Mindy Aloff

Description of new work

"A book of reliable, intensely readable dance reference that covers a popular subject – the dancing in the great Disney cartoons – in truly satisfying detail. Author Mindy Aloff is a serious scholar at Barnard College, a fine critic, and a real lover of Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and the early Silly Symphonies (so, by the way, is Mark Morris, who wrote the prologue to the book). Each film gets serious coverage and cross-referenced to what was happening both in Hollywood and in the world of "art dance," especially Balanchine. There's an especially valuable interview with Marge Champion, who became a famous Broadway choreographer but was trained by her father in ballet, and was not only the original model for Snow White, the rotoscoping of her dancing image makes her (in the scene where she dances with the dwarves) plainly visible through the cartoon." --Paul Parish, "Best of the Year in Bay Area Dance," The Bay Area Reporter Online, 12/​31/​09