Aquafire Sulis

Leading off our fiction list this fall, on OCTOBER 15, is Mary Sheeran's fascinating fictional tour through the ballet world, Quest of the Sleeping Princess.

Mary Sheeran follows her critically praised novel, Who Have the Power, with a passionate blend of fiction and nonfiction that explores the world of ballet, in particular, the ballets by George Balanchine, one of the few artists of the twentieth century who could be called a genius. Quest of the Sleeping Princess takes the reader on a fascinating tour of human imagination.

The year is 1988, and the setting is a gala performance at the New York City Ballet, the late Balanchine's company. Dancer John Fencer struggles with career and romantic frustrations as well as the anxiety producing presence of wealthy patron who believes she owns all ballet and the people who create it. but a much less prominent member of the audience holds the key to everyone's destiny.

Sheeran explores a woman's fascination with the ballet world with a most interesting voyeuristic subplot...The book is impressive in its research into the artistic process, George Balanchine, the image of women in folklore and dance, and the sleeping princess as a motif...and it succeeds. -- Kirkus Reviews

 ...a unique vision of George Balanchine's work and the life of the poetic imagination he shared with his audiences...intensely spiritual and remarkably feminst...you'll never see a ballet (or, come to think of it, read a poem) the same way again, but you'll want to watch ballet, again and again. -- Ariel's Time

 It was wonderful to share these meditations on the Balanchine repertory and Mary Seheran's passionate insistence that the ballets belong as much to the audience that reveres them as to those who produce and perform them.--Lynn Garafola, author of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and Legacies of Twentieth Century Dance

Kirkus called Sheeran's Who have the Power (2006) "a thorough and thoughtful exploration of cultural conflict, feminism, and race relations on the American frontier."  (www.whohavethepower.com) Sheeran writes dance reviews for the popular theater blog Life Upon the Sacred Stage, and in her other career as a singer, created a recital series, Songs From the Balanchine Repertory, which evolved into this book. Her research for Quest also contributed to her earning a Master of Divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary.



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