Submitted by L. Margaret Anderson, Dec 27, 2006 09:48

Thanks for the review but I think you should've been more critical of Laura Jacob's book. "Ms. Jacobs longs for the return of the prima ballerina assoluta, the ballerinas who were "cultivated like pearls or white peacocks or royal roses … trained on the luminous."

With this Laura Jacobs takes us back to the stone age in dance with all its values of preciousness and fantasy that a contemporary, serious thinking person can only find irrelevant. With this and her other myopically infused insights, I find the book a tedious, boring read. You were right in pointing out she's like a teacher with a red pen -- but that teacher has been a in classroom all to herself for far too long. Art has higher standards than those Jacob's chooses to circle around.

If tempted, wait for Jacob's book in the discount bins or yard sales in the Berkshires. I wish I did.

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