Georgina Pazcoguin

This memoir could have been edited into a much better book. The author, a rebellious soloist in the New York City Ballet during the harassment-heavy reign of Peter Martins, is Asian-American, and doesn't get to dance in the classical lead roles (Dew Drop Fairy, Giselle) assigned to the blonde, taller, thinner white dancers with plenty of thigh gap (in fact, one painful chapter deals with the surgery Gina has to shrink hers, due to Martins' disapproval and pressure). She points out the colorism inherent in the company and in ballet as a whole, sharing the example of the A (white) and B (people of color) casts of the Nutcracker, without specifically acknowledging the dearth of Black principal or soloist dancers. She is a co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, a diversity group addressing the removal of Asian stereotypes from ballets. Her solid, supportive family background seems to have helped her thrive in the extremely stressful atmosphere, but her thoughts in the book are scattered and not cohesive. The best parts are her sharing the warm camaraderie that exists despite the intense competition for roles and for the favor of choreographers and repertory directors, and her behind-the-curtains views are enlightening and amusing. But the book suffers from a lack of cohesion and just flies everywhere in a scattershot manner, thereby reducing the impact of her critiques.… (mer)