Book

Rebel on Pointe

Short, plump, pigeon-toed, and never good enough for mom, Lee Wilson dared to dream she could become a ballerina. In 1962, at the age of sixteen, she made her professional debut in a command performance for Prince Rainier and Princess Grace in Monte Carlo. The following summer, as she danced across Europe, she thrilled to the sound of her first bravos--and never looked back.

Rebel on Pointe immerses the reader in a visionary world filled with dance icons like George Balanchine, Rosella Hightower, Erik Bruhn, and Rudolf Nureyev.

Wilson expertly depicts how her profession--at times considered so rigid and exacting--was a leading force in the liberation of women from the prison of patriarchal post-war society. The hard-won gains and the maddening setbacks of the gender revolution are seen here through the eyes of a young dancer searching for physical, emotional, and financial freedom through dance..