The Art of Grace: On Moving Well Through Life

by Sarah L. Kaufman

Overview

A Pulitzer Prize–winning dance critic teaches us to appreciate—and enact—grace in every dimension, from the physical to the emotional.

Grace has long been taught as essential to civilized living. The Three Graces—goddesses of charm, beauty, and creativity—exemplify ease and harmony with one another and the world around them. But what has happened to this simple, marvelous concept of being at ease in the world?

With warmth, humor, and an ever-perceptive eye, Sarah L. Kaufman sifts the graceful from the graceless, celebrating heart-catching moments of physical elegance in sports, movies, dance, fashion, and music; rare sightings of celebrity grace; the secrets of gracious hosts; and grace found unexpectedly, in the kitchen of a high-end restaurant and among strippers in a basement bar. Kaufman’s thought-provoking reflections on these physical and social acts of grace offer hope for even the clumsiest, most awkward among us.

Guided by the muse of Cary Grant (with further inspiration from Smokey Robinson, Roger Federer, Nelson Mandela, Margot Fonteyn, Amy Purdy, Beyoncé, and others), Kaufman illuminates the importance of grace in the small moments of everyday life. In The Art of Grace, she inspires us to walk taller, spend time on unnecessary kindnesses, and celebrate the grace notes in our lives and those of others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393243956
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/02/2015
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	875,211
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.80(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Sarah L. Kaufman is a Pulitzer Prize–winning critic, author, and educator. She is the dance critic and senior arts writer of the Washington Post. A former French-American Foundation journalism fellow, she has taught and lectured around the country. She and her husband have three children and live in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Body Electric xiii

Part 1 A Panoramic View of Grace

1 Flair to Remember: Why Cary Grant Epitomizes Grace 3

2 Grace Among Others: Jay Gatsby, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Other Good Hosts 24

3 Grace and Humor: Maggie Thatcher, Johnny Carson, and My 105-Year-Old Highball-Sipping Great-Grandmother 34

4 Grace and the Art of Getting Along: How the Baby Boomers Derailed Centuries of Manners Instruction 47

Part 2 Looking at Grace

5 Superstar Grace: Lessons from Motown 77

6 Everyday Grace: Cooks, Waiters, and Roadies 91

7 Grace in Art The Sculptor Who Set the Body Free 105

Part 3 Grace in Action

8 Athletes: Roger Federer, Olga Korbut, and Others Who Play with Ease 117

9 Dancers: The Grace of Transcendence 145

10 Walking With Grace: Catwalks, Crosswalks, and Presidential Bearing 164

Part 4 Grace under Pressure

11 The Pratfall Effect: Stumbling into Grace 183

12 Working at Grace: Lessons from Vaudeville 188

13 "To Become Unstuck": Finding Grace despite Physical Difficulties 194

Part 5 Understanding grace: Theories and Practice

14 The Science of Grace: Survival of the Graceful 211

15 Amazing Grace: Religion without Judgment 236

16 Leap Into Grace: Techniques for Graceful Living 255

Conclusion 271

Tips For Moving Well Through Life 277

Acknowledgments 280

Notes 283

Illustration Credits 294

Index 297

Editorial Reviews

01/18/2016
Is it possible to glide through the modern world with ease? Smartphones are destroying our posture, athletes are more muscle-bound than ever, and even ballerinas rely on eye-catching tricks over artistry. In her wide-ranging search for grace, Kaufman (Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic for The Washington Post) often holds up the polished icons of the past to exemplify "the unexpected glimmering thing that happens, so subtly that no one else might notice." Cary Grant, that "beautiful mover," is her guide: well-dressed, funny, and able to make others feel comfortable. But when Kaufman turns away from the actor—to a dance class for Parkinson's patients, for example—she carves out new ways to look at movement. Her observations of the human body (she eyes everyone from roadies to the Obamas) encourage the reader to tune into the small, everyday moments of alignment. And to pull up YouTube to witness the old-fashioned grace of Olga Korbut, Dr. J and, yes, Cary Grant. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Sarah Kaufman offers an old-fashioned cure for a modern-day ailment. The remedy for our culture of coarseness is grace—forgetting ourselves, being attentive to others, and approaching our encounters with the effortlessness that comes from being at ease in the world. This is an elegant, compelling, and, yes, graceful book."

