arlyne blitz

Full of page-filling repetition, I was totally bored with the obsessive focus by the author on pointe shows and gnarled feet, and180 degree turnouts. First of all, the young dancers at the school were under 12 years old, the earliest age a girl should be wearing pointe shoes at all, and that only after 4-5 years of solid training in ballet slippers. Secondly, turnout should never be 180 degrees — that’s acrobatics, not dance. I liked the writing much better when the focus was not on dance. I am now thoroughly sick of The Nutcracker, the bashed feet, the breaking in of pointe shoes. I was a dancer. This focus didn’t feel real to me—it felt like research, not first hand knowledge. I had more than enough of that by page 60. The repetitive language about dancer, without nuance, made me say « enough » at page 60, but I kept on reading as I always do, hoping for more. And to be fair, it did get better when the story pivoted to the (very naive) adults.