If this book was fiction, I would have dismissed it as too unbelievable. Knowing that it’s Joy Womack’s own life story makes Behind the Red Velvet Curtain even more fascinating. Joy left her whole life behind to move to Moscow to become a ballerina at the Bolshoi. She was fifteen and didn’t speak the language. What she had was a determination that drove her all her life. Becoming a ballerina is probably one of the most common dreams of little girls everywhere, but Joy actually did it. The part I always like the most about books about ballet is the peek behind the curtain. You see the Sugarplum Fairy on stage and it seems like she’s made of feathers, floating on air. Knowing how her feet are probably bleeding makes the seemingly effortless feat even more remarkable. I’ve read other books about the ballet, but this is my first peek behind the Bolshoi and it is amazing. The hard work, the politics, the daily life of these dancers… Joy’s account of her first shower there will haunt me forever. She also discusses the changes that Russia has seen in the decade she lived there. But the best part is the dancing. The ballets, the music and her own experience as a ballerina. The writing, by Elizabeth Shockman, is excellent and easy to read. Sometimes Joy sounds a little arrogant in her goals but, considering she made them come true, I guess it’s not bragging if it’s true. I saw some of the performances described here online and it is mind-blowing that she could dance like that on a broken ankle! Very interesting.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Rowman & Littlefield.

Joy Womack is an American ballerina who has a history of firsts. She was the first American to graduate from the famed Bolshoi Academy in Moscow with a red diploma, and was the first American to earn a contract with the Bolshoi Ballet. Her book, "Behind the red velvet Curtain" provides readers with a unique insight into what it takes to be a ballerina in a country where ballet is intertwined with the fabric of its national culture. If you're a fan of dance memoirs, this book is for you.

I've been following Joy's career since she first began posting on social media more than ten years ago. Being able to fill in the gaps with what I already knew about her story really made it sink in just how much Joy had to grow and learn on the fly during her late teenaged years in Russia. I have so much respect for her and her dedication to her art.

Although the book focuses primarily on her years with the Bolshoi and Kremlin ballets, there is also a bit shared about her time in Boston and as a freelancer. I wish she'd spoken a little more about her time in Korea too, but there is already a wealth of so much other material in the book that I know that cuts had to be made somewhere.

Elizabeth Shockman has done a masterful job at telling Joy's story. Her writing style is easy to follow and engages the reader from the first page of the book.

I give this book 4.5/5 stars, but round up to 5.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Rowman and Littlefield for allowing me to enjoy an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Thanks, @netgalley, for the ARC.

This book tells the story of the first American Ballerina to work/dance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
It tells of her childhood and how she left her home in Texas aged 14 to go and pursue her lifelong ambition to be a Russian trained Prima Ballerina at the world renowned Bolshoi Theatre, but it was filled with cutthroat competition and not all she thought it would be.
From a marriage of convenience to be able to continue to dance in Russia, dancing with broken bones, to an eating disorder, to becoming a Russian citizen, and then living in Paris after the Russian invasion on Ukraine.
Eventually, she became Prima Ballerina at the Kremlin Palace Theatre and danced (diplomatically)for dictators & world leaders alike. She travelled to the length and breadth of Russia to dance, which was no mean feat after the luxury of the Bolshoi's sprung stage!

There are some great names in the ballet world mentioned who helped her to become the Ballerina that she is and who shaped her.

It is definitely worth a read, I really enjoyed it. I love the (murky) intrigue of ballet and Russia.

This autobiography of Joy Womak explores her life as a part of large Christian family demanding excellence to her pursuit of becoming a Russian Prima Ballerina.

It was an interesting read, however, there were lots of parts where I just wanted more. When she described the extortion scandal at the Bolshoi, it sounded like she had no idea her name would be revealed or that she created a mess. The other articles out there seem to state otherwise, and I'm left wondering what the actual truth is. I also wanted more on her time in South Korea, which was glossed over.

I also wish I understood her motivations a bit more for the Bolshoi. She was so dead set on it, even when offered what sounded to be better opportunities.

There were many times I wanted to help the younger Joy but other times where I just couldn't justify her decisions. I hope that she will seek out therapy for the trauma that's been instilled.

Overall, this was a quick, entertaining read, but ultimately it left me questioning many things, and not in a good way.

Thanks to Rowmen & Littlefield as well as to NetGalley for the ARC. All views and opinions are my own.

"I had no idea what I was getting into. What fifteen-year-old ever knows anything about what their decisions mean, what future disasters they're signing themselves up for? I was too busy thinking about how this felt like the beginning of a fairy tale." (loc. 350*)

In 2009, when Womack was fifteen, she took a leap: she moved across an ocean to Russia to train at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, the affiliate (and feeder) school of the Bolshoi Ballet and a world away from what Womack knew in the States, not least—but also not only—because she had left her family behind and didn't speak Russian. Already, though, she had a dream: to not just graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy but to be accepted by the Bolshoi Ballet itself. And she was, eventually...but of course it wasn't exactly that simple.

Womack got a fair amount of press as a dance student and later Bolshoi dancer because, although she was not the only American to study ballet in Russia, the numbers *are* low, and for an undetermined reason Womack was placed not in the program for foreigners but in the standard Russian track. (Her teacher's verdict: she could stay, but only if she learned Russian.) And the book is unique just for the scenario: I've read my fair share of ballet memoirs (and then some), but they've almost all been by people studying and then working in the West; a large part of this book is shadowed by the culture shock of moving across the world, alone, at a young age, and a further part is shadowed by the culture shock of moving back.

