Beach Reads: 4 Recently Released Novels Set in the Dance World

There’s no shortage of dance-based nonfiction on seemingly endless topics, but fiction shelves have seen a recent influx of stories set in the studio and backstage. Whether you’re craving an escapist romance or a historical thriller, a dreamy fantasy or a piece of contemporary literary fiction, these novels keep one toe in the dance world as they paint vivid imagined realities.

Nocturne by Alyssa Wees

The outline of a ballerina balancing in fourth position stands out against a black background dotted with stars. She reaches to the outline of a white dove. In her bodice is a depiction of a couple before a grand white house and a bed of roses. In looping white text: — Cover image courtesy Penguin Random House.

Set in 1930s Chicago, this darkly romantic fantasy follows Grace Dragotta, an orphan who rises to become the prima ballerina of the fictional Near North Ballet. Her world takes a turn for the uncanny when the troupe’s new, mysterious patron takes an interest in her career, and the fairy tales and folklore of the ballets she dances are revealed to hold more than a sliver of truth in reality. Pitched as Phantom of the Opera meets Beauty and the Beast, Alyssa Wees’ lyrical second novel explores grief, friendship, and the power of art to soothe, heal, and build a path forward in the wake of life’s inevitable tragedies.

Dances by Nicole Cuffy

A modernist illustration of a Black ballet dancer from the shoulders up. She is shown from the side. Her face is turned from the viewer, arms in a high fifth. The text reads — Cover image courtesy One World.

At a fictionalized New York City Ballet, 22-year-old Cece Cordell is catapulted to a new level of visibility when she becomes the first Black ballerina promoted to principal in the company’s history. From the outside, she seems to be at the pinnacle of everything she’s ever wanted, but her interior life reveals a more complex landscape: nagging perfectionism, a constant questioning of whether she truly belongs, the daily physical negotiations of life in ballet, the shifting nuances of her relationships—in particular, her memories of her older brother, who had encouraged her interest in dance as a child but vanished from her life shortly after she landed her apprenticeship. At turns lyrical and raw, grounded and ephemeral, Nicole Cuffy’s debut novel offers a finely etched character study of a dancer learning to embody her whole self.

SOTHYRO