Dancing Through It: My Journey in the Ballet by Jenifer Ringer

                                                                  

Publisher: Viking, Penguin USA
Release Date: February 20, 2014
Pages:  288
Source: Publisher

Jenifer Ringer covers the highs and lows of what it’s like to make it to the top in the exclusive, competitive ballet world. From the heart-pounding moments waiting in the wings before a performance to appearing on Oprah to discuss weight and body image among dancers, Dancing Through It is moving and revelatory.

Raised in South Carolina, Ringer led a typical kid’s life until she sat in on a friend’s ballet class, an experience that would change her life forever. By the age of twelve she was enrolled at the elite Washington School of Ballet and soon moved to the School of American Ballet. At sixteen she was a professional dancer at the New York City Ballet in Manhattan, home of the legendary George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.

Ringer takes us inside the dancer’s world, detailing a typical day, performance preparation, and the extraordinary pressures that these athletes face. Ringer shares exhilarating stories of starring in Balanchine productions, working with the famous Peter Martins, and of meeting her husband and falling in love at the New York City Ballet. Ringer also talks candidly of Alistair Macauley’s stinging critique of her weight in his 2010 New York Times review of The Nutcracker that ignited a public dialogue about ballet and weight. She unflinchingly describes her personal struggles with eating disorders and body image, and shares how her faith helped her to heal and triumph over these challenges.

 

I was very curious for this book as I danced ballet till my teens years. Jenifer Ringer described very vividly what it's like to be one of the principal dancers of one of the most famous ballet companies in the world. I liked how it was written, but whit this kind of book you have to watch out that from a memoir becomes in a little bit too much drama and whining. She goes to a lot of pressure and stress at a young age wich results in a serious eating disorder. I alwas am a bit stunned in how people go so far to be succesfull in a career that they decide to stop eating. How can they set their common sense and their health aside for just ballet? Not al of her choices are the wisest thing to do, but it all makes sense due to the huge amount of stress and the competitive ballet world and how the management of the NYC ballet treats their dancers, which I thought was just a shame. But that aside, this book is a good eye opener how things work inside the ballet world, as told by a ballerina. The audience has mostly no idea of this, but in the last few years more and more awareness is starting to come up for this topic. A must read for every ballet lover!