The Cranes Dance

( 9 )

Overview

 I threw my neck out in the middle of Swan Lake last night.

So begins the tale of Kate Crane, a soloist in a celebrated New York City ballet company who is struggling to keep her place in a very demanding world. At every turn she is haunted by her close relationship with her younger sister, Gwen, a fellow company dancer whose career quickly surpassed Kate’s, but who ...
See more details below
Paperback (Original)
$14.48
BN.com price
(Save 3%)$14.95 List Price
Pick Up In Store

Pick Up In Store

Reserve and pick up in 60 minutes at your local store

Other sellers (Paperback)
  • All (42) from $1.99   
  • New (18) from $4.95   
  • Used (24) from $1.99   
The Cranes Dance

Available on NOOK devices and apps  
  • Nook Devices
  • NOOK HD/HD+ Tablet
  • NOOK
  • NOOK Color
  • NOOK Tablet
  • Tablet/Phone
  • NOOK for Windows 8 Tablet
  • NOOK for iOS
  • NOOK for Android
  • NOOK Kids for iPad
  • PC/Mac
  • NOOK for Windows 8
  • NOOK for PC
  • NOOK for Mac
  • NOOK Study
  • NOOK for Web

Want a NOOK? Explore Now

NOOK Book (eBook)
$11.99
BN.com price

More About This Book

Overview

 I threw my neck out in the middle of Swan Lake last night.

So begins the tale of Kate Crane, a soloist in a celebrated New York City ballet company who is struggling to keep her place in a very demanding world. At every turn she is haunted by her close relationship with her younger sister, Gwen, a fellow company dancer whose career quickly surpassed Kate’s, but who has recently suffered a breakdown and returned home.
 
Alone for the first time in her life, Kate is anxious and full of guilt about the role she may have played in her sister’s collapse.  As we follow her on an insider tour of rehearsals, performances, and partners onstage and off, she confronts the tangle of love, jealousy, pride, and obsession that are beginning to fracture her own sanity. Funny, dark, intimate, and unflinchingly honest, The Cranes Dance is a book that pulls back the curtains to reveal the private lives of dancers and explores the complicated bond between sisters.
Read More Show Less

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Howrey’s engaging new novel (after Blind Sight) exposes the competitive world of professional ballet through Kate Crane, a charmingly sarcastic ballerina at a crossroads. Kate’s younger sister, Gwen, who dances in the same company and is a better dancer than Kate, has come back to her family after an emotional collapse for which Kate feels responsible. Gwen’s absence from the stage gives Kate opportunities, but the sisters have been struggling with competition and support for so long that Kate, trying to define herself without her sister, is uncomfortable with success. Already at a point where age and the limits of her talent are making her confront the future, Kate suffers an injury and spirals into guilt and depression in the novel’s dark second half. Though the plot moves slowly and secrets are disclosed too late, Kate is an ideal guide to an unfamiliar world, from her irreverent explanations of her ballets (Howrey was a professional dancer) to her relatable self-doubt and honesty. Her revelations about family, talent, and what makes us special create a thought-provoking and entertaining read. Agent: Sally Ryder Brady, Brady Literary Management. (May 15)
Read More Show Less

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780307949820
  • Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 5/15/2012
  • Series: Vintage Contemporaries Original Series
  • Edition description: Original
  • Pages: 384
  • Sales rank: 262,884
  • Product dimensions: 5.30 (w) x 7.82 (h) x 0.80 (d)

Meet the Author

Meg Howrey was a professional dancer and actress. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
Read More Show Less

Read an Excerpt

I threw my neck out in the middle of Swan Lake tonight. Act III, to be precise. Everything up to that point had been going pretty well.
 
I’ve danced Swan Lake a lot. Actually, it was the first ballet I ever did with the company. My parents and my sister Gwen flew in from Michigan for my debut. I remember trying to describe my stage position so they would know where I was in the flock.
 
“I’ll know which one you are,” Mom said. “I’ll be holding my breath the whole time. And probably squeezing your father’s hand off!”
 
“Actually, the collective noun for swans is a wedge of swans,” Dad said. “Although that’s used when they are flying in a V formation. Otherwise it might be a bevy of swans. Or a herd.”
 
