Sally Banes has been a pre-eminent critic and scholar of American contemporary dance, and ""Before, Between, Beyond"" spans more than thirty years of her prolific work. Beginning with her first published review and including previously unpublished papers, this collection presents some of her finest works on dance and other artistic forms. It concludes with her most recent research on George Balanchine's dancing elephants. In each piece, Banes' detailed eye and sensual prose strike a rare balance between description, context, and opinion, delineating the American artistic scene with remarkable grace. With contextualizing essays by dance scholars Andrea Harris, Joan Acocella, and Lynn Garafola, this is a compelling, insightful, indispensable summation of Banes' critical career.