Many young girls dream of growing up to become a ballerina. There is a romantic whimsy to the airy skirts, graceful movements, and illusion of defying gravity as dancers balance en pointe and extend their limbs with such elegance that they seem almost infinite. While modern audiences often associate ballet with beauty and enchantment, behind the heavy stage curtains of Regency England’s opera-ballet lurked a darker reality.

Many of the ballerinas came from impoverished families struggling to put food on the table. Girls trained from a young age, long before the onset of womanhood, and were expected to endure grueling hours of rehearsal despite blisters, sore muscles, and bleeding feet. For some, ballet offered a better alternative for a working girl than scrubbing floors and emptying chamberpots as a scullery maid, laboring as a laundress near scalding water and hot presses or cleaning dangerous cotton machinery in a mill.

At least the stage held the possibility of applause—if the performance was well received. If it wasn’t, audiences could be merciless. Performers might be shouted down, heckled off the stage, or pelted with food. Fights occasionally erupted among patrons in the pit or upper gallery, while disreputable men gathered in the front row of what was known as Fops’ Alley in hopes of catching a scandalous glimpse of the ballerinas’ ankles.

Their wealthy counterparts could become a ballerina’s sponsor, gaining special access to backstage rooms where they could ogle the dancers and receive in-person introductions after a performance. These men were known as protectors, though the title was a misnomer. In exchange for a ballerina’s exclusive attention, they offered gifts the young women could scarcely afford themselves, like new ballet slippers, ribbons, bracelets, or other trinkets.

While saving the theatre and its ballerinas from these so-called “protectors” forms the premise of The Ballerina’s Bargain, the novel doesn’t dwell on the darker details of these backstage arrangements. Instead, it focuses on the heroic efforts of its protagonists to spare the young ballerinas from a wretched fate. However, the tension of what may happen should they fail lingers in the wings throughout the story.

Enjoy!