“Merde,” said Gwen, because that is what dancers say to each other instead of “break a leg.” Some dancers say “toi toi toi,” which is kind of an opera thing. I’ve always thought that was a little pretentious, but whatever works for you. The girl who had my dressing room before me was Jewish and she put up one of those mezuzah thingies on the doorway. She took it with her when she retired, but I still touch the strip of sticky tape that remains before going onstage. That isn’t about superstition, or religion. It’s about ritual. Well, maybe it’s about superstition because I did it the first time as a joke and that night I had a spectacular performance and so now I always do it.
 
I wasn’t having a spectacular night tonight, but it was clean. No real mistakes, everything neat and tidy. The first role of my evening—­one of the four Big Swans in Act II—­had gone well, despite Fumio dragging the tempi. That’s fine for Anne-­Marie, who was dancing Odette and likes things slow, but tough on the rest of us, who had to stand still and cramp through solos that felt like the length of the Old Testament. For Act III I was dancing the Polish Princess. That’s a solo, and it’s fairly action-­packed with pirouettes, but for some reason I find it less daunting than Big Swans. Maybe it’s the costume. For Big Swans I’m all in white: crisp feathered tutu, white tights, white pointe shoes, feathered headpiece. The whole thing just screams, “And now . . . SERIOUS BALLET: please be perfect.” Polish Princess gear has a knee-­length skirt that hides a multitude of sins, and it’s all flounces and furbelows. Jaunty little headgear. I feel like as long as I keep up a general air of “I am so HUGELY PSYCHED to be POLISH!” and avoid actually falling on my ass, I’m in the clear.
 
It occurs to me that maybe you don’t know what Swan Lake is all about. I haven’t assigned you a face or body, invisible audience member, let alone a background in the arts. Maybe you’ve never seen Swan Lake. Maybe you’ve seen it and you still don’t really know what happened because you dropped your program under the seat in front of you and didn’t want to scramble around for it in an ungainly fashion. Swan Lake, like all the major classical ballets, really needs program notes because otherwise you have to follow the plot points in ballet mime, and god knows those are truly undecipherable.
 
You’re familiar with the music though, right? At the very least you’ve heard it in a TV commercial for like, Mop & Glo or something, and seen that line of linked dancers in white feathered tutus clip-­clopping in pointe shoes across a sparkling floor? Dun-­dun-­dun-­DUN-­duddle dundundun, Dun-­dun-­dun-­DUN—­duddle dundundun. Tchaikovsky. I’m not being condescending. I try not to think about the fact that most people don’t ever go to the ballet, but I get that they don’t. I do get that.
 
So yes a synopsis might be in order, and if you know it already you can just nap for a bit. Most productions of Swan Lake don’t vary all that much from one another. There are one or two really funky versions out there, but those aren’t done by classical ballet companies. You can’t deviate too far in classical ballet or you’re no longer, well . . . classical. And it’s not like Shakespeare, where you can reset the whole thing in World War II, or a Mexican brothel, or something. Well you could, but the plotline won’t stand up under a whole lot of tinkering and we’ve got a subscription audience to satisfy. They want the Swan Lake they know and love, which by and large is the one that was done for the 1895 revival of the ballet by the choreographer Petipa and his ballet master, Ivanov. Sometimes an artistic director might change a few things or restage certain sections. Like Marius—­our current artistic director—­added a Prelude to our version.
 
The curtain rises on a nearly empty stage, with a backdrop of a lake and some boulders Stage Left leading up to a cave. Enter a young girl. She is wearing white and her hair is mostly down, so we know right away she is Young and Innocent. The girl dances dreamily by herself and all seems peaceful enough until suddenly a shadowy sort of caped figure emerges from the cave. It is the evil magician Von Rothbart. We know he’s a magician because he’s got the cape, and that he’s evil because underneath the cape his costume is this demonic rubbery sort of thing that Roger refers to as “Mein Von Goblin Wear.” Von Rothbart makes some gestures and a fog starts rolling in and darkness descends. The girl appears to lose her way in the mist. She does the big “I’m lost!” gesture: one hand in front of the face, taking tentative steps forward, peering around, etc. Von Rothbart slithers down from his boulders and makes more magic gestures, luring the girl into his arms. He swirls his cape around her, turns, and walks upstage, the cape billowing out in such a way that the girl is able to slip into the hydraulic trap and be replaced with another girl, this one in full Swan regalia: the stiff white tutu with the feathered bodice and headpiece. This is Odette, the ballerina we’ll watch for the rest of the evening. The other one was a girl in the corps with a wig on to match the hair color of whoever is dancing Odette that night. It’s the old switcheroo. (Be amazed by this bit of stage magic, okay? It’s not like we can pull anything off with CGI.)
 
So Von Rothbart reveals this magically changed creature and she beats her arms and tries to run away, but Von Rothbart is able to control her, and using more of his dastardly powers he summons onto stage two rows of women in white swan tutus who form a V and beat their arms in unison as the evil magician stands triumphant with the stricken Odette pressed against his Von Goblin Wear. Lights fall, curtain, end of Prelude.
 
The program notes will tell you that the evil magician has placed all these poor women under a curse and that they are condemned to be swans by day and women by night. Von Rothbart’s personal motivations for such malevolent behavior are not explained. You’re at the ballet. Deal with it.
 
Act I opens in the village green of an unspecified, vaguely German realm. We’re a little hazy on the time period too. It’s Days of Yore, I guess, in the yore when everyone in pseudo Germany wandered around their village green in nearly identical outfits. Ours have a slightly Renaissance Fair vibe to them, which I think is a mistake. The sleeves are too puffy and give all the girls man shoulders. Anyway, A Village Green Scene is standard issue for classical ballet, and if you’ve seen one circlet of peasant-­dancing hoo-­ha, you’ve seen them all. There’s a garland dance and a Maypole and a lot of people standing around fake clapping or pointing out to each other that other people are dancing in the middle of the stage. This kind of random milling about drives me NUTS, but honestly there just aren’t a lot of options. We can’t pretend like we’re talking to each other, because that would be weird and anti-­ballet. We don’t have props or activities like you see in plays or the opera—­that would take up stage space. So everyone just wanders around greeting each other with head nods if you’re a girl and shoulder thumping if you’re a guy, and then one person will indicate Center Stage like “Hey, did you see? There are people dancing! Isn’t that neat!” And the other person will make a gesture like “Yes! Dancing. It is happening there!”
 
So here we are in the Village Green of Wherever filled with people who like to greet each other maniacally every ten seconds and then in walks Prince Siegfried, Prince of the realm of Wherever. Siegfried is greeted by his best buddy, “Ivor” (sometimes he has a different name and sometimes he’s like a court jester, but in our version he’s Ivor, Friend to the Prince). Ivor gets the Prince interested in some of these wonderful Maypole high jinks, the crowning moment of which is a big pas de trois Ivor dances with two local girls. The Act I pas de trois is a nice featured part, and getting to dance one of the two girls in it is a sign that things are going well for you in the company and you might not have to spend your whole career as third bird from the left.
 
Swan Lake floats in and out of our repertoire, so it was two years after my debut before we did it again, this time on tour, and I was cast as one of the pas de trois girls. And even though Gwen had only been in the company for about five seconds at that point, she was cast as the other girl. Our parents came to Chicago to see us, along with our brother, Keith.
 
“So, are you sisters in the ballet?” he asked. “Is that like part of it?”
 
“We’re maidens,” I said. “Nameless maidens.”
 
“Everybody says we look like twins!” Gwen said. “But you’ll be able to tell us apart. The one dancing better will be Kate.”
 
Okay, so after the pas de trois between Ivor and the nameless maidens, Prince Siegfried dances a solo where he expresses (much jumping) his desire to find True Love. Then we have the appearance of the Prince’s mother, the Queen. Lots of fanfare and aggressive pointing by all the villagers: “Look, it’s the Queen! Hey, did you see? The Queen!” She’s usually played by some old-­timer—­a ballet mistress or a teacher. Galina Sukonova is our Queen, and possesses a whole repertoire of animatronic facial expressions. It’s a frightening thing up close, but good for those who can only afford seats in the top tiers. The Queen reminds Siegfried with some incomprehensible ballet mime that tomorrow is his twenty-­first birthday and he’s got obligations, like choosing a bride and getting married. The Prince sulks a bit at this, and makes the gesture for True Love: one hand to the breast, the other held aloft with the first two fingers extended. (You’re gonna want to scootch down and get that program for the explanatory notes on this action, because otherwise you might think that the Queen is telling her son that he needs to get a manicure and that Siegfried is responding by trying to hail a cab, or test current wind conditions.)
 
