Reeni’s Turn, a review
Reeni’s Turn Carol Coven Grannick Fitzroy Books, Regal House 2020 2020 needs a brave, honest book. I looked forward to Carol’s debut, but lost track of it’s pub date in the midst of the pandemic—imagine my surprise to see it in REAL LIFE! A likely pitch would be a coming-of-age story, a book about body image, about the daily practice to excel—in this case the world of dance. I’ve known a few young ballerinas and immediately recognized the tremendous pressure these girls are under to “look the part.” They’d work out all morning and come home to half a grapefruit. I remember the audition in the movie Billy Elliot—where the fancy school physician takes the boys and checks their spines. There is an invisible line running from the shoulders to the core, a certain body type that is acceptable in order to make the cut, for the next step up. Yet, there is also that line after Billy Elliot has flubbed his audition where they ask him what it feels like to dance and he answers existentially: it i...