The Class of Perfection - Paperback

by Cynthia Ekren (Author)

Brigitte Gustoevna Legher is a dancer in a country at war with itself in pre-Revolutionary Russia. She has a perfect turnout, perfect physical proportions, and a mysterious sponsor paying to mold her into a prima ballerina absoluta for the Imperial Ballet. Placed in an experimental Infant Class at the Ballet School in St. Petersburg, they bend her body and mind to attain perfection.

After graduating from school, Brigitte resolves to dance for the Tsar and Russia. But her secrets could cost her not only her career but threaten her life and that of her family, including her brothers, Nikolai and Sergei, who are next in line to succeed the great ballet master, Marius Petipa. The struggles backstage against the Imperial Theater's stifling rules and the brewing unrest within Russia, with failed wars, famine, and pogroms against the Jews, trap Brigitte between her desire to rise to the top in the ballet and the revolutionary-minded man with whom she's begun a forbidden affair. When tensions boil over and the revolution begins, Brigitte must make hard choices to save herself and those she loves.

Inspired by real events, The Class of Perfection artfully weaves the theater and fairy tales with a gilded world entrenched in oppressive traditions, threatened by the inevitable need for change and self-expression.