Publisher's Synopsis
"An incisive exploration of ballet's role in the modern world, told through the experience of the author and her classmates at the most elite ballet school in the country: the School of American Ballet. Ballet is an art full of hyper-feminine trappings, but beneath the ornate costumes and exaggerated stage makeup, traits like thinness, stoicism, and submission are valued above all else. Journalist Alice Robb spent years immersed in that universe as a child, but as an adult, she couldn't shake the feeling that the same laws that governed the dance world still applied in the regular one. Certain bodies hold more value than others, and men oftentimes hold the most power of all. Pain is best left concealed, along with sexuality, in all of its messiness. Obedience and conformity are rewarded, while standing out comes at a cost. Profound, nuanced, and obsessively researched, Don't Think, Dear, is Robb's excavation of her adolescent years as a
