As a dancer, I adored this biography. I think that it not only covers Zybina's life, career, and legacy in great detail but also further opens up the conversation on the role that ballet teachers/masters/mistresses play in the wider world of ballet. I would say, I think that this book is easier to understand and you will get more out of it if you are familiar with the history of ballet (particularly the history of Russian ballet in the 19th and 20th centuries) but is a worthwhile read for anyone.

This BOOK! Jane Gall Spooner has done a remarkable job of telling Maria Zybina's story and her history in Ballet and..... she cited every reference. I am in amazement! This is the embodiment of the perfect History of Ballet book. Ms. Spooner begins around the 1850's and mentions all the important players up to the 1990's, and in some cases even beyond that. All of my favorites are there....Mathilde Kchesssinska, the brothers Legat, Anna Pavlova, Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky and his sister Bronislava Nijinsky, Pierina Legnani, the first dancer to ever incorporate 32 fouettés in a ballet!!!!, Marius Petipa, and so many others! The book begins and ends with Maria (Mary), but what is between the beginning and ending is the best part of this book. I can honestly say that it has answered so many questions I have had in my life regarding the history of Ballet! And...I learned about choreographers and balletomanes I had not heard of before. I LOVED THIS BOOK! The research alone is incredibly intimidating. Thank you to Ms. Spooner, first and foremost, in achieving miracles in the telling of Russian Ballet history and to NetGalley and Troubadour Publishing for the ARC. This is a book I will be recommending to students, friends and fellow choreographers for a long time!!!!

Any fan of Russian ballet history will love this book, with its comprehensive accounts of important Russian ballet teachers and stars. I also enjoyed the gripping stories about the SOE in Czechoslovakia. However, there were so many characters in this book that it started to get a bit confusing. Also, although the story of Maria Zybina was so important and interesting, I felt that not enough focus was put on her when it was meant to be her biography. However, it's certainly worth reading, and an excellent reference book as well.

I received this ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This was a wonderful story of a wonderful dancer and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have always loved dance, but didn’t really start until I was an adult. I now have 3 girls in dance and one is starting her journey “en pointe”. As I said, it was just…wonderful.

Thank you NetGalley and Matador for this ARC. ~I was given this book and made no commitments to leave my opinions, favorable or otherwise~

This was a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It was difficult to put down. I knew nothing previously about this dancer, so it was so interesting learning about the difficulties of a life dancing. It made for fascinating reading learning about trying to get out of a war-torn country. Then the training and dancing during the war. I also loved learning about the different styles of training each choreographer had. It was well written and kept my attention throughout. I love the pictures, especially the caricatures. They had me chuckling. I love how it was obvious that she had talent in the early days, yet she was told she had to start her training again from scratch. I really recommend reading this book if you love dance.

So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for bringing us this very interesting book.

The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog today https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/a-life-well-danced-by-jane-gall-spooner-matador-books-4-stars under my name ladyreading365