Readers if you love love, love great dancing books, you'll love to learn about the books below. These books are soul wrenching and will have you pumped up and ready for dance.
I'm including these books as part of my #AtoZchallenge and my theme of anything Writer(ly).
It's important as writer to write about things you know. I like books about dancing because I've been dancing my whole life. I started as a child dancing at Kay Marie and Carol's school of dance in Robbinsdale in Minnesota. I took tap, ballet, and jazz for seven years. I went on to dance for my high school's dance team and since then enjoyed dance aerobic classes at the gym.
1.The Crane Dance by Meg Howrey
I read "The Crane Dance" because it was recommended by Jen Campbell as part of her 'If you liked this book...' Book tag.
In this case if you liked Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild than you will like The Crane Dance. Jen Campbell reviews books on her YouTube channel and I had an opportunity to interview her last month. Read her interview here.
The Crane Dance opens with an explanation of the Black Swan Ballet. It talks about how readers may not understand the very complex dance because its so not like opera and often has dancers milling around talking to another and not may seems like they know where to put themselves, but really they are acting out a scene. The writer compares the Black Swan ballet to many well known operas in order to help convey the dance.
The novel delves deep into the very different lives of two ballerinas who are sisters. The first sister, Kate Crane, is struggling to keep her place at the New York City Ballet Company. The second sister Gwen takes a reprieve from the same company in order to deal with some issues.
Readers, you may like some of the nice details interwoven into the plot. Like how the MC thinks that she's a plain Jane so she adds dark lipstick to her mouth every day and tells herself that if anyone ever tries to shame her, she'll just smile at them with her dark lipstick.
Or when the main character's ever so hated arch nemesis tries to throw her out of class by telling the dance teacher that she's injured. The MC turns lemon into lemonade by mustering up her pride and saying something wonderful to get herself out of the situation.
I enjoyed "Mao's Last Dancer" by Li Cunxin tremendously. It's basically a memoir about a boy, Li Cunxin, who was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken from his home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet.
He is one of the many chosen during the Chinese revolution of the 1960's when stakes are high and the chance of starvation for the Chinese people is even greater. Cunxin takes auditions as readily as he can proving himself to be a confident young boy even though he has no deep passion for dancing in itself but knowing it could be the difference between his family starving or not.
A reader can easily empathize with the struggles Li Cunxin is up against. During his training, he stays at an all boy's dance academy for months, even years at a time, without his family.
This book reminded me of the Chinese, Olympic gymnasts who are taken away from their home at a young age to be trained as Olympians.
***This is a clip from the movie trailer, Mao's Last Dancer
Goodreads also has a recommended list of 149 best books about dance, follow the link below.
Readers, that's all the time I have today. I'll let you know when I finish my next dance related book Every Step you Take but stayed tuned tomorrow to read K is for Kooky Book Puns. Let me know of any great dancing books you have read or even a book with a little dancing in it.
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