Various Positions

Coming of age in ballet school

Trapped between the sex-obsessed world of her friends and the drama of her dysfunctional family, fourteen-year-old Georgia is most at ease when she's dancing. When she's accepted into Canada's preeminent ballet school, she thinks that she's made the perfect escape. Artistic director Roderick Allen singles her out as a star and gives her intensive personal training, and Georgia obsesses about becoming the perfect disciplined student for him. But as she spends more and more time with Roderick, it's not so clear to her anymore what exactly their relationship means. Is he her teacher and mentor, or is he something more?

About the author:

Martha Schabas trained in classical ballet as a child. She holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, where she received the David Higham Literary Award. She lives in Toronto, Canada. Various Positions is her first novel.