The stories that change our lives are the ones that allow us to see ourselves reflected in new ways. For dancers, this often means looking for stories that explore the complex relationship between passion and hard work. There is catharsis in seeing the drama of dance competitions, auditions, and rivalry played out on the page, but there’s more to take from these books. Author, dancer, and English teacher Lucy Ashe sees dance books, specifically those about ballet, as an outlet for exploration and reflection as well as an opportunity to understand different times and the many choices a dancer might face during their career.
Before she was an author and a teacher, Lucy was on her way to becoming a professional ballerina. Training at the Royal Ballet School in London from the age of 7, Lucy attended the Royal Ballet boarding school from age 11 until she was 16. “Ballet was a huge part of my life,” she said. “I definitely was on track to becoming a ballet dancer. You don’t really go to a ballet school unless that is your plan.” But the plan changed. “When I was coming to the end of my time there, it became clear that I wasn’t going to fulfill the dreams of getting into the Royal Ballet Company and becoming a classical dancer in the ways that I wanted to,” Lucy explained. “I have a curved spine and my hips just didn’t turn out enough, so I made a decision to go to university.” Lucy attended Oxford University where she studied English literature and taught ballet.
It’s not that easy to move on from dance, though. Lucy shared that she “couldn’t really let it go.” Looking for ways to process her time as a ballet dancer and to keep ballet in her life became a new journey. It wasn’t until age 30 that she decided to write her first novel, a historical ballet novel set in 1930s London about twin dancers who are as close as they are rivals. This novel, The Dance of the Dolls came out in 2023. Her second novel The Sleeping Beauties is another historical fiction, a WWII twist on Sleeping Beauty that centers around a ballet dancer who just might shatter a mother and daughter’s lives by dragging them into her world. This transition from ballet dancer to ballet writer relied on Lucy’s intense understanding of ballet and her love of its history.
Lucy felt like her dream had not gone the way she planned it, and for many dancers, this feeling is common. Like 11-year-old Lucy, many young dancers have big plans that change direction as they get older. This is the value of novels like The Dance of the Dolls and The Sleeping Beauties. These shifts and changes can feel isolating, even when they’re small. “I think [ballet books] can help a dancer realize this is a shared experience, that they are not the only person going through this…” Lucy said, noting that isolation leads people to question their emotions or punish themselves for them. While you may never have to battle for your twin for success (or worry that the plot of a ballet will turn into your real life!), you may see your own rebellions and discomforts in characters like Olivia and Clara (The Dance of the Dolls). Ballet novels leave space for filling in the blanks and asking questions to help understand your own experiences.
This empathy, for ourselves and for others, is something that drives ballet books and young adult fiction in general. Lucy grew up reading ballet books, including Lorna Hill’s Dream of Sadler’s Wells series. She describes them as “inspiring,” noting how they encourage readers to notice other’s perspectives. “Maybe reading ballet novels as a young person can help you to understand yourself, but they can also help you to understand other people’s perspectives as well,” she explained. “Reading opens our curiosity to other people’s emotions what they’re coping with, what they’re dealing with, as well as helping us to feel seen at the same time.”
Historical novels like Lucy’s add a layer to this benefit of ballet books. Not only can we empathize with the dancers on the page, we can explore the changes in dance over time. In The Dance of the Dolls, Olivia and Clara struggle with how they are perceived as professionals and as women. The Sleeping Beauties pushes Lucy’s reader to question who to trust in the professional world, especially in times of upheaval when job’s are more competitive. Lucy commented that she looks for these moments when she’s researching her books. “I think ballet can heighten some of those societal issues and show them in a new light.”
Another benefit, Lucy finds, of historical worlds is that she can focus on what matters to her most: ballet, complex relationships, and coming of age. “I think for me a whole lot of it was because I wanted to be able to explore the different productions and these different people in dance that haven’t perhaps been explored in a long time,” she said, explaining that everything historical relies on her research while the same kind of story about living people might cause more tension between her and her subjects. Lucy wants to fascinate her reader with history, highlighting the struggles that come with major life events like puberty or coming into adulthood against a backdrop of dance productions, parties, and conflict that really happened.
The explorations of the dance world, no matter the time period, often lead to darker tales, and while Lucy admits she loves “books with a Gothic element, kind of a Gothic atmosphere,” she also wants readers to know that darkness isn’t inherit to dance stories. The drama, suspense, and competition that dance novels open their reader up to allow them to explore the extremes of their emotions, and the challenges from inside and outside the dance world that impact their lives. “Stories rely on having a conflict that is either resolved or not resolves, so I think there is a natural desire for readers and for writers to add in these darker elements.”
Ultimately, dance novels show us that nothing goes completely according to plan. The Sleeping Beauties hit shelves in September 2024, and over the course of writing two ballet novels, Lucy has explored so much of her own life, including her time at the Royal Ballet School. “It’s been really interesting to look back on that time and thing about how my journey through dance has been perhaps not at all what I had planned at 11 years old, but the dance world still has a place for me,” she said. “I’m still in the dance world even though it has taken a different direction, and I suppose my takeaway from this whole experience of writing these two ballet novels is to hold onto that love of dance and see where it takes you, and it might take you to a very unexpected place.”
