Heather reviewed The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
Review of 'The Ballerinas' on 'Goodreads'
I requested this book from NetGalley based on the cover. I also loved the description of long simmering rage in women. I was on vacation when I started this book and I read it over the course of a day because it was so engrossing.Delphine, Lindsay, and Margaux were students in the Paris Opera school from the time they were young. When they graduate they have about a 10% chance of being selected to join the ballet's corps - if they are lucky. Each year as more advanced spots open up they can audition to move up out of the corps until they face mandatory retirement at age 42. They story is told in two time frames. The first is their time in school until they move into the ballet company and their first few years there. The second is 15 years later. Now Delphine is a choreographer and not …
I requested this book from NetGalley based on the cover. I also loved the description of long simmering rage in women. I was on vacation when I started this book and I read it over the course of a day because it was so engrossing.Delphine, Lindsay, and Margaux were students in the Paris Opera school from the time they were young. When they graduate they have about a 10% chance of being selected to join the ballet's corps - if they are lucky. Each year as more advanced spots open up they can audition to move up out of the corps until they face mandatory retirement at age 42. They story is told in two time frames. The first is their time in school until they move into the ballet company and their first few years there. The second is 15 years later. Now Delphine is a choreographer and not a dancer. She's been hired to come back to Paris from Russia to choreograph a ballet based on the life of the last Tsarina of Russia. She wants Lindsay for the lead. She feels like she owes her. Why does she owe her? That's the mystery that is explored in the past timeline of the book.For a lot of books that would be the plot. This book keeps the surprises coming. The present timeline doesn't exist just to explain the past. There are some major conflicts here too. How to you come back to a place where you grew up when you've been gone for 15 years but most of your friends never left? Can you go home again? And then, just when you think everything is resolved there is a final twist that you didn't see coming. There is a whole lot going on here but I loved it. I like books that keep me from guessing exactly where it is going to end up.I learned a lot about the day to day life of elite ballerinas, especially those in training. These characters felt like real women and not stereotypes. In fact the author seemed to actively set up stereotypical situations and then maneuver around them in unexpected ways. For example, there is a young, ambitious ballerina who wants to move up and many authors would have had her be spiteful and mean. In this book she turns out to be sympathetic and supportive of other characters. There are a lot of dark themes here - rape, domestic abuse, infertility, abortion, injuries, etc. It isn't a light and fluffy read. But it does draw you in and keep you reading. This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story