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The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.
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Thursday, September 9, 2010
Ballerinas and Football
To Dance by Siena Cherson Siegel and Mark Siegel
To Dance
Words by Siena Cherson Siegel
Pictures by Mark Siegel
Published simultaneously by Richard Jackson/Atheneum Books for Young Readers and Aladdin Paperbacks
$17.95 from Richard Jackson/Atheneum Books for Young Readers
$9.99 from Aladdin Paperbacks
For 12 years, Siena Cherson Siegel studied ballet professionally. According to the dust jacket of To Dance, she performed in over 100 Lincoln Center ballets. She also managed and directed the American Ballet Theatre. In To Dance, Siena is the little girl with flat feet who works tirelessly to become one of those graceful dancers that float so effortlessly across a darkened stage. It’s a beautiful transformation, especially in the hands of Siena and her husband, illustrator Mark Siegel.
To Dance begins with six year old Siena proclaiming her love of dance, “Big, empty spaces always made me dance. A long hallway or a parking lot just begged for dance… like it wanted to be filled…and I wanted to put dance in it.”
Immediately, this girl has an energy and warmth. To her, a diagnosis of flat feet means nothing. She takes dance classes. At age nine, Siena sees the Bolshoi Ballet perform Swan Lake. Afterwards, she’s obsessed with Maya Plisetskaya as the dying swan. One fabulous page shows Siena describing Plisetskaya’s transformation and death. Over five panels, she relays the unbroken story of the dying swan – only in each panel it’s a different person listening to Siena’s story. Graphically, you understand that this little girl has been telling everyone she knows about this performance. Kids do this. Adults do this as well. Mark Siegel shows us Siena’s enthusiasm very simply and effectively. This is a nice moment of synthesis between words and pictures that happens a lot in To Dance.
Siegel doesn’t glamorize being a ballerina; sweat drops on the brow or little stars of pain radiating from her feet appear often. Siena the girl works hard and puts in long hours to hone her craft. Along the way she meets Baryshnikov and grows more graceful as a dancer. As her dancing blossoms, her home life deteriorates. Her mother and father argue; Siena and her brother try to drown out the shouting with headphones.
About a third of the way through the book, Siena and Mark Siegel create a gorgeous page comparing ballet to football. Yes, I’m a diehard football fan, so I found these words floating against images of crashing and leaping Miami Dolphins players appropriate:
“A dancer needs so much training, so much strength… You get hurt, injured, bashed…transformed.” These three lines accompany a ball carrier being caught and tackled.
Next, framing a close up of a center’s hands on a football, poised for a snap, these words, “A dancer needs so much work on timing, positions, line… technique, execution, coordination.”
In the final panel of the football allegory, a receiver leaps above a crowd of players, arms and legs extended, the ball firmly in his grasp. These words adorn the final panel, “And then it all comes together for a fleeting moment of magic when you find yourself doing the impossible.” Floating in the panel, Mark Siegel has placed a few very delicate pieces of the wrap or ribbon that ballerinas use to wrap their shoes.
Mark Siegel uses this wrap/ribbon as a recurring motif at the beginning of each section. It’s as if it flows through the book, holding everything together. His art feels very familiar. It’s visually similar to a few of the First Second Books (he is the editorial director of First Second) I’ve read, but it works so seamlessly with his wife’s prose that it feels much more natural and effortless. There are a few rough patches when he concentrates on faces. Baryshnikov looks very rough in one panel, for example. These are but momentary distractions, however, as he uses color, form, and movement to light your senses.
To Dance is a surprising book. Surprising in that I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. On the inside front cover, it’s recommended for ages 8-14. That’s a nice target age, but I think adults of both sexes should enjoy to Dance as well. You can’t help but feel your own heart leap as Siena discovers joy in movement and dance. The prose skips effortlessly along with the art, showing a husband and wife team in almost perfect rhythm on the page.
To Dance is available this month. Check the website for details.
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