Variation

The ballet world that Allie Rousseau and her family are entrenched in is central to Variation. After Allie suffers a potentially career-ending injury, she recognizes the competition and pressure that ballet often puts on dancers, allowing her to escape from that world and be truly happy for the first time. To understand Allie’s character development in the novel, two important components of ballet must be understood: its competitive structure and the ruthless demands of competing at the elite level of the sport.

Ballet structures its dancers into three main categories: the corps, the soloists, and the principal dancers. The corps makes up the majority, serving as an entry point that allows “aspiring dancers to hone their skills, technique, and artistry in the early stages of their careers” (Chhabra, Dyumna. “Careers in Ballet: Understanding a Ballet Company Hierarchy.” The Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet, 28 May 2024). In the novel, Eva is in the corps, which offers insight into why she chooses to use June’s parentage to extort Vasily: She is looking to move beyond the corps and play a more pivotal role in the ballet, as well as make a better name for herself.

The soloists rank above the corps and perform by themselves rather than in a group. They are traditionally more skilled than the corps dancers and are able to take on some of the bigger roles. Allie’s understudy, Charlotte, is a soloist and the dancer who would take over Allie’s role if she could not perform. Finally, the principal dancers are the top group within a ballet. They are the lead dancers who “bear the narrative weight of the ballet and are the carriers of the story” (Chhabra). Allie is a principal dancer, playing the lead in Giselle and working toward keeping her role in the fall showing of Equinox.

This ballet hierarchy lends insight into The Pressures of Athletic Excellence that Allie faces. While she is currently a principal and one of the most important dancers in the Company, hundreds of dancers below her are vying for her spot. Like Charlotte and Eva, these dancers have dedicated their lives to ballet and are constantly looking for an opportunity to move up in the Company hierarchy. As a result, Allie is under constant pressure to perform at her best, even when facing injury.

In addition to pressure from the dancers below her, Allie also struggles with the pressure of observers who expect her to perform perfectly. She faces the criticism of her sisters, her mother, the other dancers, and the public. This pressure leads to dancers sacrificing their bodies and well-being to meet expectations. Glory Liu, a former professional ballet dancer, explains how dancers suffer “relentless criticism of [their] technique, [their] bodies, [their] entire selves” and tells stories of “the choreographer who slapped a dancer so hard it left a welt on her skin, […] the ballet master who held a lit cigarette under a dancer’s leg to get her extension higher,” and more (Liu, Glory. “The Costs and Contradictions of Ballet.” The Nation, 4 Mar. 2023). 

Allie illustrates this culture when she does not even flinch when her mother demands she get into different ballet positions or throws a full cup at her. When Allie sees June’s ballet teacher, Quinn, throw a water bottle, she notes how Quinn learned the technique from her mother, who used to do the same to her students. Allie’s experiences give insight into the grueling world of ballet, emphasizing the demands that the career places on her mind and body.

Throughout the novel, Allie ultimately recognizes the damage that ballet has done to her life. While she is adamant that she still loves ballet, she also is finally able to acknowledge the impact it has had on her emotional and physical well-being. Through Allie’s journey, the reader sees the grueling world of professional dancing and the impact that perfection has on its dancers.