Siegfried cheers up when the Queen presents him with a nifty-­looking crossbow as a birthday present. Siegfried really loves his crossbow. He runs around stage with it, showing it to everybody Stage Left, and Stage Right, and then Stage Left again, just in case anybody Stage Left had their eyes closed. Basically eating up some music. Siegfried indicates to Ivor that he wants to go hunting RIGHT NOW, and Ivor indicates that night is falling and now’s not a great time for him. Siegfried impulsively decides to go anyway, and Ivor reluctantly follows him. End of Act I.
Read More Show Less

Reading Group Guide

1. Why does Meg Howrey use the passage from Through the Looking-Glass as an epigraph for The Cranes Dance? In what ways is the quote thematically relevant to the novel?

2. Throughout the novel, Kate directly addresses her readers: “I haven’t assigned you a face or body, invisible audience member, let alone a background in the arts” [p. 4]. “You don’t know a goddamn thing, you’re just following the story like anyone else, right?” [p. 61]. “I like how quiet you are, which allows me to go on performing” [p. 91]. What is the effect of being addressed in this way? In what ways is Kate’s narrative a kind of performance? 

3. What kind of narrator is Kate? How does she regard herself and the story she’s telling?

4. Kate writes: “Sentences are trenches you can take cover in. They are not wildly comfortable. They are not bulletproof. But they can give you the illusion of safety” [p. 287]. Kate is clearly exposing much of her inner life in the novel. Is she also “taking cover” in her writing, or in the way she speaks with others?

5. What makes Kate and Gwen’s relationship so complex and challenging? How does Gwen’s absence—and lack of communication—affect Kate?

6. Meg Howrey was a highly accomplished dancer for many years and describes the experience of dancing, and the dancer’s life, with a remarkable vividness and authority. What are the daily stresses that high-profile dancers have to deal with? What aspects of being a dancer does Kate find particularly destructive? What aspects does she most enjoy?

7. In the tense, pivotal scene where Kate finds Gwen in the throes of her final breakdown, Gwen says, “You can’t help me. You don’t know how. You don’t know what I know. You can’t ever feel things the way I do. You are just pretending to be alive” [p. 342]. Is there any justice in Gwen’s accusations? Should Kate have acted more quickly, or differently, in response to her sister’s downward spiral?

8. Why does Kate feel compelled to keep dancing even though she’s suffering constant neck pain, has become a Vicodin addict, and has watched the stress of the dancer’s life gradually ruin her sister’s—and threaten her own—mental health? 

9. Kate frequently questions where the line between sanity and insanity lies. On p. 108, she writes: “You cut your food up in special ways, or you cut yourself, or paper dolls. You steal things or tell lies or speak to strangers in a Russian accent. You have sex with someone you love or with someone who gets you really drunk. You lie to your parents, your boyfriend, yourself, your therapist. You cheat on your homework or do other people’s homework for money. You get up, you take class, you rehearse, you perform, you go to bed. How do you decide which of these things are truly crazy and which are just being alive?” In what ways does the novel demonstrate how slippery the boundary is between “normal” and “crazy” behavior?

10. The Cranes Dance is a dramatic and often tense novel, but it is also refreshingly funny. What are some of the novel’s most comedic moments? How does humor affect the buildup of emotional tension?

11. What are the pleasures of reading a first-person, present-tense, highly subjective and distinctively voiced novel? How different would the novel have been if it had been told by an omniscient, third-person narrator?

12. Marius tells Kate: “Sometimes I think you are the only person in the room that understands what I’m saying. It’s why I keep you around, you know. As hard as it’s been to watch you diminish yourself” [p. 187]. How does Kate react to this statement? In what ways is she diminishing herself? What positive development does Marius’s statement foretell?

13. What drives Kate’s own spiraling mental instability? What stops her from following in Gwen’s footsteps?

14. In what ways are Kate’s friendships with the young dancer, Bryce, and the older company patron, Wendy, important? What qualities do they bring out in her? How do they affect the course of the novel?

15. Kate says that she doesn’t want a normal life, she wants an extraordinary life. What does the novel contribute to the long-standing debate about the relationship between insanity and creativity? Are extraordinarily talented and artistic people like Kate and Gwen inherently unstable, or fated to live tumultuous lives?

