• Apollo's Angels

  • A History of Ballet
  • By: Jennifer Homans
  • Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
  • Length: 23 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (130 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Apollo's Angels  By  cover art

Apollo's Angels

By: Jennifer Homans
Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $22.35

Buy for $22.35

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

For more than 400 years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. A ballerina dancing The Sleeping Beauty today is a link in a long chain of dancers stretching back to 16th-century Italy and France: Her graceful movements recall a lost world of courts, kings, and aristocracy, but her steps and gestures are also marked by the dramatic changes in dance and culture that followed. Ballet has been shaped by the Renaissance and Classicism, the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Bolshevism, Modernism, and the Cold War.

Apollo's Angels is a groundbreaking work---the first cultural history of ballet ever written, beautifully told. Ballet is unique: It has no written texts or standardized notation. It is a storytelling art passed on from teacher to student. The steps are never just the steps---they are a living, breathing document of a culture and a tradition. And while ballet's language is shared by dancers everywhere, its artists have developed distinct national styles. French, Italian, Danish, Russian, English, and American traditions each have their own expression, often formed in response to political and societal upheavals.

From ballet's origins in the Renaissance and the codification of its basic steps and positions under France's Louis XIV (himself an avid dancer), the art form wound its way through the courts of Europe, from Paris and Milan to Vienna and St. Petersburg. It was in Russia that dance developed into the form most familiar to American audiences: The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker originated at the Imperial court.

©2010 Jennifer Homans (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"[The] book is a delight to read, massively informed yet remarkably agile." ( The Washington Post)
“The only truly definitive history of the most impossibly fantastic art form, ballet . . . an eloquent and lasting elegy to an unlasting art.” ( The New York Times Book Review)
“Intellectually rigorous, beautifully written, brilliantly structured.” ( San Francisco Chronicle)

What listeners say about Apollo's Angels

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    76
  • 4 Stars
    34
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    56
  • 4 Stars
    33
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    63
  • 4 Stars
    31
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

a great book poorly read

how sad that the reading was not edited, 'The mispronounciations of especially names made listening a sort of puzzle game.,Maybe a bit over researched but on a scale of 1 to 10 a 7

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

How a bad narrator can kill a book...

Jennifer Homans history of ballet is outstanding! Beautifully written and well documented ...
Alas, who pick that narrator…?
Kristen Potter is appalling! she systematically butcher the pronunciation of every single foreign names, which the book is full of since the history of ballet starts mostly in France and Italy. It’s a real pity and such a disservice that that wonderful book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great - except

The book is fascinating and well-written. The narrator reads well, except for her inability to pronounce proper names and foreign phrases. Her many errors are jarring.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Was sad when it ended

I thought this was one of the best non-fiction books I've ever listened to. I don't know what book some of the other reviewers listened to who gave mediocre reviews but I don't think they really listened all the way through. Although a little slow in the beginning, I began to get the rhythm of the read about 1/4 of the way through and then was captivated. I'll go back and re-listen to the first 1/4 since I didn't really appreciate it then. What an amazing feat, Ms. Homans has accomplished. I have to admit complete ignorance about ballet but she changed my mind by pure education. Before I listened to the book, I had no idea that an art form that was the pure fabrication of the ultimate decadent aristocracy of the French became the standard cultural icon of the totalitarian Stalinist State. How could this happen? Ms. Homans makes the transition so understandable and rational that when I finished that section, I had to stop, take a deep breath and think about what the author had done and then she did it again with the United States. The book made me go to youtube and find every ballet clip that I could click on. Plus, the reader was great.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • CK
  • 06-28-14

Great book but...

If you could sum up Apollo's Angels in three words, what would they be?

Thorough. Compelling. Long.

What other book might you compare Apollo's Angels to and why?

It's unique. I can't compare it to another book.

Would you be willing to try another one of Kirsten Potter’s performances?

NO!! Her cringe-worthy pronunciation gaffes were too distracting!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. It is so dense with information you need time to digest.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A good history of ballet

Would you listen to another book narrated by Kirsten Potter?

Possibly; I know she's very prolific. I have to say, though, that although her voice is pleasing and her pacing good, I was very surprised at the amount of mis-pronounced words in her narration of this book. Clearly no one did any research to prepare for the constant stream of words and names in French, Russian, Italian, and other languages that appear throughout this book. It was very distracting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Better than you think!

Would you listen to Apollo's Angels again? Why?

Yes. The history of Europe told in this book was a surprise. I'd like to review it all!! And recently we had the privilege of hearing and seeing the author tell her story in person. She made the book come alive in her demonstration of steps and reasons why and how they progressed with time.

What did you like best about this story?

This story was not about just ballet. It was a surprise saga of the progress and influence made on theatrical performance starting at square one! I found the social impact of "The Dance" in early European times fascinating, learning about royal and male dominance and social implication of dance in the early periods, how marriages between the French and Italian monarchy influenced theater, opera and dance. It was more or less personal stories of the players involved. MUCH more interesting than I ever imagined!

What about Kirsten Potter’s performance did you like?

She sounded like she had written the book herself.

Any additional comments?

This book was on a list of books to be read for a Writer's Conference we attended and I put off reading it, thinking I wasn't interested. Then, when I finally downloaded and listened to the book, I was totally fascinated, as was my husband! There is much more to this saga than you'd think!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Too Technical

As a lover of both history and dance, I felt confident I'd enjoy A History of Ballet. While portions of it were enlightening (particularly the Soviet era), this was far too technical a work for the average reader. More textbook than anything, it does make for good bedtime listening (if you have trouble falling asleep).

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Well researched history of ballet

I loved listening to this book the first time and am really enjoying the second time around, in the hope that I might remember more of it. I enjoyed the tone of the writing although I fundamentally disagree with Homans’ conclusion in the final chapter, and that is ok since it’s written as opinion worth discussing. Very well worth listening to. A good introduction to the history of ballet, intelligently written. A great preparation for more in-depth study.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Tortured, ephemeral, fascinating

A rigorous scholarly work which also manages to capture the unique ethos and pathos of ballet. It tells the story of an art form which constantly struggled to define itself, reaching a few moments of shining transcendence, more often caught awkwardly between eras and philosophies. Born in the courts of King Louis XIV, ballet is at heart noble, courtly, and idealistic, yet it was often reformed for new generations amidst a political and artistic mileu that was anything but. The author perfectly illustrates the singular beauty of ballet, its history, and its artists for her audience- tortured, ephemeral, fascinating.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful