To Dance, a beautiful memoir by Siena Cherson Siegel with artwork by Mark Siegel, is now available in a Special Edition. This graphic novel gracefully leads the reader through the amount of work, family support, auditions, courage and physical pain it took for a little girl in Puerto Rico to make it to the School of America Ballet and on to dancing children’s parts with the New York City Ballet.
The twenty-two narrative sections of the book are authentically spoken in a young girl’s voice that grows naturally into her teen years. Her happiness, after a rigorous audition, when she is selected to dance one of the children’s roles in Harlequinade on the same stage as Baryshnikov can be heard. Siena’s loss when her hero, choreographer George Balanchine dies, can be felt.
Mark Siegel’s imaginative drawings for this graphic novel are as skillful and as elegant as ballet can be itself. The pictures, drawn with smooth fluid lines and rendered in watercolor and ink, capture both Siena’s physical moments of joy as well as her quiet moments for rest and contemplation. Particularly striking is the artwork for Dying Swan that depicts the impact that one professional dancer’s skillful performance had on her decision to become a ballerina. Audition,beautifully chronicles her audition to get into The School of American Ballet.
There is also a final section, interestingly told in both picture and word, that explains how a serious injury to her ankle caused Siena to end her professional career as a ballerina at eighteen years of age.
To Dance written by Siena Cherson Siegel with artwork by Mark Siegel, now including materials from Siena’s scrapbook, will touch the heart of would be ballerinas 8-12 years of age (Atheneum, 2019).
Questions for To Dance
When Siena was nine years old, she was so moved by the skillful performance of a talented ballerina that she too decided she would dedicate her life to the world of ballet. Have you ever been introduced to something so beautiful or so interesting or so important by a parent, teacher, friend or a story that it has caused you to know what you might want to pursue as a career? If so, write a thank you note to that parent, teacher, friend or author of that story for giving you direction.
Siena trained hard for many years to accomplish her goal. Her training is visually shown in this book’s well-drawn pictures. Can you draw a picture of yourself in some similar training? Think about it. Do you practice a sport and play on a team? Do you play a musical instrument and practice by yourself or with your school’s orchestra? Give your picture a caption or title that reveals your dedication to this training.
Siena’s early hero was George Balanchine, a choreographer of great note. Do you have a hero? It can be anyone you think highly of for what they have accomplished. Search for words of wisdom from this hero. Look online, too. Start a notebook of quotations by your hero for future use.
