How Olivia Book turned an impossible dream into a ballet performance

She was born a special child with a congenital anomaly of her right hand, and to adapt her to life and communication with her peers, her parents began to take her to different sections from an early age and enrolled her in dance lessons. They could not even imagine that their daughter would not only become seriously interested in dancing, but also become a professional ballerina; as part of a ballet troupe, she would go on the big stage and dance “Swan Lake”.

She began dancing at three and grew interested in ballet at twelve

Olivia Book was born in Ontario, Canada, into a simple family that had nothing to do with art. From birth, she had only one left arm formed correctly, while her right arm was significantly shortened and deformed. Her parents did everything to ensure that their daughter did not feel inferior; they were engaged in her development and took her to various sections.

Olivia started dancing at the age of three, and at nine joined a team engaged in competitive dancing, where she trained in various styles such as jazz, hip-hop, tap, lyric dance, but most of all she loved ballet, although she never thought that with her physical characteristics she would be able to master this art form. She had a lot of perseverance, but ballet is known for its strict demands on the body, and this was beyond her capabilities.

But Olivia continued to practice choreography. At the age of 12, she stood on pointe shoes, learned how to adapt ballet technique to the peculiarities of her body, mastered the art of balancing with her small hand, and learned to dance the pas de deux using only one hand as a point of contact with her partner. Her father made her a special device for the machine so that she could hold on to it with her small hand, but it remained a problem for her for a long time because it required a lot of physical effort.

She was very lucky that I didn’t have many obstaclesI was very lucky that I didn’t have many obstacles

In 2018, Olivia decided to participate in the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP), a youth ballet competition that takes place annually in Toronto. There she brilliantly danced two solo numbers, and Adam Sklute, the artistic director of Ballet West, saw her dance. He offered her a place in the troupe. It was an unexpected and very exciting offer for Olivia, but she agreed, realizing that she would have to work much harder.

She would later say that she was very lucky to have teachers and partners. They didn’t focus on her physical features and treated her as an equal. Once, at a competition, the judges offered her a special award, to which her teacher replied that he did not think it was right; she needed to watch how she performed. Visit. A F R I N I K . C O M . For the full article. As a result, she showed excellent results and received an award for her skills.

“I was very lucky that I didn’t have many obstacles, but there was also no condescending attitude towards me,” Olivia said. “For the most part, it seems to me that all the problems and doubts were only in my head, in the process of growing up, and did not come from the people around me.”

She dances “Swan Lake” in the Ballet West troupe, but dreams of solo roles

Olivia Book, who started studying at Ballet West in 2019, spent two years there as a student, two more years as an intern of the company, and three years in the second company of Ballet West II. Her mentors always noted her diligence and positive attitude. She never sought to change the choreography to suit the features of her body, but tried to find the balance in which she could remain a part of it. When problems arose, Olivia tried to solve them on her own. For example, during the screenings of the ballet The Nutcracker, she had to perform a role in an Arab divertimento and hold the fabric of a fake tapestry with her right hand. She came up with a simple solution: she raised her left hand above her head to hold the fabric.

She understood that she had a risk of becoming a famous ballerina due to her difference from others, and tried to avoid it. Now Olivia Book is dancing in the main cast of Ballet West, becoming the first professional ballerina with congenital limb defects and technical skills, but she dreams of performing major solo roles and is confident that she will be able to achieve this thanks to her hard work. Indeed, in recent years, ballet has been rethinking its attitude towards diversity in such areas as body type.