Guest post written by The Dance of the Dolls author Lucy Ashe
Lucy Ashe trained at the Royal Ballet School before changing career plans and going to university. She studied English literature at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, before receiving her teaching qualification. Ashe’s poetry and short stories have been published in a number of literary journals, and she was shortlisted for the 2020 Impress Prize for New Writers.
Releasing on September 5th, The Dance of the Dolls is about obsessive love featuring two ballet dancers—identical twin sisters Olivia and Clara Marionetta—with a terrifying climax set in the world of ballet in pre-war London.
Novels set in the world of dance and theatre take readers beneath the glittering lights of the stage, right to the beating heart of what it means to be an artist. I love reading about the rehearsals, the training, the competition, as well as the grit, resilience and pain that comes with dedication to life as a performer.
My debut novel The Dance of the Dolls was inspired by own experiences at The Royal Ballet School, and the novel is both a love letter to ballet as well as an acknowledgement of the dangers that can emerge out of such obsessive commitment to dance. The Dance of the Dolls is set in 1930s London at the recently re-opened Sadler’s Wells theatre, and is immersed in closely researched ballet history. It is also a fictional story of two identical twin ballerinas, a piano player, and a pointe shoe maker, their obsessions and desires threatening to unravel their lives.
Here are some recently or soon to be published novels about dance and theatre that have captured my interest:
The Spectacular by Fiona Davis
It was when I first visited New York City last year that I read The Chelsea Girls, another theatre-themed historical fiction novel by Fiona Davis that helped me to fall in love with my soon-to-be new home. The Spectacular is set in New York City in the 1950s, and is about a Radio City Rockette and a hunt for a dangerous criminal – the ideal mix of dance, drama, and crime.
Dances: A Novel by Nicole Cuffy
Describing Dances as the book she wishes she’d had available to her, Cuffy’s novel tells the story of the first Black principal dancer at a fictionalized version of New York City Ballet. A tale of searching for dreams, how to navigate success in a world that doesn’t make you feel as though you belong, and of the elusive and contradictory demands of the ‘ballet body’, this is an exciting addition to ballet fiction.
Maddalena and the Dark by Julia Fine
Set in Venice in the 18th century at a prestigious music school, this book excites me because of the many similarities in intensity between the training of dancers and musicians. Two girls, their friendship, their competition, their obsession to be the best – a thrilling recipe of themes.
Edith Holler by Edward Carey
Set in a ramshackle English playhouse in 1901, the concept for this novel is intriguingly unique. I love the idea of a woman trapped in a theatre, desperate to find freedom, control, and a creativity of her own. The book is illustrated by the author, adding atmosphere to what promises to be a strange and compelling tale
They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey
Perhaps it is my recent move to New York City, but I am finding myself drawn to novels set in the American dance world. They’re Going to Love You is a beautifully written novel set in New York City during the AIDs crisis, as well as present-day Los Angeles. It is about the life of Carlisle Martin, a girl navigating her desire to follow in the footsteps of her dancer parents. This is a novel about ambition, love, and the pervasive and inescapable secrets of the past.
