An enlightening, perceptive and, ultimately, sad book. Ms. Robb evokes the romance of ballet while revealing its dark side and asks tough questions that have no clear answers.
Compelling ... Don’t Think, Dear is less a memoir than it is a feminist interrogation of the world of ballet as the author experienced it ... Lovers of classical ballet who don’t want to see the sausage being made might do well to avoid But I found myself feeling something like gratitude.
Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, the book weaves her early experiences as a dancer with those of her contemporaries, and of famous ballerinas ... Don’t Think Dear is powered by a fundamental love of the art form while exposing the toxic culture that runs through it. Robb may look fondly back at her ballet years but she can’t deny the intrinsic weirdness of 21st-century women willingly submitting themselves to a life of physical and psychological torment, conceived of and often enforced by men, for a picture-book fantasy of femininity.
a critical yet personal examination of classical ballet — a performing art highly dependent on the talent of women — filtered through the lens of 21st-century feminism. Robb’s writing style is scattershot at times, as she jumps from one idea to another and then back again, but she brings a welcome academic rigour to the subject, clearly born of deeply held emotions ... Throughout the book Robb quotes from dozens of studies and scholarly articles, using facts and figures to bolster her assertions ... Robb interrogates a ballerina’s life, illustrating her thesis with portraits of famous ballerinas whose pursuit of stardom came at a price.
Robb...shows how intensely a ballerina’s training revolves around antiquated ideals of femininity—a femininity for which she is expected to suffer in silence. She draws from a breathtaking range of sources to build her case ... As much as Robb’s book is a reflection on the way young dancers can be abused within the hierarchies of ballet institutions, it’s also an attempt to recover the promise of dance ... Vivid.
Robb explains the problems with ballet culture, and especially with the fraught legacy of her 'problematic fave', the choreographer George Balanchine. But she also succeeds in conveying, in a refreshingly unromantic way, what is still valuable about the art form ... It might be easy...to assume that Don’t Think, Dear is Robb’s litany of grievances about a demanding art form in which she failed to flourish. Rather, it is a book about love, even if that love is ultimately unrequited ...
The author captures the ballet world, replete with anorexia and body obsession ... Robb immerses readers in the dance milieu and what sacrifices are made for a beautiful fantasy.
At once a tribute to the art form that shaped her and an exploration of a 'beautiful pain cult,' this engaging book will appeal to dance lovers and anyone interested in the entangled nature of patriarchy, race, and ballet.
The narrative excels in detailing the physical demands of ballet ... But when Robb poses meaty questions... there are no clear-cut answers. Even so, Robb provides searing glimpses of life behind the curtain, and captures her appreciation for ballet’s 'hyperfeminine trappings.' This will deepen readers’ understanding of the insular world of ballet.
