Birds Eye View

With a foreword by Marcia B. SiegelIn 1930 ,  seventeen-year-old Dorothy Bird from Victoria, British Columbia, was  sent to study dance at the Cornish School in Seattle.  There she was  totally captivated by Martha Graham, who, at the end of summer, invited  Dorothy to study with her at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York  City.  Dorothy debuted with the Graham Group in 1931 in Primitive Mysteries, and was a company member and Graham s demonstrator until 1937.  Bird s Eye View   is a warm and human story that chronicles the early development of  modern dance from a dancer s perspective.  Dorothy Bird was the only dancer of her time to work with all the major  choreographers in concert and on Broadway: George Balanchine, Agnes de  Mille, Doris Humphrey, Helen Tamiris, Anna Sokolow, Herbert Ross, Jose  Limon, and Jerome Robbins, among others.  She recounts fascinating  theater experiences with such luminaries as Orson Welles, Gertrude  Lawrence, Carol Channing, Danny Kaye, and Elia Kazan.  Dorothy shares  her methods and experiences as a teacher for Balanchine and her  twenty-five-year tenure at the Neighborhood Playhouse to highlight her  philosophy of giving back to the next generation of performers.  Of all the artists Dorothy Bird worked with, Martha Graham figures most  strongly in the book and in her life.  Her narrative about Graham s  early creative process is a valuable addition to the literature, as is  the story of her personal involvement with Graham.  The reader gains an  intimate  insight into the love and fear instilled by Graham in her  followers.