obscure. Each entry (arranged by English, French, German, Italian or Spanish title) includes alternate titles where appropriate, the composer's name, date of composition and first performance, opus number where appropriate, a description of the work, and the origin of the title or any story behind it. A bibliography and an index conclude the work.