Serenade

A Balanchine Story

By: Toni Bentley

Narrated by: Leslie Howard, Toni Bentley

Toni Bentley, a dancer for George Balanchine, the greatest ballet maker of the 20th century, tells the story of Serenade, his iconic masterpiece, and what it was like to dance—and live—in his world at New York City Ballet during its legendary era.

"Reading Bentley's Serenade made me feel as alive as I felt on the stage the moment that I fell in love with ballet…. [A] delicate balance of personal memoir, rarefied elegance, history of the arts and pure human interest.”—Misty Copeland, New York Times Book Review

"[A] unique document about one of the greatest ballets ever created…. A beautiful read”—Mikhail Baryshnikov


At age seventeen, Toni Bentley was chosen by Balanchine, then in his final years, to join the New York City Ballet. From both backstage and onstage, she carries us through the serendipitous history and physical intricacies and demands of Serenade: its dazzling opening, with seventeen women in a double-diamond pattern; its radical, even jazzy, use of the highly refined language that is ballet; its place in the choreographer’s own dramatic story of his immigration to the United States from Soviet Russia; its mystical—and literal—embodiment of the tradition of classical ballet in just thirty-three minutes.

Bentley takes us inside the rarefied, intense, and thrilling world Balanchine created through his lifelong devotion to celebrating and expanding female beauty and strength—a world that, inevitably, passed upon his death. An intimate elegy to grace and loss and to the imprint of a towering artist and his transcendent creation on Bentley’s own life, Serenade: A Balanchine Story is a rich narrative by a dynamic artist about the nature of art itself at its most ephemeral and glorious.

over the top adoration for Balanchine!

Interesting information about the world of ballet. Author adores Balanchine and is not the least bit
objective about him. Her second by second account of Serenade was an interesting literary style. It made the choreography very personal and I felt like I was on stage as a dancer.

Incredible story. French pronunciation like nails on a chalkboard!

Toni Bentley’s story is engaging, insightful and fascinating. I love the way she wove the minute by minute explanation of Serenade with the history of ballet, Balanchine, Tchaikovsky, Petipa as well as her own. Her reverence and love for Mr B is truly palpable. I hope to see NYCB dance Serenade soon. The narrator who had a pretty sounding voice, truly disappointed. Her pronunciation of French and Italian words was like nails on a chalkboard! Why oh why, in a book about ballet, no less, did she get the pronunciation of “pas de deux” and many other words, so wrong?

What a beautiful book!

Simply, I was in tears so many time, I don’t remember anything like it ever. It s like I am finally there, with Balanchine and his devoted dancers, experiencing this brief divine moment …I m not even a dancer, I m just a 61 yrs doctor, happened started ballet at 54, and now taking adv/prof ballet everyday, 7 days a week. Now I know why I wanted to be a ballet dancer at age 10. I never had the chance till now. Balanchine is and will always be God of mine…thank you!

Amazingly intimate and authentically researched!

Outstanding writing taking the listener inside the ballet world with specific details from personal experience as well as factual information about dance and music history. Only critique is the person who read the book did not pronounce any of the French words correctly. As a francophone and educator I wish the production team would have considered this important detail.

For the Love of Serenade

Serenade is a book expertly woven of deep and abiding love for the ballet Serenade, autobiographical story, biographical story of Balanchine alongside many of the other ballet greats, as well as historical information of ballet itself, and so much more. It is exquisitely rendered.