... sure to satisfy readers who enjoy stories about the competitive backstage world of professional ballet, as well as anyone interested in probing the complexities of women’s friendships ... Kapelke-Dale, who trained seriously as a ballet dancer, incorporates convincing details about the professional lives of her characters ... Touching on #MeToo, women’s reproductive choices and other timely topics, The Ballerinas is a taut, suspenseful literary novel that will resonate not only with balletomanes but with any readers who enjoy tracing the evolution of characters and relationships over time.
The ways in which women torture their bodies in pursuit of creative dreams make for enthralling fictional drama ... Delphine Léger narrates, and she is a willful, complex creature, at times maddeningly petulant ... For the longest time, despite Delphine’s offhandedly declaring herself a killer on the very first page, I struggled to classify this as a crime novel. But Kapelke-Dale has thought through the larger picture, and examined how trauma and asymmetries of power derail so many dancers.
... a confident, enthralling fiction debut ... If Kapelke-Dale doesn’t make you yearn for a trip to the City of Lights, nothing will. Calling the complicated, sometimes prickly, often fascinating Delphine a heroine might be a stretch ... Betrayals, secrets and jealousies—a lot of jealousies—seep throughout the tightly coiled plot. The slow-boil story builds to an act of violence that is surprising, but expected ... The insular world of ballet has been the background for two stellar mysteries: Megan Abbott’s The Turnout and now The Ballerinas.
This atmospheric novel felt so much like an insider’s view of life in the European ballet world that I’m genuinely surprised Rachel Kapelke-Dale was never herself a professional dancer with the POB. She writes beautifully about the cities of Paris and St. Petersburg, romantic settings that place into harsher focus all the ways that women find themselves unwittingly affirming the patriarchy that wishes to control their bodies ... Delphine is a complicated heroine ... The Ballerinas is most powerful when it speaks of feminine solidarity—when characters such as Delphine refuse to be cowed by the men in their lives and stand up for not only their own autonomy but also for what’s right, no matter the often harmful consequences. While I felt that some of the career moves were accepted more prosaically than the build up to those points would warrant, I did feel that this was a moving testament to the power of feminism and genuine friendship to heal wounds and work toward a better tomorrow together.
... an unflinching, unapologetically feminist glimpse into the world of professional ballet ... Despite all of this, The Ballerinas is not a bleak novel. Delphine, Lindsay and Margaux begin to push back against the system that has oppressed them, coming to terms with their past and moving forward into a world in which they have agency over their bodies and careers. It is to Kapelke-Dale’s credit that this empowering ending feels earned, rather than naively optimistic.
Though sometimes coming dangerously close to soap opera and sporting an improbable ending, the novel is an unqualified success at portraying the demanding lives of ballerinas and of the men who, for better or worse, inhabit the ballet world. With its look behind the scenes of the ballet world and its appealing characters, The Ballerinas will be catnip for balletomanes.
... a well-crafted thriller ... Kapelke-Dale nicely explores the power of female friendship, a woman’s relationship with her body, and what it truly means to be seen. This one’s for fans of Megan Abbott’s The Turnout.
