Collusion
Young Girls Becomes a Dancer, A
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- 12,99 €
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- 12,99 €
Publisher Description
From the vantage point of "real life" (as dancers say), Collusion tells the story of a young girl's initiation into the disciplined, exalting world of classical ballet and into a secret love relationship with F., the ballet master whom she adored.
"Do you want to be a great dancer?" F. had asked her when she was twelve. She did. And so Collusion tells of how she gave up ordinary life--family, boyfriends, hamburgers, homework, and pop music--for a life dedicated to the promise of artistry. At the center of that new life was always the figure of F.--ironic, moody, demanding, quixotically generous or withholding--who could control her with a sarcastic comment or the flash of his cane across her thigh, but also with the lyrical beauty of his classes and the vision of herself in a perfect arabesque. F. was the first man to partner her, and the first to teach her that love can come in strange forms: in the airborne lifts of Les Sylphides, in brilliant pirouettes, and in measured violence.
Collusion describes the secret life of ballet. It is a life in which "normal" values are reversed. Brutality is seen as a gift, fear as devotion, sadism (rightly, in this case) as love. Free of conventional moral judgments, Collusion tells of possession and surrender, of power and submission, of the bond between a young girl and an older man.
In spare, emotionally resonant prose, award-winning poet and novelist Evan Zimroth unfolds a mesmerizing story of artistic ambition, power, and love in an unforgettable memoir of adolescence. Collusion portrays a real relationship, one that society dares not speak of, and it does so with admirable honesty and sensitivity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Novelist and poet Zimroth (Gangsters) recounts her days as an adolescent ballet student and her masochistic relationship with her teacher, F., a famous Russian dancer. The story itself is compelling. F.'s treatment of Zimroth alternates between special kindness (taking her into his office to show her photographs of himself as a young dancer) and particular cruelty (F. hits Zimroth with his cane hard enough to leave bruises). Even without a demanding, often physically abusive instructor like F., serious early ballet study comes off sounding painful and self-punishing: Zimroth describes how to break in pointe shoes and confesses that for years she kept her first pair--caked on the inside with dried blood--as a souvenir. The book's weakness lies in its lack of factual explanation. When Zimroth was 13, her parents insisted on pulling her out of ballet school because of her poor grades. When she reported this to F., he told her she would have to choose between him and her parents. Zimroth chose her teacher but doesn't explain how she got around her parents' original demand. In a similar vein, Zimroth uses a disturbing yet unconvincing framing device in which she compares her relationship with F. to a sexual experience (confusingly, she introduces this as a rape, then immediately recants). Still, Zimroth's memoir is an interesting backstage look at the seamier side of an art form, and it raises interesting questions about artists and mentors and the personal price of success.
