Collusion

Description

While her peers "went out on dates, talked to one another on the phone at night, listened to Greatest Hits," the prize-winning author of this refreshingly honest memoir was "listening to Chopin, Czerny, Scriabin, and Tchaikovsky surging through the humid, resin-filled air of the ballet studio." At the age of 12, Evan Zimroth submitted to the punishing regime of a latter-day Svengali who pushed her into a life of self-denial and physical torture. This demanding and temperamental Russian, a legendary dance master, also took a psychological hold over her, and a disturbing erotic bond was forged between tutor and pupil. The bruising affair dominated Zimroth's teenage years, but she writes about it without rancor. It was only after "F" (as she calls the man throughout the book) died that she felt able to write the story; it is imbued with the wisdom of hindsight and told in wonderfully supple prose. Zimroth writes of the punishment meted out to her on a regular basis--"F" would lash her with a cane--and the rewards--slices of blood-stained cheese that he would feed into her mouth--that she would endure without ever losing her poise. Her psychological acuity is astounding, and anyone who reads this--balletomane or not--will be gripped by Zimroth's lucid exploration of obsession. ISBN:9781860492662