Pas de Don't is Chloe Angyal's debut novel, her first book Turning Pointe examined the racial, gender and class inequities within ballet and how the current generation of dancers are trying to rectify them.
Heather Hays finally has everything she’s worked for—she’s a principal dancer at New York Ballet, has the best friend a girl could ask for, and is engaged to her forever crush, fellow principal Jack Andersen. They’ve been dubbed “American ballet royalty” . . . but when Heather’s best friend Carly catches Jack with a corps de ballet dancer, the castle comes crashing down. Determined to prove that she rose to the top on her own merits—and not, as the press has always implied, because of her relationship with Jack—she accepts a guest position from the only company that will hire her without him: the Australian National Ballet.
Marcus Campbell has had the most hellish year imaginable. He shredded his Achilles tendon during a performance, destroying any chance of his dad seeing him dance before lung cancer ended his life. He’s spent a year in physical therapy, getting his strength back and determined to honor his father’s memory by getting back on stage before he’s too old to dance anymore. Now Marcus’s boss wants him to play tour guide for the company’s new arrival.
When Marcus realizes who the new arrival is, and that she’s even more gorgeous in person than she is on the cover of Barre magazine, he also finds she’s opinionated and funny. And for Heather, Marcus is everything Jack wasn’t: kind, consistent, and interested in what she has to say. For once in her life, she wants to rebel a little. But Heather’s in Sydney to dance, and it’s not like she can act on her attraction: ANB has a strict no-dating policy, an anti-harassment measure that the reform-minded artistic director takes very seriously.
But as their Sydney sightseeing time turns to much more, Heather and Marcus find even the best-kept secrets have a way of coming out.
A novel about obsessive love featuring two ballet dancers—identical twin sisters Olivia and Clara Marionetta—with a terrifying climax set in the world of ballet in pre-war London.
Clara and Olivia tells the story of identical twin ballerinas rehearsing for Coppélia at the recently opened Sadler’s Wells Theatre.
Superficially, even their differences are complementary: Olivia aspires to be the perfect ballerina while Clara is rebellious and independent.
Clara takes up a relationship with the bohemian and passionate Nathan, a pianist at the theater. Meanwhile, Olivia is unaware that she has cast a spell on another frequent visitor to Sadler’s Wells: Samuel, a bashful apprentice ballet shoemaker who steals into the building as often as he can to watch her dance. But as the sisters rehearse, danger lurks.
The story of Coppélia and the dancing doll threatens to become a dark and sinister reality. Olivia becomes jealous of Nathan’s adoration of Clara, while Clara discovers that being adored can feel suffocating. Samuel dreams of being recognized by Olivia and wonders how far he would go to achieve his goal, while Nathan, a musical child prodigy, struggles to adapt to adulthood and begins to blur the lines between reality and his dark fantasy world . . .
Lucy Ashe trained at the Royal Ballet School before studying English Literature at Oxford University, you can read an interview with her here
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