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Beyond the Dance: A Ballerina’s Life
Chan Hon Goh with Cary Fagan
Non-Fiction
Ages 12 and up
Tundra Books, 2002, 0-88776-596-3
  Both of Chan Hon’s parents are ballet dancers and for a time, when she is a little girl in Beijing, China, they have a happy life performing for the Central Ballet of China. However when the Cultural Revolution begins, the new restrictions that are imposed on the dancers make life very difficult for Chan Hon’s parents and her father feels stifled. He finally decides to move to Canada and after a year he is able to get permission for his wife and his little daughter to join him.
  After working hard and saving their money carefully, Chan Hon’s parents found the Goh Ballet Academy and Chan Hon becomes a student there. At first her interest is not very serious but over time she becomes more and more involved with ballet until it becomes the most important thing in her life. Chan Hon works on her ballet practically every day of the week and participates in local competitions but it is when she wins the prestigious Prix de Lausanne that her ballet career really begins to take shape. Soon after she gets the silver medal in the Adeline Genee Competition and then she turns her thoughts to what she should do next. After much soul searching Chan Hon decides to accept an offer from the National Ballet of Canada for a position in the corps. Of course she wants a soloist position but she is told that she should be able to get such a position if she works hard and does well.
  Needless to say this is just what Chan Hon does and the rest, as they say, is history. Today Chan Hon is a highly regarded dancer who is not only a prima ballerina in the National Ballet of Canada, and the Suzanne Farrell Ballet but she also performs as a guest dancer all over the world.
  This wonderful book, with its gorgeous photographs, will give readers an up close and personal view of what it is like to become a prima ballerina and how hard one has to work to achieve this coveted and much dreamed of position. Not only that but the author also gives her readers a picture of what her daily life is like as a dancer when she is rehearsing and when she is performing. Clearly this is not a job for the faint-hearted and you have to truly love to dance if you are going to take on this challenge for the long term. Written with candor, sincerity, and an obvious feeling of gratitude to the people who helped her on her journey, this book is a must for any young person who is contemplating a career in the world of dance.
 

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