Subtitle: Spanish and Ballet Across Three Continents. Summary: This is a story told with frankness, humour and at times drama, about the author’s life and career in South Africa, America and Europe, and about the famous people who crossed her path over the years. Born in a small country town in the semi-desert of the South African Karoo, Marina Grut went on to become a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and lecturer specialising in Spanish dance, and a writer of three major works on dance history. She earned the title of Dame in Spain and a professorship in the USA. The story unfolds over 82 years of a happy family life and 65 years of an exciting professional life.
Marina studied ballet and Spanish dance at the University of Cape Town Ballet School as well as in London and Spain; taught Spanish dance and lectured on ballet history at the University of Cape Town; was a Professorial Lecturer at George Washington University Theatre and Dance Department; staged many productions in theatres and opera houses in Cape Town, Rome, Washington DC and London. Her company, the Spanish Dance Theatre, performed with incredible success at the Smithsonian Institution, Kennedy Center and National Geographic Society in Washington; and the Museum of Natural History and the Juilliard School of Music and Dance in New York, as well as touring to Boston, Louisiana and elsewhere. This autobiography, this life, is indeed in itself a fragment of dance history. Through performances and lecture demonstrations Marina Grut furthered the understanding and appreciation of Spanish dance. Importantly, she discusses the teaching and examination methods of the Cecchetti and Spanish Dance societies and the Royal Academy of Dance, and the importance of the Swedish Carina Ari Foundations.
Some of the well-known dance personalities who crossed her path and who are discussed here are Frank Staff, David Poole, Dulcie Howes, Marie Rambert, Elsa Brunelleschi, Mary Clarke, Olga Preobrajenskaya, Mary Skeaping, Rolf de Maré, Bengt Häger, Björn Holmgren, Ellen Rasch, Marianne Orlando, Elsa Marianne von Rosen, Vida Brown, Jack Anderson, Suzanne Farrell, Peter Martins, Vera Volkova, Peter Schaufuss, Niels Kehlet, Luisillo, Juan Urbeltz, Joan Fosas, Clement Crisp, Monica Mason, Olga Lepeshinskaya, Alberto Lorca, José Greco, Pilar Lopez, Rafael Aguilar, José Antonio Ruiz, Aurora Pons and Antonio Najarro. Illustrations: More than 100 black and white illustrations. Photo editing by Nicolai Grut. Year and place of publication: 2017, UK. Publisher, price: The Book Guild Ltd, UK; 2017, £14.95 (subsidized by Carina Ari Foundation, Stockholm) ISBN:978 1912083 541 Size and binding: 317 pages, hardback, 16 by 24 cm UDC library number: 8-94 (793.3)
