Santi_bcn
When the New York Ballet Grand Company announces a historic new production of La Bayadère, every principal and soloist dreams of one name: Gamzatti. Proud. Imperious. Unforgettable. A role reserved for stars.
No one expects it to belong to a newcomer.
Yolanda Duprinna arrives in Manhattan like a winter storm - silent, luminous, impossible to ignore. At twenty-three, her résumé reads like a map of the ballet world: summers at the Paris Opera, three formative years at the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg, seasons in Houston and Boston. Born to a Finnish father and a Chicago-born mother, she has grown up between cultures, languages, and expectations. She has learned to adapt. To endure. To remain unreadable.
But who is she, really?
Within days of her arrival, whispers ripple through the studios. Her technique is immaculate. Her beauty disarming. Her past, curiously guarded. When the coveted role of Gamzatti is unexpectedly awarded to her, admiration collides with jealousy, and the hierarchy of the company begins to fracture.
Male dancers are captivated. One of the company's leading men finds himself hopelessly drawn to her brilliance on stage. Yet Yolanda's heart turns elsewhere - toward someone outside the gilded world of ballet: a warm-hearted theater box office clerk whose quiet kindness cuts through the rivalry and ambition surrounding her.
As rehearsals intensify and Manhattan hums beyond the theater doors, Yolanda must navigate ambition, envy, passion, and love - discovering that becoming a princess on stage is far easier than surviving the spotlight off it.
A novel for young adults and adults alike, Gamzatti, invites readers behind the velvet curtain into the fiercely beautiful world of ballet - and into the restless heart of New York City.