A ballerina at the height of her powers becomes consumed with finding
her missing brother in this "striking debut" (Oprah Daily).
At twenty-two years old, Cece Cordell reaches the pinnacle of her career
as a ballet dancer when she's promoted to principal at the New York City
Ballet. She's instantly catapulted into celebrity, heralded for her
"inspirational" role as the first Black ballerina in the famed company's
history. Even as she celebrates the achievement of a lifelong dream,
Cece remains haunted by the feeling that she doesn't belong. As she
waits for some feeling of rightness that doesn't arrive, she begins to
unravel the loose threads of her past--an absent father, a pragmatic
mother who dismisses Cece's ambitions, and a missing older brother who
stoked her childhood love of ballet but disappeared to deal with his own
demons.
Soon after her promotion, Cece is faced with a choice that has the
potential to derail her career and shatter the life she's cultivated for
herself, sending her on a pilgrimage to both find her brother and
reclaim the parts of herself lost in the grinding machinery of the
traditional ballet world.
Written with spellbinding beauty and ballet's precise structure,
Dances centers around women, art, and power, and how we come to define
freedom for ourselves.
