Childhoold, boyhood, youth: on Elizabeth Kendall’s new biography of Balanchine

Elizabeth Kendall’s vivid new biography of Balanchine’s early years, Balanchine and the Lost Muse, came out last summer, but my review of it for The Nation is out today. In her book, Kendall conjures a series of ghosts, from the boy Balanchine once was, to his classmate and friend, Lidia Ivanova, who died tragically young. In addition to being an extraordinary work of scholarship, it represents a tremendous effort of love and of the imagination

Here’s the review: