5 reviews

emotional reflective medium-paced

3.75

Content Warnings

Too much focus on disordered eating thoughts/behaviors.

Content Warnings

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

Content Warnings

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

My first pick from the Carol Shields Prize longlist was Dances, an immersive look into the life of Cece Cordell, the first Black principal at the New York Ballet. The story traces both her personal and professional lives. Her personal life certainly had interest including a complicated family background - a mostly absent father, a practical mother more concerned with survival than encouraging her daughter’s dream, an artistic older brother who did everything he could to support her but who fell prey to addiction and has chosen to go no contact, a less than fulfilling romantic partnership, and upheavals within her close friendship group. However for me the book really excelled in its exploration of Cece’s professional life. There is lots of ballet terminology including dance steps and choreography. I have zero knowledge of this so couldn’t picture the dances in my head. But it mattered not a jot because the words themselves rhymthically danced on the page, conveying Cece’s love of what she does and her talent. The hard work, dedication and determination required to excel; the sweat, the blisters, the constant niggling injuries, the personal sacrifices are all realistically represented. As a ballerina Cece’s body is always under scrutiny - by herself and others, more so once she is named principal, and especially because hers is a Black body, a rarity in the ballet world, that does not conform to the small, petite stereotype of an “ideal” dancer. Cuffy’s exploration of this is thoughtful but readers triggered by disordered eating and a focus on body size may find aspects of this story hard to get through. To me the author was not promoting these things, merely including them in an accurate depiction of the ballet world, and trusting that the reader would draw appropriate conclusions. The other aspect of this story that stood out to me was way it explored the devotion required to be an artist and how it could be a fine line between that being a positive or negative thing, between success or self-destruction. The juxtaposition of Cece and Paul’s experiences, albeit in different areas of artistic expression, really highlighted this. If I had one disappointment with the story it was the lack of resolution to the chasm that developed between Paul and Cece. It really felt unresolved. Part of me was frustrated; the other part recognised that sometimes that’s reality and admired the author for not tying everything up neatly. While I have no desire to take up ballet I very much enjoyed being immersed in the world of a dancer and seeing how being Black in a very white space impacted a dancer’s experience, adding an additional layer of challenge and complexity.

Content Warnings

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

3.25

Content Warnings