I don't know much (and by much I mean anything) about Womack as a dancer, but it's impossible not to feel her sheer ambition here, the determination to make it to the top, whatever that means—and perhaps (though I might be extrapolating too much here) to make the move and the training and all the attendant challenges worth it.

There are some surprising intersections of some of my more specific reading interests here, including that Womack grew up in what sounds like a hyperconservative church; at one point she references umbrellas of authority, which is something I mostly hear about in the context of the IBLP (think the Duggar family). I wished she had gone into some more detail, especially when she says things like this:

"I learned a way of thinking at [the church] that felt like fitting fastened wheels into an iron rail. [...] Critical thinking skills were not necessary to keep moving on this sort of track. Neither was compassion or questioning. Questioning, in fact, was something that could get you in trouble. It was wrong and an affront. Good kids, faithful kids, patriotic kids, kids who were going somewhere didn't ask questions.

This was a rail that helped me fit in at all sorts of ballet companies, as it turned out. It helped me fit in in Russia." (loc. 250)

That's fascinating to me, and it makes a ton of sense, but gosh I would have liked it explored further—I was hoping to come to a point in the book where she started realizing how the one experience fed into the other, but instead she remains largely uncritical of that aspect of ballet in Russia. (Not about everything: She and her husband were out of the country when Russia invaded Ukraine, and she writes that they intentionally have not been back since.) In general I think I could have used some more connections between...experience and emotion, I guess, and perhaps some more interrogation of her own reactions to various events (e.g., much of what happened in Boston).

Not a standout as far as writing goes, but I'm glad Womack worked with a ghostwriter (or cowriter) on this—I genuinely appreciate it when memoir writers know that it will be helpful to work with a trained writer. This will probably be most interesting to ballet enthusiasts, but there's plenty of complication for more general memoir readers.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Joy Womack has certainly lived a fascinating life and has had quite the career. This memoir/autobiography follows her story as the first American woman to sign a contract with the Bolshoi Ballet Theater. It was very interesting to learn about all that she faced in achieving this, as well as her downfall from this role after she spoke out publicly against the school’s officials.

It’s apparent that throughout Joy’s life she has demonstrated immense grit, tenacity, and dedication to her craft - even when at the detriment of herself. In the book she talks about dancing on numerous injuries, without adequate time to heal, and a harrowing eating disorder. Her story paints a picture of the darkness that can lay behind the “velvet curtain” vs what the audience sees in a beautiful ballet performance.

The book feels like a series of vignettes without as much connective tissue as I would have liked. There were many things I wish she would have gone more deeply into - her childhood and teenage years, how she fell in love with ballet, why she coveted the position at the Bolshoi, and her friendships & relationships in her adult life.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rowman & Littlefield for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a fascinating story. I know Joy Womack is many balletomanes' ultimate BEC, but this book goes a long way toward explaining why she is the way she is (in those ways that irritate so many people). Me-first attitude? Explained by the absolutely cutthroat Russian ballet education system she was thrown into, a minnow among sharks. Her rabid self-promotion? More of the same, plus her legitimate need to support herself when her family could not help financially and her ballet "salary" sometimes amounted to no more than $50 per month. That iron grip she seems to have on her public image as a prima ballerina? An absolutely necessary survival mechanism. Vaguely European accent? Explained by the fact that she's spent more than half her life living outside the US.

Most importantly, this book makes an intelligent, well thought-out case for why her family's hardcore Evangelical Christianity taught her to accept suffering and unquestioning obedience starting from her earliest years. The family left that church, but the lessons remained ingrained in her: she did not speak up about childhood sexual abuse until decades later; she bent herself, literally and figuratively, to serve her teachers' and ballet masters' needs; she quashed extraordinary levels of physical pain in service of her art; she endured and still battles with an eating disorder that both serves her artistry and destroys her, body and soul.

And in the end, what I take away from this book is her need to dance. It is a physical need, it is a mental need, it is a spiritual need. For someone like me on the outside, who has no such need, it looks a lot like an addiction no gentler than heroin. To her, it's the expression of everything she is. I admire that dedication, and I'm glad I got to read this book.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

Although this is a ghostwritten autobiography, the writing is more than adequate to engage the reader in the subject, Joy Womack, and her story.

Born and raised in California and Texas, she began ballet at a young age and always dreamed of dancing at the Bolshoi Ballet. As a teen, she left the US for Russia and immersed herself in the Russian lifestyle, Moscow, and eventually the Bolshoi where her childhood dream came true.

As she became familiar with the Russian ballet world and the Bolshoi, she began to sense dishonesty and corruption. Around that time Sergei Filin, the Bolshoi director, was attacked with acid, disfiguring him. These changes provoked Womack to speak publicly about her experiences at the Bolshoi. She was fired.

She began dancing at the Kremlin for politicians including Putin. There were severe rules. She traveled Russia performing and felt at home.

The book is a tribute to her determination to succeed, in theatre as well as life (2 marriages and a deadly eating disorder to deal with concurrently with rigorous dance).

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

I appreciated getting to read this story, it really added to learn about what was happening and enjoyed the ballet element in this. It was an engaging story and was hooked from the first page. It told the story perfectly and was glad I got to read this. It was a strong story and glad the author got to share this story with the reader.

Ballerinas and that amazing art world has always fascinated me. I enjoyed getting this behind the scenes and up close and personal look at the demanding and exciting world of ballet.