Pas De Don’t

If someone had told me a year ago that they could find me in the basement of my house practicing my grand plié and demi plié postures, I would have pulled a muscle from laughing. Now though I’m only pulling muscles when I don’t stretch enough before ballet practice.

I won’t claim that Pas de Don’t by Chloe Angyal is solely responsible for convincing an out-of-shape former weightlifter in their 30s to point their toes and pretend they’re holding a giant beach ball out in front of them…but I also won’t claim that it didn’t play a large role in that decision.

You see when I received the ARC for this debut romance novel of Center Stage meets Under the Tuscan Australian Sun, I wasn’t totally sure that the title was a ballet pun. (Though the gorgeous cover helped clear that up.) I mean, I’ve watched — and enjoyed — a few ballets in my life, but the majority of my ballet references are about the darker side of that world: the restrictive eating, the injuries, the racial inequity, and the controlling companies.

Given that, normally I would have shied away from a romance set on such a stage. In Chloe Angyal’s hands though? I couldn’t wait to read it. Angyal is also the author of the nonfiction book Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself. In Turning Pointe, she explores classical ballet’s history of racial, sexual, and class bias, as well as the tremendous work being done from within to change it.

So, on the surface Pas de Don’t is a fun ballet romance about Heather (a principal dancer from New York who is escaping a toxic engagement to a fellow ballet lead) and Marcus (a ballet dancer in Sydney recovering from a terrible injury). The meet-cute is memorable, the chemistry is instantaneous, and the conflict is believable: the Australian National Ballet has a strict rule against dancers in the company dating each other. To defy the rule is to lose your career at the company.

Underneath the fizzy romance, Angyal educates readers about the kinds of reforms that are desperately needed in the ballet world, and the people who are pushing for those changes. While the narrative doesn’t spend a lot of time diving too deeply into any one of the issue areas, it also doesn’t shy away from the darkest and most painful issues dancers face. (Readers, check the author’s note and content warnings Angyal helpfully supplies in the book.) Clearly informed by her personal knowledge and expertise, I came aware with a deeper understanding of the dance industry and a growing love of the potential of ballet.

Like so often happens when you invite something new into your life, ballet started appearing around me. While reading this gorgeous romance, I had the opportunity to watch an out-of-season performance by the outrageously talented Hiplet Ballerinas (which you should absolutely look up on YouTube if you aren’t familiar) and to start attending a “total beginner” ballet class for adults.

While I hungered for more Black dancers, Indigenous dancers, dancers of color, and queer characters — Pas de Don’t gets the romance job done and then some. I found myself rooting for Heather and falling a little in love with Marcus as he heals Heather’s bruised heart, even as his own injury slowly repairs itself. Their story felt believable and, in some small way, their joy made me eager to seek my own — to attend a dance show, to believe I could start learning something new. And isn’t that what marks a truly great romance? Not only does it make us feel something, but it makes us feel something beautiful about ourselves.

Mark me among the first row standing and cheering as the curtains closed on Heather and Marcus’s happily ever after.

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An e-arc of this book was provided to BookishlyJewish after we asked the author for one.

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