Wild Grace

Sara Veale

The untold history of the extraordinary women who drove the modern dance movement and changed cultural narratives about sex, power and women’s rights.

Format
Ebook
ISBN
9780571368587
Date Published
28.01.2025
Delivery
All orders are sent via Royal Mail and are tracked: choose from standard or premium delivery.
Summary

‘Refreshing.’ NEW STATESMAN
‘Compelling.’ HARPER’S BAZAAR
‘Passionate.’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

The untold history of the extraordinary women who drove the modern dance movement and changed cultural narratives about sex, power and women’s rights.

‘Don’t let them tame you!’ ISADORA DUNCAN

The story of modern dance is a story of subversion – of forms challenged and hierarchies toppled in the pursuit of blazing artistic integrity. In Wild Grace, Sara Veale profiles nine of the pioneering women at the heart of this movement, from Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller’s fearless rejection of nineteenth-century paternalism to Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus’s battles to recentre marginalised histories in the wake of the Second World War.

Each of these dancers redefined the meaning of grace in their art and their lifestyle, conveying vital truths about what it means to walk the world as a woman. Veale brings to life the stories and artistry of these remarkable individuals and reveals how, in their refusal to conform, we can find urgent lessons for today.

Critic Reviews

These female dance makers, whose works emerged from an age of hopefulness, are brought back to life, and are an inspiration for the future.

Sarah Crompton, Spectator
Critic Reviews

Compelling.

Harper's Bazaar
Critic Reviews

A refreshing blend of biography, criticism and social history.

Zuzanna Lachendro, New Statesman
Critic Reviews

Written with love . . . this pithy, passionate volume is a hymn to the American female dancers from the early 1900s on . . . a valuable and often fascinating document.

Mark Monahan, Sunday Telegraph
Critic Reviews

[An] ardent debut . . . Rigorous research matches with a zesty turn of phrase . . . while broader insights emerge organically into how a person might move through the world with authentic grace.

Hephzibah Anderson, Observer
SaraVeale

Sara Veale is a London-based writer and editor focusing on dance, feminism and design. She studied literature and dance as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and holds an MA in English: Issues in Modern Culture from University College London. Veale has been a freelance dance critic since 2013, reviewing major international dance companies, covering arts…

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SaraVeale
Portrait of writer and editor Sara Veale