Read More Show Less

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 9 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(3)

4 Star

(4)

3 Star

(1)

2 Star

(1)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines
Add Recommendations
Your Name: Create a Pen Name or

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

  • - HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
  • - Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
  • - Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
  • - Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
  • - Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
  • - Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
  • - Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

  • - By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
  • - Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
  • - See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.
Search for Products You'd Like to Recommend

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Create a Pen Name

Your Pen Name is your unique identity on BN.com. It will appear on the reviews you write and other website activities. Your Pen Name cannot be edited, changed or deleted once submitted.

 
Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously
Sort by: Showing all of 9 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 25, 2012

    Loved it

    Not necessarily into ballet but well written and very interesting. I liked the honesty of the main character. Recommend.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted June 19, 2012

    Written by a professional dancer, The Cranes Dance is the keenly

    Written by a professional dancer, The Cranes Dance is the keenly observed story of Kate, a Soloist with an elite New York ballet company who is trying to survive the final weeks of a season that may make or break her career, or, for that matter, even end her life.

    Kate's voice is so charming and amusing, we believe her at first when she tries to convince us she's doing just fine despite all the stress she's under. But as she takes us on an authentically detailed, unsentimental but often wryly loving tour of her life as a dancer, we begin to suspect she's deceiving both us and herself, and that beneath her brave banter she's near to breaking.

    The life of a Soloist in an elite dance company is exacting and exhausting just in itself. But the Principal Dancers – the stars of the Company – are dropping out with injuries and Kate is concealing her own painful injury to cover their roles. Her sister Gwen – one of those stars who's taken leave – is in fact having a terrifying emotional breakdown and although Kate has in truth done everything she could to hold her sister together, her parents and her own sense of guilt are pressuring her to do even more. Meanwhile, rather than support her through these escalating crises, Kate's boyfriend has left her cold – and again Kate tries to blame herself.

    It's all too true a story both in the arts and in family life: because she's a trooper, because she's the sensible child, Kate's asked to give more and more to the Company, her parents, her brother and her sister, and the men in her life while getting far too little in return.

    As Kate's season nears its close, we pray that this won't be a Cinderella story that lacks a final triumph, and that her wit and tremendous courage as a young woman and an artist – with a little help from her friends – will see her through to the victory she deserves.

    Although set in the world of dance, Kate's experience of the literal agony and occasional, merciful ecstasy of the life of an artist is equally true for athletes, writers, actors, musicians or any other performer or artist who is driven to do what she does best. By turns delightfully good-natured, deeply moving, and convincingly informed, it's a book those artists – and their fans, friends, lovers, parents, and anyone who wants to understand the reality behind the performance – will treasure.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted June 6, 2012

    I loved how detailed it was when it came to the ballet and dance

    I loved how detailed it was when it came to the ballet and dance bits, but the main character was rather boring. She was unsure about what she wanted from her sister, and didn't know what to expect from herself. Although the self reflecting was well written and honest the time skips were jumbled and kind of confusing to sort through. I was surprised when it did not reach my expectations, but all in all it was a decent read.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 29, 2012

    Well done!

    If Suzanne Farrell was in The Catcher in the Rye you would have this book. If you enjoyed the movie, Black Swan you will probably enjoy this.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted June 30, 2012

    Kept me reading, unsure about Meg

    This book kept me intrigued and constantly wondering if Gwen was really the one who was insane. I've read reviews where readers felt very sorry for her, as if she were a victim. Perhaps it's the honestly associated with living inside the charactors mind, but I didn't find Kate particularly likable or victimized. She seemed to make choices that very clearly led to consequences. This, of course, made her an interesting charactor to follow-because no one wants an entirely likable charactor, we want someone we can relate to, even guiltily. We want affirmations that we are not alone in our most sinister of thoughts-Kate gives us that. We are not alone.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted June 28, 2012

    I loved this book. It sweeps you into the world of the ballet.

    I loved this book. It sweeps you into the world of the ballet. You learn the terrible physical and psychological toll it takes to be a serious dancer and the ephemeral joy dancing brings. The prose style is beautiful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted June 22, 2012

    Loved it.

    Loved it.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 22, 2012

    ygfhgyfyf

    0 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 16, 2013

    No text was provided for this review.

Sort by: Showing all of 9 Customer Reviews
If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)