⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
I am a fast reader. It will typically take me a day, perhaps two, to read a book, obsessively finding the time to squeeze in more reading for a book that I am particularly enjoying.
This book, “The Ballerinas”, broke my pattern apart. Hooking me from the very beginning, I found myself both fascinated and enthralled by the story, deeply intrigued by the characters, and at the same time, caught myself deliberately reading the pages more slowly. There was just so much to take in.
The main protagonists in this story, three friends from childhood, – Delphine, Margaux, and Lindsay – are ballerinas, building their careers as they advance through the most prestigious ballet company in Paris.
“At thirteen, we were still the right shape and size” “with that perfect blend of strength and flexibility”.
Rich with ideas, themes, musings and pithy observations, this is a book about women, about girls, about female bodies as “instruments” of incandescence or shame, about the feeling of never being good enough, and the smallness of trying to fit into what society (both male and female) expects from those earmarked as the “height of feminine perfection”.
“A ballerina is a perfect woman. Thin. Beautiful. Invisibly strong.”
“Everyone has an opinion about our bodies. Everyone always does. They think about and talk about our bodies like we belong to anybody and everyone but ourselves.”
The story flips back and forth in time, allowing the reader a glimpse into the ballerinas as they were and as they will be, – as they sculpt their bodies, train their minds, bury their yearnings and sacrifice any hope of a “normal” life for a one-in-a-million chance to shine as a Parisian dance “star”.
Along the way, losses, lies, terrible secrets, and persistent vulnerabilities are exposed and quickly hidden, as the girls cannot help but learn difficult lessons about love and trust, both within their tight circle of friendship and outside it.
Heartbreakingly authentic and emotionally raw in its treatment of the pervasive misogyny encountered, it is hard enough living as a “normal” woman to not instantly relate to and ache for the terrible indignities and downright abuse (emotional and physical) suffered by the female dancers.
I loved this book. This is one to be savored, and thought about, and perhaps read again at some point down the road.
A great big thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.
