Dances: a novel
At twenty-two years old, Cece Cordell reaches the pinnacle of her career as a Ballet dancer when she's promoted to principal at the New York City Ballet. She's instantly catapulted into celebrity, heralded for her "inspirational" role as the first Black ballerina in the famed company's history. Even as she celebrates the achievement of a lifelong dream, Cece remains haunted by the feeling that she doesn't belong. As she waits for some feeling of rightness that doesn't arrive, she begins to unravel the loose threads of her past--an absent father, a pragmatic mother who dismisses Cece's ambitions, and a missing older brother who stoked her childhood love of ballet but disappeared to deal with his own demons. Soon after her promotion, Cece is faced with a choice that has the potential to derail her career and shatter the life she's cultivated for herself, sending her on a pilgrimage to both find her brother and reclaim the parts of herself lost in the grinding machinery of the traditional ballet world.
An incisive exploration of ballet's role in the modern world, told through the experience of the author and her classmates at the most elite ballet school in the country: the School of American Ballet ... Altogether, their stories are ones of heartbreak and resilience, of reinvention and regret. Along the way, Robb weaves in the myths of famous ballerinas past and present, from the groundbreaking Misty Copeland, to the controversial George Balanchine. Ballet does not exist in a vacuum, it is a laboratory of womanhood, a test-tube world in which traditional femininity is exaggerated. By exploring the psyche of a dancer, Don't Think, Dear grapples with the contradictions and challenges of being a woman today. It's also a story about chasing your dreams, however complicated, and learning when to let them go.
When sixteen-year-old Rosa Dominguez pirouettes, she is poetry in pointe shoes. And as the daughter of a tyrant ballet Master, Rosa seems destined to become the star principal dancer of her studio. But Rosa would do anything for one hour in the dance studio upstairs where Prince, the Purple One himself, is in the house. After her father announces their upcoming auditions for a concert with Prince, Rosa is more determined than ever to succeed. Then Nikki--the cross-dressing, funky boy who works in the dance shop--leaps into her life. Weighed down by family expectations, Rosa is at a crossroads, desperate to escape so she can show everyone what she can do when freed of her pointe shoes. Now is her chance to break away from a life in tulle, grooving to that unmistakable Minneapolis sound reverberating through every bone in her body.
Carlisle Martin dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer just like her mother, Isabel, a former Balanchine ballerina. Since they live in Ohio, she only gets to see her father Robert for a few precious weeks a year when she visits Greenwich Village, where he lives in an enchanting apartment on Bank Street with his partner, James. Brilliant but troubled, James gives Carlisle an education in all that he holds dear in life--literature, music, and most of all, dance. Seduced by the heady pull of mentorship and the sophistication of their lives, Carlisle's aspiration to become a dancer herself blooms, born of her desire to be asked to stay at Bank Street, to be included in Robert and James' world even as AIDS brings devastation to their community. Instead, a passionate love affair creates a rift between them, with devastating consequences that reverberate for decades to come. Nineteen years later, Carlisle receives a phone call which unravels the fateful events of her life, causing her to see with new eyes how her younger self has informed the woman she's become.
By Nicole Cuffy
One World, 2023. 277 pages. Fiction
I was drawn to this book by the beautiful cover, and by the story of a ballerina. One of my nieces is a professional ballerina, and I feel that, even on the periphery, I can understand a little, the demands of that life. This story weaves ballet dances and terms (beautiful, mysterious French words) deftly into Cece's story: her life, her insecurities, her family. Told in first person, you soon get caught up in the details of her life: going to the gym as well as dancing ballet for hours; the exhaustion; the friendships; the difficult relationship with her parents and her brother. It's a compelling story and I really enjoyed Cece's journey. Her love of ballet is something that carries her through her difficult life, despite how demanding it is. Even though Cece lives a life very different from mine, there was a lot in the story that I could relate to. I would definitely recommend. There is some language, some spiciness and it deals with the topic of abortion.
If you like Dances: a novel, you might also like:
Don't think, Dear: on loving and leaving ballet
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MGB
