Every girl remembers her first trip to the ballet: the anticipation beforehand, the orchestra's first notes, the ethereal beauty of the ballerinas. This is a tale of one such girl who was caught up in ballet's mesmerizing spell and became one of the greatest ballerinas of all time.

In a story drawn from her memoirs, Anna Pavlova describes her first visit to the ballet to see the Sleeping Beauty. With simple, childlike language, she captures her love for her mother, the splendor of the ballet, and the moments that changed her life. The words are matched with paintings, pastels, and drawings of the French Impressionist Edgar Degas, to give this story all the magic of a fairytale.

Complete with short biographies of Pavlova and Degas, I Dreamed I Was a Ballerina will delight any child with ballerina dreams.
 

When French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas died in 1917, his vast private collection of over 5,000 paintings and prints came to light, containing works by Manet, Cezanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, and Cassatt. The collection is reconstructed here for the first time in this absorbing book, along with 11 essays about Degas and his times. 250 illustrations, 200 in full color.

From the practice studio to the footlights of the Paris Ballet, turn-of-the-century artist Edgar Degas (1834-1917) created an intimate series of works immortalizing the rigorous discipline and transcendent beauty of ballet. 12" x 12"
 

Marie wanted to be the most famous ballerina in the world, but because her family had too little money for lessons she began modeling at the ballet school. The painter for whom she modeled was Edgar Degas. When Degas' figure of The Little Dancer was finished, Marie became the most famous dancer of all. Here is an introduction to the life of a great 19th century French artist, with beautiful impressionistic illustrations and reproductions of Degas' own work.