Collusion - Memoir of a Young Girl and Her Ballet Master (Hardcover)

In this stunning memoir, an award-winning poet and novelist reveals how ballet, the passion of her teen years, led her into a complex love-hate affair with the older man who held the key to her artistry -- and her burgeoning womanhood.

Starting at age 12, Evan Zimroth put herself in the hands of her ballet master, who introduced himself by asking but a single question: "Do you want to be a great dancer?" Answering yes meant that she was ready to give up a normal life -- boys, family, pop music, hamburgers, homework -- for a life dedicated to technical perfection and lived under the watchful eye of a demanding and temperamental man, who became parent, teacher, and idol all at once. Told from the refreshing perspective of the "real" world (unlike the memoirs of famous ballerinas), Collusion describes the secret life of ballet. Free of conventional moral judgments, it tells of possession and surrender, of the bond between a young girl and an older man.