Review of "City of Night Birds: A Novel" by Juhea Kim

 

When Natalia Leonova (Natasha) is being raised by a single mother in St. Petersburg, Russia, Natasha's Mama supports them with her job as a costume maker for the Mariinsky Ballet. Soloists come to their apartment for fittings, and Svetlana Timurevna (Sveta) is a regular visitor. One day in 1992, seven-year-old Natasha is mimicking a ballet dancer on television, and Sveta marvels that the child is a 'jumper' and should start taking ballet as soon as possible.




Kitri Jump from Don Quixote Ballet

Natasha is further inspired by a young neighbor boy called Seryozha, a talented lad who aspires to be a ballet dancer.



A few years later, Natasha auditions for Vaganova Ballet Academy, an elite school that auditions thousands of girls each year and takes thirty. Natasha is accepted to Vaganova, runs out to hug her mother, and later recalls, "What I felt then was the purest happiness I've ever known. And the purest love I've ever known or will know." Seryozha is accepted to Vaganova as well, and the two friends embark on a long journey in each other's company.



After years at Vaganova - experiencing the trials, tribulations, jealousies, rivalries, crushes, betrayals, etc. - of ballet school, Natasha is talented enough to enter the Mariinsky Ballet Company as corps de ballet.



Rising in the company is challenging, and principal dancers aren't eager to help younger dancers take their place. So when Natasha approaches prima Katia Reznikova, and says, 'Ivan Stanislavich [the Mariinsky director] said I should ask you to help me with the Second Shade variation in La Bayadère', Katia simply replies, 'Oh, no. I couldn't possibly.'



Regardless, Natasha eventually becomes a soloist who's much sought after in the ballet world.





During her school days and subsequent career, Natasha has romantic relationships with two male ballet dancers - one of whom is 'electric' onstage, and clearly marked for superstardom. Both men are important in her life and work.





Ballet is a cut-throat profession, with a small number of places at the top, and many talented dancers vying to get there. Thus ballet companies are fertile ground for envy, sabotage, treachery, enmity, back-biting, etc. and Natasha suffers her share of ugly behavior from others.



The book mentions a number of ballets, including La Corsaire, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, and more -with descriptions of roles, variations, movements, and so forth. Though I don't know too much about ballet, I found it interesting, and ballet aficionados would appreciate it even more.


Arabesque dance movement


Grand Jeté dance movement


Pirouette dance movement

At the height of her career, in her mid- twenties, Natasha has a serious accident that results in her retirement and subsequent descent into alcohol and drug abuse. Then, after two years, an old frenemy SURPRISINGLY asks Natasha to come back and dance Giselle.




Giselle Ballet

Returning to ballet requires retraining almost from scratch, and the book alternates back and forth between Natasha's past and her current preparations to return to the stage.



During Natasha's current training, she reconnects with former teachers, friends, and other people in her life, and she even learns more about the father who left when she was a baby.

Books about ballet are always filled with drama, and there's plenty of angst and tears in the story. Still, I felt like Natasha's ascent and romantic entanglements had an almost mythic arc, as if a fairy godmother was gently pushing her along. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book, and appreciated the incentive to read the stories of several famous ballets.


Don Quixote Ballet

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley, Juhea Kim, and Ecco for a copy of the book.

 Rating: 4 stars