"You have a child prodigy, Mrs Glasbeek." With these words Madame Xenia Borovansky proclaimed that Alida Belair was destined for ballet greatness. Three years later, at the age of eleven, Alida became a child star in her role as Clara in the Borovansky Ballet's production of the Nutcracker Suite. Out of Step traces the extraordinary story of Alida Belair's ascent to the summit of the international ballet world, her striving to develop artistically and personally despite that world's tight constraints, and her struggle with anorexia. Alida Belair was born in South West France, where her family was being hidden from the Nazis. She came to Australia in 1949, and at a young age was discovered by the Borovanskys who recognized her prodigious and precocious talent. In her late teens, she was discovered anew, this time by the Bolshoi which invited her to study at its school in Moscow. When her studies were cut short by the Cuban Missile Crisis, her passion and her talent saw her travel west to dance leading roles in London, New York and Washington–and to work with Marie Rambert, Rudolf Nureyev, George Balanchine, and other greats. Then, in her late twenties, self-starvation, isolation, and exhaustion called her career to a halt. In Out of Step, Alida Belair tells of her battle to reconcile her demanding and exhilarating art with her emotional needs and intellectual development, and of her eventual emergence as an adult into the world outside the cloisters of the ballet which she had entered as a child. Praise for Out of Step:"One of the most absorbing autobiographical narratives of the year" - Peter Ross, ABC Television (Australia) "A warm and intelligent recounting of a dancer's life, by a warm, intelligent and highly articulate dancer. Every dancer who reads it will find a bit of herself threaded through its pages. It embraces not only the passions, but also the problems of the journey to the top and is therefore both an inspiration and cautionary tale" - Dame Margaret Scott."Unusually honest...An engrossing, splendidly written autobiography" - Pamela Ruskin, Dance Australia."Belair presents an engrossing image of the 1950s and 1960s, beginning with the pioneering Borovansky Ballet in Australia, where she grew up, the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, Walter Gore's London Ballet, Ballet Rambert and finally the National Ballet of Washington and American Ballet Theatre." - Doris Hering, Dance Magazine, USA."Absorbing, moving and entertaining, not only for dance lovers" - Peter Kohn, Australian Jewish News.
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