{"product_id":"fierce-and-delicate-essays-on-dance-and-illness-9781952271014","title":"Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMemoir about ballet and illness from a creative writing teacher whose career as a ballerina was stopped by rheumatoid arthritis.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRenÉe Nicholson’s professional training in ballet had both moments of magnificence and moments of torment, from fittings of elaborate platter tutus to strange language barriers and unrealistic expectations of the body. In \u003ci\u003eFierce and Delicate\u003c\/i\u003e, she looks back on the often confused and driven self she had been shaped into—always away from home, with friends who were also rivals, influenced by teachers in ways sometimes productive and at other times bordering on sadistic—and finds beauty in the small roles she performed. When, inevitably, Nicholson moved on from dancing, severed from her first love by illness, she discovered that she retained the lyricism and narrative of ballet itself as she negotiated life with rheumatoid arthritis.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn intentionally fractured memoir-in-essays, \u003ci\u003eFierce and Delicate\u003c\/i\u003e navigates the traditional geographies of South Florida, northern Michigan, New York City, Milwaukee, West Virginia, and also geographies of the body—long, supple limbs; knee replacements; remembered bodies and actual. It is a book about the world of professional dance and also about living with chronic disease, about being shattered yet realizing the power to assemble oneself again, in a new way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Many dancers wrestle with one of the central questions of RenÉe Nicholson’s fabulous book: How does one live as an ex-dancer? The answers Nicholson explores will strongly resonate with those who long to lift the veil that shrouds creative pursuits in unnecessary mystique. I love Nicholson’s powerful prose: how the essays circle in and out of dance, the way movement comes alive on the page, and the articulate grace with which Nicholson writes about sudden disability. In \u003ci\u003eFierce and Delicate\u003c\/i\u003e, Nicholson teaches us how to envelop our impossible dreams with gratitude for the life we have now.”\u003cbr\u003e RenÉe E. D’Aoust, author of \u003ci\u003eBody of a Dancer\u003c\/i\u003e “Lyrical and fascinating.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBuzzfeed News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart I\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A Girl Who Wanted to Fly\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When I Was a Mouse\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Five Positions\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Never Famous\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Raked Stages: A Twelve-Step Program\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Coda: Partnering\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Out of the Blue\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart II\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A Woman Tethered to the Earth\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Hair: A Short History\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In Sickness\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A Royal in Appalachia\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Certified: Dancer Becomes a Teacher\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Claque\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Fierce and Delicate\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments","brand":"West Virginia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51043351789911,"sku":"9781952271014","price":17.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781952271014.jpg?v=1750957948","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/fierce-and-delicate-essays-on-dance-and-illness-9781952271014","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}