Balletcore has recently become a popular aesthetic that has translated the pink and satin from the barre to streetwear. Characterized by hyper-feminine colours and fabrics, you might have noticed more people sporting hair buns, pale pink tights, and even leg warmers.
But I think there is more to this trend. Many of us did ballet classes when we were young or in high school but never achieved the professional status of prima ballerina. We attend annual performances of The Nutcracker or watch the film Center Stage again and again. Professional ballet dancers combine athleticism and art, beautiful costumes and graceful movements hide hours of training and often sore feet.
All the pink perfection of a ballet performance is only one side and as viewers and readers we want to peek behind the curtain. That's where books come in!
There is something undeniably intriguing about ballet. The intensity, the beauty, the precision, the drama... All components that make up a great book too! Whether it is the backdrop for a fictional thriller where bodies are pushed to the brink or a biography where competition is fierce, dancers and non-dancers alike have been enthralled with ballet on and off the stage.
So, tighten your bun, put on some classical music, and lose yourself in these books. With only a few exceptions, most of these are ballet books for adults.
Fiction
Pointe of Pride (2024) by Chloe Angyal
Dances (2023) by Nicole Cuffy
The Turnout (2021) by Meg Abbott
The Ballerinas (2021) by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
Cantique (2017) by Joanna Marsh
Girl Through Glass (2016) by Sari Wilson
Tiny Pretty Things (2015) by Sona Charaipotra, Dhonielle Clayton
The Cranes Dance (2012) by Meg Howrey
The True Memoirs of Little K (2010) by Adrienne Sharp
A Company of Swans (1985) by Eva Ibbotson
Non-Fiction
What You Become in Flight (2020) by Ellen O'Connell Whittet
A Body of Work: Dancing to the Edge and Back (2017) by David Hallberg
Raising the Barre: Big Dreams, False Starts, & My Midlife Quest to Dance The Nutcracker (2015) by Lauren Kessler
Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina (2014) by Michaela DePrince
Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina (2014) by Misty Copeland
Night's Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins (2011) by Yael Tamar Lewin
Every Step You Take: A Memoir (2011) by Jock Soto
No Way Home: A Dancer's Journey from the Streets of Havana to the Stages of the World (2007) by Carlos Acosta
Dancing on my Grace (1986) by Gelsey Kirkland
Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal (1982) by Toni Bentley
No matter if you took ballet years ago as a child, you're finding your first position in an adult ballet class, or you just enjoy the beauty of a tutu, the books above will entertain immerse you in the world of ballet.
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