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brooke_review 's review for:
The Ballerinas
by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
Rachel Kapelke-Dale vividly brings to life the cutthroat world of the highly competitive Paris Opera Ballet Company in her new novel The Ballerinas. The Ballerinas take us inside the loving, yet ruthless friendship of three young girls all competing to rise in the ranks of their ballet school while somehow not letting their friendship fall to pieces at the same time. Vacillating between present day and the past, The Ballerinas takes us from the time the girls - Delphine, Margaux, and Lindsay - were the top students at the world-renowned Paris Opera Ballet School to now, where they find themselves in their late 30s, still struggling with actions and feelings of the past. The Ballerinas is a testament of strength and perseverance, friendship and self-preservation, love and hate. In all, it is beautiful and haunting at the same time.
The storyline of this lyrical novel swirls around a secret - something insidious that happened when the girls were students at the Paris Opera Ballet School that changed their lives forever. The novel's main character Delphine (always described as the nice one of their friends group) is back at the Paris Opera Ballet (POB) after spending over a decade in St. Petersburg, but this time she is not dancing on the stage - she is returning as a choreographer. Her best friends Margaux and Lindsay still dance with the company, but as they near 40 years old, their time in the spotlight is rapidly burning out. Delphine is determined to make a name for herself at the POB while also righting the wrongs of the past, but she soon discovers that there is something darker at play behind the scenes of the ballet than what meets the eye.
Descriptive and glittering, yet at the same time harrowing and ghastly, Kapelke-Dale's The Ballerinas is immersed in everything ballet and will captivate anyone who loves the art form. Brimming with technical detail and the blood, sweat, tears, and toil that goes into being a premiere ballerina, this novel is intriguing, captivating, and informative. The descriptions of life as a young girl vying for one of the few spots in the oldest ballet company of the world is where this novel truly shines, and I found myself fascinated by the work and commitment that goes into being a top dancer. Furthermore, I loved the descriptions of life in Paris, and fell in love with the sights, sounds, and smells of the city. The Ballerinas is heavy both on ballet and French aesthetic, and is a feast for the ears and eyes.
Though not as intriguing as the finer points of this novel - what it is like to be a young woman fully devoted to her love of dance - the relationships between men and women and the role that men play in the world of ballet is an integral point of The Ballerinas. As unappealing as the men of this novel are, they are necessary to this story, which examines how men marginalize women and at times, even influence and dominate in an art form devoted primarily to the beauty and skill of the finer sex. There is much to be said here about misogyny and the exploitation of women, making this a timely and relevant addition to the literary fiction genre.
The storyline of this lyrical novel swirls around a secret - something insidious that happened when the girls were students at the Paris Opera Ballet School that changed their lives forever. The novel's main character Delphine (always described as the nice one of their friends group) is back at the Paris Opera Ballet (POB) after spending over a decade in St. Petersburg, but this time she is not dancing on the stage - she is returning as a choreographer. Her best friends Margaux and Lindsay still dance with the company, but as they near 40 years old, their time in the spotlight is rapidly burning out. Delphine is determined to make a name for herself at the POB while also righting the wrongs of the past, but she soon discovers that there is something darker at play behind the scenes of the ballet than what meets the eye.
Descriptive and glittering, yet at the same time harrowing and ghastly, Kapelke-Dale's The Ballerinas is immersed in everything ballet and will captivate anyone who loves the art form. Brimming with technical detail and the blood, sweat, tears, and toil that goes into being a premiere ballerina, this novel is intriguing, captivating, and informative. The descriptions of life as a young girl vying for one of the few spots in the oldest ballet company of the world is where this novel truly shines, and I found myself fascinated by the work and commitment that goes into being a top dancer. Furthermore, I loved the descriptions of life in Paris, and fell in love with the sights, sounds, and smells of the city. The Ballerinas is heavy both on ballet and French aesthetic, and is a feast for the ears and eyes.
Though not as intriguing as the finer points of this novel - what it is like to be a young woman fully devoted to her love of dance - the relationships between men and women and the role that men play in the world of ballet is an integral point of The Ballerinas. As unappealing as the men of this novel are, they are necessary to this story, which examines how men marginalize women and at times, even influence and dominate in an art form devoted primarily to the beauty and skill of the finer sex. There is much to be said here about misogyny and the exploitation of women, making this a timely and relevant addition to the literary fiction genre.