The Everyday Dancer by Deborah Bull - review

If dance is a language, then the life of a dancer can seem like a mysterious code. A round of rituals big and small – class, rehearsals, the compulsive checking of noticeboards and schedules – it's also underpinned by physical and emotional intensities that outsiders can struggle to understand. With this elegant book, Deborah Bull offers a guide to the dancer's life, drawing on her career at the Royal Ballet to create an hour-by-hour timetable of costume fittings and calls, even answering the eternal mystery of what ballet dancers eat for lunch. While the detail is fascinating, underneath it all is a portrait of all-consuming dedication, a commitment all the more terrifying for coming with the inevitable prospect of built-in obsolescence. Growing up in Skegness, taking her first lessons above a fish-and-chip shop, Bull was captivated by the Princess Tina Ballet Annual , a Christmas present; this book may not come wrapped in so many layers of tulle and fantasy, but it deserves to take Princess Tina 's place as essential reading for those dreaming of a life en pointe .