UNDER MY WINGS: My Life as an Impresario

Szilard, nearing 90, has followed in the impresario tradition of Serge Diaghilev and Sol Hurok, showcasing artists as diverse as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Nora Kaye, Maria Tallchief and Judith Jamison, as he entertainingly relates in this chronicle of backstage intrigue in the dance world from the 1950s through the '80s. An established ballet dancer himself, Szilard emigrated from his native Hungary as WWII was breaking, finally reaching the United States in 1950. With pointed wit and self-deprecating charm, Szilard spins tales of his role in late 20th-century dance, sharing such tidbits as Kaye securing her Harry Winston diamonds by questionable means, buying a dildo in Japan for Romola Nijinsky, and Alvin Ailey's drug use. While these behind-the-scenes snapshots could be construed as salacious, Szilard tells his story with little malice; he is as unflinching with himself as he is with others. While humoring diva behavior from artists he respects, Szilard does not suffer fools gladly; he shows little patience with amateurs, homophobes and racists. Szilard relates how he refused to settle in the South in the 1950s because of the segregation and discrimination he saw. "How can human beings be treated like this?" he writes. "[I]t was beyond my understanding that whites should hate black people." Fittingly, one of Szilard's last and greatest triumphs as an impresario was championing the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater under Ailey and then Judith Jamison. An affectionately "bitchy" (Szilard's own word for himself) chronicle of dance history, what it lacks in evenness it makes up in charm: a must for balletomanes and dance historians. 32 pages of b&w photos. (Jan.)