An Instinct for Anecdote

Few journalists know or care more about ballet than National Post dance critic and longtime CBC radio arts commentator Michael Crabb. Thus he was a natural choice to turn the unpublished memoirs of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's formative artistic director Arnold Spohr into a chatty, amusing, coherent and valuable biography that doubles as a history of the company. In An Instinct for Success, Arnold Spohr and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Crabb makes good use of Spohr's source material, but ably weaves in the words and writings of so many other Canadian dance figures that the final product resembles not so much a solo as a well choreographed ensemble piece.

Tempering a professional delight in scandal with a genuine regard for grace and propriety, Crabb has discovered scores of wonderful anecdotes (like the cellist who earned Spohr's approval for swimming, with instrument, through floodwaters to reach the theatre on time). These and Crabb's solid research colourfully illustrate the life and character of a powerful, idiosyncractic and occasionally difficult personality without sinking either into unpleasantness or flattery, making An Instinct for Success one of the most enjoyable dance chronicles since Agnes de Mille's 1958 autobiography And Promenade Home. (Dance Collection Danse 2002, ISBN 0 92903 45 4, www.dcd.ca)

COPYRIGHT 2002 Performing Arts and Entertainment in Canada
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