Review of Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring by Dana G. Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Greenberg, Jan and Sandra Jordan. Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring. New York: Roaring Book Press, 2010. ISBN 9781596433380

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Authors Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan use their informational picture book prowess to capture the creative processes of Martha Graham as she created and produced her ballet Appalachian Spring with collaborators composer Aaron Copland and set designer Isamu Noguchi. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan specialize in writing informational children's books about art and artists. They are multiple award winners, as is the illustrator for Ballet for Martha, Brian Floca. Before reading Ballet for Martha, I had never read one of Greenberg or Jordan's collaborative efforts. With their expert backgrounds as non-fiction writers for children, it's not a surprise that Ballet for Martha is exceptionally thorough in its research and story telling. What impressed me the most was how much I loved their breakdown of Martha Graham's creative process. Their commitment to detail was impressive, especially when I decided to view a performance of Appalachian Spring on YouTube.

Floca's illustrations captured so much of the dancers' movements in still watercolors. And the writers defined every part of the process down to each of the instruments used in the orchestra to create the music. Greenberg and Jordan use very simple, descriptive imagery throughout the book and are honest about the frustrating parts of Graham's process. On page 17, they write, "She has a tantrum. She screams. She yells. She throws a shoe. The dancers wait. Martha always figures it out." The illustration on that page is of two dancers wearing frustrated looks on their faces with a solitary shoe in the middle of the dance floor. Graham's fit reads like a dancer's poetic memory.

Similarly, outside of the extensive research needed to tell how Graham worked with composer Aaron Copland and set designer Isamu Noguchi, the authors have to write and describe Graham's exotic dance movement. "Slowly the Bride glides in, then runs to the Groom. The preacher's four Followers file in. The music turns lively and playful as the young girls dance in pairs, then form circles, fluttering, skittering, reaching up to the sky" (28-29). As a reader, you can close your eyes and picture the dance accurately from their writing.

Greenberg and Jordan cite 17 sources in the back of their book. They source every piece of dialogue or action they use in the picture book. They also give short bios on all three artists who were born at the turn of the twentieth century. Graham, a woman who went to New York and started her own dance company; Copland, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, who studied music in France and won the Presidential Medal for Freedom and a Pulitzer Prize for "Appalachian Spring" in 1944; and Noguchi, who was born in the United States, but lived in Japan as a child, and later lived in a Japanese internment camp in the United States during World War II (44-45). Capturing the historical work of one artist is hard enough, but Ballet for Martha does a wonderful job of telling the story of all three artists and their individual influences on this particular dance performance.

Greenberg and Jordan also thank every interviewee, archivist, and librarian who helped them on their journey to author this book. I almost wish they could write an autobiographical picture book with Floca about their own creative processes as three artists collaborating on children's informational literature.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
Robert F. Sibert Award — Honor
ALA Notable Children's Book
Winner of the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding NYPL Book for Reading and Sharing
CCBC Choice (University of Wisconsin)
Ibby Honor Books
School Library Journal Best Books 2010
Washington Post Best Books 2010
Kirkus Best Books 2010
Booklist Editor's Choice 2010

From School Library Journal
"If Martha Graham's choreography for 'Appalachian Spring' was a 'valentine' to the world, as critics wrote in 1944, then this book is a love letter in return." 

From Booklist
"Matching the mood of Graham's moves, the writing is pared down but full of possibilities. Floca's ink-and-watercolor artwork nimbly shifts from the prosaic to the visionary to the several-spread finale of the ballet itself. The book as a whole beautifully captures the process of artistic creation." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Other informational books by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan:

• Action Jackson. ISBN 9780312367510
• Chuck Close: Up Close. ISBN 9780789424860
• The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr, Eccentric Genius. ISBN 9781596438101

Other informational stories about dance for elementary school-aged readers:

• Copeland, Misty. Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina. ISBN 9781481479790
• Reich, Susanna. José: Born to Dance. ISBN 9780689865763
• Stringer, Lauren. When Stravinsky Met Ninjinsky: Two Artists, Their Ballet, and One Extraordinary Riot. ISBN 9780547907253

By elementary school, children have often been taught or have picked up on gender bias in American social constructs. A child may categorize activities as being "for a girl" or "for a boy." Often times, art like dance, falls squarely in the "for a girl" category. By creating an informational library that represents dancers of different genders and from different cultures, teachers and librarians can help show children how art constantly challenges what people might consider the cultural norm when it comes to dance.

In addition to learning about the histories of dance, dancers and choreographers, books like Ballet for Martha, can teach children three valuable c's (communication, collaboration, and creativity) without feeling like they've been shoved down their throats. A study in music, dance and theater is more than just an in-class assignment, it is an introduction to self-expression and the power of art, as well as a way to allow movement and music into an elementary classroom outside of the typical scheduled P.E. or music time.