Ageless Dancers- With Betti Franceschi

The Drama Book Shop presents, in association with Jay Michaels Global Communications, Ageless Dancers- A Conversation With Betti Franceschi

A talkback, signing and live podcast recording.

About the Book

With Ageless Dancers, Betti Franceschi, a painter and sculptor, goes behind the camera to record 40 legendary New York dancers ages 70 and up, displaying the artistry that survives diminished athleticism. Franceschi will be joined by several of the dancers who appear in her book, including Ze’eva Cohen (Founder, Dance Theatre Workshop), Molissa Fenley (Molissa Fenley & Company), Diana Byer (founder of New York Theater Ballet), for a discussion moderated by James Dybas. Large archival silk prints from Ageless Dancers will be exhibited.

Ageless Dancers depicts forty important dancers, ages 70 and up, from the disciplines of ballet, modern, contemporary, tap, and musical theater. Carmen de Lavallade, Janet Eilber, Suki Schorer, Martine van Hamel, and Edward Villella are among the dance artists featured, as well as the late Jacques d’Amboise, Jennifer Muller, Gus Solomons, Jr., and Sarah Stackhouse. With an introduction by painter and curator George Negroponte, Ageless Dancers is comprised of 70 photographs, capturing the intelligence and grace of each dancer. The volume, designed by Simon Rendall, carries forward Franceschi’s fascination with dance. As a life-long wannabe dancer, Franceschi has long studied bodies that speak. Her previous book, The Still Point (London, 1987), presents a series of graphite drawings of top ballet dancers, focusing on the core of the body and how it is used in ballet technique. Also designed by Simon Rendall, The Still Point received six nominations to The National Trust Show in London and Frankfurt.

About the Author

Betti Franceschi is an artist who has done a double major in school and in life: fine art and ballet. Born in 1934 and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, she studied ballet with Marguerite de Anguera at Indiana University, Bloomington, fine art with Roger Anliker at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon), and art history with Rosalind Krauss at Hunter College. Her Still Point drawings—vertical-hatched, tightly realistic nude close-ups of dancers' centers—were published in London as a book (The Still Point, 1987) designed by Simon Rendall, which won six nominations to the National Trust Show in London and Frankfurt, and were exhibited at Sadlers Wells in London, the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York, and the Philharmonic Center in Naples, Florida, among other venues. Her explosive, almost abstract, zen-calligraphic Signature Drawings (1983–1986) of dancers in motion, have been exhibited in several venues, including the New York State Theater, home of the New York City Ballet. Her early work was mostly portraits, then turned to focus on movement, with figure drawings and paintings, and later sculptures of dancers. In 2016 her interest in gesture brought her to photography for her Ageless Dancers project, a series of elegant, joyous portraits of dancers in the latter years of life. Her work has been reviewed in the London Evening Standard, The New York Times, the Saratogian, the New York City Ballet Playbill, and Dance Magazine. Franceschi lives in New York City.

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