FIRST LOVE - Hardcover

Adrienne Sharp

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0434014516 ISBN 13: 9780434014514

Publisher: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 2005

Synopsis

Adam and Sandra are dancers, friends since they were fifteen, now lovers. She is in the corps of the New York City Ballet and has just caught the eye of legendary director George Balanchine. He is an explosively gifted new star who has defected to a rival company. They are in love, both of them passionate and ambitious, but ill-prepared to handle the demands, seductions, and expectations that are visited on them as they come within reach of their dreams. Since the beginning of his career, Balanchine, now an old man, has meant to create his own extravagantly-staged version of Sleeping Beauty, a dream he has never realised. In Sandra, for years an unnoticed member of the corps, he identifies his last muse and plans to write a Sleeping Beauty for her to star in, his final and greatest ballet. But Balanchine's favour comes at a price, and forces Sandra to decide between two loves. Should she continue her troubled involvement with the first man she has loved and follow his vision of their future? Or should she accept all that the Balanchine offers - the fulfilment of a dream nurtured from childhood, during those endless hours at the barre?

About this title

About the Author

Adrienne Sharp is the author of the short-story collection White Swan, Black Swan, which was a national bestseller. She studied ballet from the age of seven and trained with the prestigious Harkness Ballet in New York City. She received an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University and was awarded a fellowship in fiction at the University of Virginia.

From Publishers Weekly

Former ballerina Sharp presents a sentimental portrait of two ballet dancers, Sandra Ellis and Adam LaSalle, in her debut novel (after her collection White Swan, Black Swan). Best friends since the age of 15, Sandra and Adam become lovers in their 20s, by which point Adam has left Balanchine's New York City Ballet for starring roles with Baryshnikov's American Ballet Theater, while Sandra remains a loyal member of the corps. Sharp frames the novel, set in the '80s, with the fairy tale of "Sleeping Beauty," a story that Balanchine had in reality always wanted to choreograph but never fully did. Here, though, Sandra serves as the inspiration for Balanchine's staging of the tale: she catches his eye because of the passion Adam has awoken, and Balanchine plucks her from the corps to transform her into a principal dancer in the epic. But Sandra struggles to choose between her relationship with Adam and the total commitment and sacrifice she believes Balanchine requires. The point of view shifts between each corner of this triangle, often dragging with Adam and Sandra's inner monologues but sparkling with Balanchine's richly reimagined story. Sharp offers a detailed insider view of the ballet world, but her love story, though intelligently written, can mire in the maudlin. (July)
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Edition details

• Publisher: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0434014516
• ISBN 13: 9780434014514
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320