Daniel H. Pink

"As a dance photographer, I have considered myself an expert on the art of grace. Not anymore. Sarah Kaufman has set the gold standard by which I will judge all future subjects."

Jordan Matter

"Kaufman mines history, pop culture, sports, and her own neighborhood to share moving moments of grade in beautifully sculpted prose…. [She] reminds us that even in a world where most eyes are locked on smart phones, there are still people who really listen, think before they speak, and move gracefully."

Booklist, Starred review - Candace Smith

"Fascinating throughout, this book not only serves as a reminder of the crude gracelessness into which modern society has descended. It also offers hope that we can reform our current personal and social habits with an eye toward more civilized, harmonious living. An insightful, intelligent examination of grace, which often 'seems to elude fixed meaning.'"

Booklist

"Part love letter, part cultural commentary, and wholly a joyous exploration of the essential trait of grace, from ancient Greece to the golden age of Hollywood."

Arianna Huffington

★ 09/15/2015
As an antidote to the ill manners so prevalent in today's society, Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic Kaufman recalls the reader to grace—that quality that doesn't make a fuss about itself but subtly warms and transforms the atmosphere. Real-life examples, she notes, were Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. Kaufman uses these two actors and lesser-known individuals to instruct and instill a longing for grace. She discusses politeness and toleration as well as the virtues of self-control and nonchalance. An appendix on "Tips for Moving Well Through Life" conclude the book and deliver a compact overview of its content. VERDICT Though a bit lengthy, Kaufman's narrative is timely and sheds light on a long-lost art.

Library Journal

2015-08-09
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post dance critic Kaufman reflects on the meaning of grace in modern society. Grace is as multidimensional as it is an ancient and inherent part of humanity that stretches beyond the Greeks to our common primordial past. In this delightfully readable book, Kaufman studies the nature of grace and offers both an appreciation of it as well as a gentle exhortation to readers to cultivate it in themselves and the world around them. Her model for human grace is actor Cary Grant, who embodied liquid smoothness not only in his movements, but also in his personal interactions, especially those on screen. Others—such as Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, and even Johnny Carson—all had, to varying degrees, the kind of self-control and self-deprecating elegance that Grant possessed. But with the rise of consumer culture in the 1950s and '60s and its glorification of technology came the "culture of coarseness." Manners and even physical grace became unnecessary encumbrances that took too much effort to develop and limited (or even prevented) true self-expression. Narcissism and "grabbing and taking" became the credo of a new generation that largely disregarded the concern for others that Kaufman believes is at the heart of grace. While individuals no longer give grace the importance it once had, the author points out that it still continues to exercise a powerful hold on the human imagination. People still marvel at the breathtaking fluidity of athletes like tennis pro Roger Federer, whose movements on the court have been called "artistic" and "miraculous." Human beings, Kaufman argues, are hard-wired to appreciate grace, especially in movement. Fascinating throughout, this book not only serves as a reminder of the crude gracelessness into which modern society has descended. It also offers hope that we can reform our current personal and social habits with an eye toward more civilized, harmonious living. An insightful, intelligent examination of grace, which often "seems to elude fixed meaning."

Kirkus Reviews

"This thoughtful meditation will stay with me for a long while. Sarah Kaufman’s thoughts on the rare virtue of grace are both inspiring and uplifting. Humanity at its finest is merely what she is offering here, and we could all use a bit more of that in our lives."

Elizabeth Gilbert

"This is a truly eloquent book… Sarah Kaufman paints a charming, dignified portrait of a lost art."

Adam Grant

"Both joyful and directive, a celebrity-packed collection of observations and a manual for easing anyone’s way through the world. It’s a book with a message, delivered with calm command."

Huffington Post - Cathy Lynn Grossman

"A meditation on the serene agility—of both body and mind—that can lift us up when we’re down."

More - Cathleen Medwick

"Thoughtful and inspiring."

Washington Post - Sarah Archer

"Sarah Kaufman has nailed it: she has detected precisely what it is that has changed us so for the worse… Her book is itself most graceful, and ever knowing."

Frank Deford