If the movie Black Swan didn’t entirely put you offletting your teenage daughter take ballet classes then Various Positions by Martha Schabas (Text, $37) is likely to finishoff the job. This debut novel from a Toronto-based writer is basically Lolita in pointe shoes.
The story is centred onGeorgia Slade, a socially awkward teenager who is obsessed with ballet. Dancingis her escape from her parent’s messy marriage, the politics of school and thedisturbing prospect of boys, a way to exert some control over her life.
When Georgia is accepted atthe elite Royal Toronto Ballet Academy she thinks all her problems are solvedbut the truth is she’s just opened the door to a whole new set of them.
From the outset she issingled out by the male artistic principle Roderick Allen. Nicknamed “theRodomizer” he’s an old school ballet master with a reputation for humiliatinghis pupils that he quickly lives up to. He’s mean enough to routinely reducepupils to tears and drive one girl towards an eating disorder simply becauseshe doesn’t have the graceful legs of a dancer.
Georgia is riveted byRoderick; by his maleness and his power over her. She longs for his approval.She’s on the cusp of that age when girls start thinking about doing things withboys and, when he singles her out for her talent, his attention confuses her.“Men are always men,” her flaky mother tells her when she finds the girlGoogling her teacher’s picture, creating more of an issue. And since herparent’s marriage is the result of a teacher/pupil affair it’s not such astretch for Georgia to think it might some day happen to her.
Alternately repelled andfascinated by sex, Georgia begins to see everywhere. This growing curiositycoupled with the pressure of her dance training overcooks her brain. “I closedmy eyes and looked for a cool, quiet place inside my head to curl up,” shetells us, “But my mind felt humid and overcrowded.”
Before long she’s convincedher teacher’s interest in her is fuelled by lust but he’s too scared of riskinghis job “to put the moves” on her. Borrowing her Mom’s digital camera, shecomes up with a way of showing him she’s interested.
Schabas has done a tremendousjob of climbing into the untidy brain of a teenager - Georgia’s actions andthoughts are disturbing and believable. While this is one of the novel’sgreatest strengths it may also be a downside if you’re not especially keen onbeing trapped inside a teenager’s head for 300-odd pages!
Nevertheless this a strongdebut, more finely nuanced than BlackSwan and certainly more real, and an uncomfortable read at times,especially I’d imagine if you happen to be the mother of a teenage girl.
Unflinching and unsettling, Various Positions is a tightly writtencoming-of-age story you won’t need to love ballet to appreciate.
Nicky Pellegrino, (right NZH photo), a succcesful Auckland-based author of popular fiction is also the Books Editor of the Herald on Sunday where the above review was first published on 5 Febrauary, 2012
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