Part 1 -- The eight-year-old, part 1: the New York school of ballet -- How to be a ballerina, part 1 -- The eight-year-old, part 2 -- The triple -- How to be a ballerina, Part 3 -- The eleven-year-old, part 1: the audition -- The eleven-year-old, part 2: madame dudin -- How to be a ballerina, part 4 -- The first nutcracker -- Waving goodbye -- Detective work -- Stretching -- The fifteen-year-old and Mr. Rapp -- The sixteen-year-old's epiphany, part 1 -- The sixteen-year-old's epiphany, part 2 -- Tumey -- Making shapes -- Crumpled -- Turning point -- Part 2 -- The summer of 1992 -- Chateau ste. Michelle: my big break -- Making a living being tired -- Ballerina doll -- Orange -- Cinderella -- Rejected -- Glace bay -- Vertigo, part 1 -- The rib-cracking episode -- "You were the music" -- Boo Hoo, Jeremy Denk -- Suzanne -- Places -- Quivering -- I think I was perfect, one -- Henry's living room -- The fourth wall -- Big hair -- Theaters are mysterious places -- Into the night -- A prayer -- Curtain in -- Helena -- "I've never heard you make a noise like that" --The human monolith -- A conversation with my feet -- My little toe -- The millionth nutcracker -- No tights -- The highest note -- Vertigo, part 2 -- Scarred -- A boyfriend and a cat -- Precision, perfection, and mistakes -- Final curtain -- The drive home -- Afterword: the time I taught someone something -- Acknowledgements -- Appendix 1. meeting my maker -- Appendix 2. how to... -- Appendix 3. Places I've performed

"Inspiring, revealing, and deeply relatable, Being a Ballerina is a firsthand look at the realities of life as a professional ballet dancer. Through episodes from her own career, Gavin Larsen describes the forces that drive a person to study dance; the daily balance that dancers navigate between hardship and joy; and the dancer's continual quest to discover who they are as a person and as an artist. Starting with her arrival as a young beginner at a class too advanced for her, Larsen tells how the embarrassing mistake ended up helping her learn quickly and advance rapidly. In other stories of her early teachers, training, and auditions, she explains how she gradually came to understand and achieve what she and her body were capable of. Larsen then re-creates scenes from her experiences in dance companies, from unglamorous roles to exhilarating performances. Working as a ballerina was shocking and scary at first, she says, recalling unexpected injuries, leaps of faith, and her constant struggle to operate at the level she wanted-but full of enormously rewarding moments. An ideal listen for aspiring dancers, Larsen's memoir will also delight experienced dance professionals and fascinate anyone who wonders what it takes to live a life dedicated to the perfection of the art form" --