Ballet characters in adult fiction?

[bart]

There are plenty of actors and not a few opera singers who appear as characters in fiction for adults. But where are the ballet people -- dancers, choreographers, impressarios?

Off the top of my head I can think only of Mademoiselle Florentine, a recurring minor character in Balzac's fiction. Although she's a star dancer at the Gaiete and elsewhere, we learn about her only as she affects the men in and out of her life.

Can anyone think of other ballet characters in fiction for adults?

I know there's a certain amount of ballet fiction for children and teens. (For example, here: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=14900 ) But the adult ballet world seems missing.

And why, I wonder, is that?

[Klavier]

There are plenty of actors and not a few opera singers who appear as characters in fiction for adults. But where are the ballet people -- dancers, choreographers, impressarios?

Off the top of my head I can think only of Mademoiselle Florentine, a recurring minor character in Balzac's fiction. Although she's a star dancer at the Gaiete and elsewhere, we learn about her only as she affects the men in and out of her life.

Can anyone think of other ballet characters in fiction for adults?

I know there's a certain amount of ballet fiction for children and teens. (For example, here: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=14900 ) But the adult ballet world seems missing.

And why, I wonder, is that?

Does drama count? In Frank Wedekind's Lulu plays (and hence in Berg's opera), Lulu in one scene is depicted as a dancer.

In Oscar Wilde's Salome (and hence in Strauss's opera), Salome does her dance of the seven veils.

Good question, though.

[Helene]

In the recent past, there have been two I can think of: Yona Zeldis McDonough's The Four Temperaments, in which a middle-aged violinist in the NYCB orchestra falls for a young corps member, who, after their affair, falls in love with his son, and Colum McCann's Dancer, a fictional autobiography of Rudolf Nureyev.

[Marga]

Of course, there's James (Inside the Actors Studio) Lipton's Mirrors, which is all about dancing.

[papeetepatrick]

Peter Hoeg's story 'Hommage a Bournonville', but he probably has some other ballet characters, having been a ballet dancer himself. (I haven't read this story, but the novel 'The History of Danish Dreams' was wonderful, although I can't remember any dancer characters in that.)

And if drama is included, of course Vicki Baum's play 'Grand Hotel', with Garbo as the ballet dancer once the piece came to the screen.

[papeetepatrick]

I think I ought to emphasize that Hoeg is especially important, even if his characters aren't always ballet dancers. That he is a ballet dancer and writer himself should probably make him one of the most attractive of novelists to dancers. I'd be interested to know if some of the other novels do have dancers in them, most famous being 'Smilla's Sense of Snow', but I haven't read it.

[bart]

Thanks all .. so far. I've added Hoeg, McDonough, and McCann to my library order list. I was unaware of all three, and am really delighted to learn about them.

The "Bournonville" story sounds especially promising -- a work which centers on someone whose ballet life has been central to his existence, not just someone who happens to be a dancer. I did a quick Google search and came up with the following:

... ''Hommage a Bournonville,'' in which two wasted figures sit in a little boat in Lisbon harbor and tell stories to each other. One of them is called Rumi, a reincarnation of the great Sufi poet (although little is made of this). The more important storyteller is Jakob Natten, who was once a ballet dancer at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen. Natten's tale within a tale -- a strange love story, which is really about the Danish obsession with the Royal Ballet -- is affecting, and made all the more strange by the framing device.

The bolding is mine.

Please keep the titles coming. I would think, for instance, that Russia and Britain would be especially good places to find fiction intertwined with ballet.

[liebs]

Rumer Godden has serveral novels that feature ballet - one is called Pippa Passes. There is a truly trashy novel called, Ballerina, I think by Michael Stewart.

[Juliet]

Edward Stewart/Ballerina. Pretty bad.

Rumer Godden taught dance, and her books dealing with ballet are excellent: A Candle for St. Jude (of which a rather bad film was made, but with Tanaquil Le Clercq! I got it on video some time ago online.), Pippa Passes, and Thursday's Children.

Eva Ibbotson wrote A Company of Swans which I enjoyed.

As a librarian I read anything I can find with dance characters, and I must say that except for the Ibbotson and Godden, most are pretty wretched.

[papeetepatrick]

I did some Googling too. It turns out 'Menschen im Hotel' ('People at a Hotel') is a novel by Vicki Baum that begins what ends up as Garbo's fantastic screen behaviour.

[Mel Johnson]

Let's consider ballet dancers as a percentage of the population. Pretty few. Exciting job to the outside world, hard work on the inside.

Then let's consider sandhogs. Again, not many, but probably more than ballet dancers. Interesting, dangerous work, but I don't know if many have ended up characters in adult fiction!

[bart]

As a librarian I read anything I can find with dance characters, and I must say that except for the Ibbotson and Godden, most are pretty wretched.

I wonder why that is?

Mel mentions a couple of possibilities. But I would think that the need for intense self-discipline and dedication -- in a world which is increasingly ambivalent about these values -- would be a wonderful starting point to fiction. Not to mention the deeply authoritarian and hierarchical world in which dancers spend most of their waking hours -- the inevitable social and emotional insecurity of many young dancers who entered that world and become embedded there in childhood -- plus the disconnect between the sweaty, painful reality and the beautiful illusion demanded by the audience.

Sounds ideal for someone in the Kafka mold. I'm not a big reader of contemporary fiction, but who nowadays COULD do justice to such a complex, fascinating world?

[Klavier]

In the recent past, there have been two I can think of: Yona Zeldis McDonough's The Four Temperaments, in which a middle-aged violinist in the NYCB orchestra falls for a young corps member, who, after their affair, falls in love with his son. . . .

Not knowing the book, I'm amused by the possibilities suggested by the pronoun "his."

[Klavier]

Let's consider ballet dancers as a percentage of the population. Pretty few. Exciting job to the outside world, hard work on the inside.

Then let's consider sandhogs. Again, not many, but probably more than ballet dancers. Interesting, dangerous work, but I don't know if many have ended up characters in adult fiction!

Can't think of any sitcoms about ballet dancers either.