Turning Pointe

Across the United States, millions of young girls head to dance studios each week to stand at the barre and learn ballet. Only a small number will ever dance professionally, but the experience leaves a lasting mark, teaching them about gender, authority, the worth of their bodies and minds, and their standing in the world both inside and beyond the studio. For many American girls, ballet occupies the same place that football occupies for boys.

Journalist Chloe Angyal follows the art form through its many stages. She visits suburban studios where children take their first steps in ballet, moves on to the intensive summer programs that train elite students, and ends at the professional companies at the top of the field.

Angyal writes with real affection for the dancers who love this art, but she also examines its serious flaws: the power that male choreographers hold and sometimes abuse, the punishing standards of beauty placed on dancers, and the racism that runs through the form. Her reporting draws on conversations with more than 80 people, including dancers at every level, students, teachers, and health care professionals. The result is a close look at both the pleasure and the pain that ballet brings.

Her central argument is that ballet cannot survive into the coming decades, or move toward a fairer future, without first confronting these problems honestly.