Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

First published: 1936; illustrated

Type of work: Domestic realism

Themes: The arts, family, gender roles, and jobs and work

Time of work: The 1930’s

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: London, England

Principal Characters:

• Pauline Fossil, rescued from a sinking ship by Professor Brown, a classically pretty girl with a talent for acting
• Petrova Fossil, the second adopted “sister,” a reserved and rather plain girl with an aptitude for mechanics
• Posy Fossil, the youngest adoptee, a red-haired, unusually gifted dancer, who is dedicated to her art
• Professor Matthew Brown, an eccentric archaeologist who collects three orphan girls on separate expeditions
• Sylvia Brown, his great-niece, left as guardian of the children and of a large house when Professor Brown is away

The Story

The story of the three Fossil sisters in Ballet Shoes combines the nature and contrivances of a fairy tale with the concrete details of the training and everyday lives of professional theater children. Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil are accidentally sisters, collected and adopted by Professor Matthew Brown, and left at his house to be cared for by his great-niece Sylvia. The infants enjoy all the normal pleasures of childhood until, five years later, funds left for the family by Professor Brown prove to be inadequate. Sylvia, unable to anticipate her unpredictable great-uncle’s return, takes boarders into the large house. As in a fairy tale, these men and women change the course of the children’s lives.

When money is unavailable for proper schooling, the boarders suggest alternatives that will ensure the girls’ self-sufficiency as adults. They are enrolled at the Children’s Academy of Dancing and Stage Training by Miss Theo Dane, who teaches there. Through a special arrangement, the children are provided free tuition in exchange for a percentage of their earnings when they reach age twelve and can begin working in the theater. For their academic subjects, the girls will be tutored in mathematics, history, and literature by two retired university women, Dr. Jakes and Dr. Smith. The schedule of classes and rehearsals is rigorous, but their home life is happy and secure.

The laws and customs of the professional theater world are illustrated through the development of the girls’ careers, especially Pauline’s, because she is the first to reach her twelfth birthday. At this time she is qualified to obtain a work license, and her cleverness and beauty bring her success and a new self-confidence. Her experiences also teach her humility and financial responsibility, and she learns to contend with professional rivalries and disappointments. By the time she is fourteen, she has had enough exposure and sufficient positive reviews to attract film work, and Pauline must eventually choose between a stage career or a film career. For Petrova, turning twelve is not an especially welcome event. Petrova’s real desire is to become an aviator, and she spends her Sundays at another boarder’s garage learning about engines. Meanwhile, Posy has become the academy’s star dancing pupil, easily mastering ballet technique with a natural artistry and taught in private classes by the school’s director, Madame Fidolia. Unfortunately, no real plans for Posy’s professional career have been made when the director is suddenly taken ill. Posy, the resourceful eleven-year-old, then makes her own arrangements to continue her studies in Czechoslovakia with a world-renowned teacher, who eagerly accepts her as his pupil provided that she can pay for her living expenses there.

Financial necessity has led the girls to professional stage training, and as a result the girls have brought added household income to the family; yet Sylvia’s financial worries continue to escalate. Sylvia begins making arrangements to sell the house, and the boarders sadly begin looking for other housing, but, as in a fairy tale, good fortune arrives just in time. Pauline is offered a lucrative film contract in the United States, which she generously accepts in order to pay for Posy’s continued ballet studies in Czechoslovakia. Coincidentally, on the very same morning, Professor Brown returns unexpectedly to take care of Petrova’s training in mechanics and aviation. The Fossil sisters are ready to begin new, separate lives but will always be tied by their childhood vow to make the Fossil name famous by their deeds.

Context

Ballet Shoes was published at a time when stories of dancing schools, child ballerinas and film stars, and aspiring stage actresses were extremely popular. Child stars were glamorous and intriguing compared to ordinary children. Streatfeild’s fascination with and speculations about the extraordinary lives of these children provided the basis for many of her books; her own experiences as a student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts provided authenticity to even the most unrealistic of her plots.

Ballet Shoes was Streatfeild’s first children’s book and was loosely based on her first adult novel, The Whicharts (1931), the story of three girls struggling with their careers as theater actresses. The success and popularity of Ballet Shoes was quickly followed by Tennis Shoes (1937) and the Carnegie Award-winning The Circus Is Coming (1938). In each of these and in subsequent children’s books by Streatfeild, details are meticulously drawn and the children are independent and are often nonconformists, who make decisions about their own lives and use their abilities both to earn money and as a means of self-expression. Streatfeild won critical acclaim for her portrayals of children in her adult novels as well as her children’s books.

At a time when girls’ fiction encouraged the suppression of one’s own objectives and its heroines displayed the admirable qualities of thoughtfulness, altruism, and self-effacement, Streatfeild’s characters were often self-serving, proud, and irascible. Posy’s complete single-mindedness about becoming a dancer is suggested to be an effect of her unusual artistic ability and in no way a character flaw requiring reformation. In Tennis Shoes, the central character, Nicky, has a natural aptitude for the game of tennis but shows no interest in winning for her team or her school. Though her unsportsmanlike behavior is mildly reprimanded, she is never truly repentant, and this conduct is acceptable in the light of her unusual talent.

Streatfeild’s literary contribution includes more than fifty children’s novels, a three volume autobiography, a dozen adult novels written under the pseudonym “Susan Scarlett,” and numerous other books, both fiction and nonfiction, which she edited, in addition to radio plays and biographies. Ballet Shoes is the only one of many ballet tales that has enjoyed continuous popularity since its first publication, and its success lies in Streatfeild’s ability to tell the story of professional children growing up in the world of theater with warmth, humor, and authenticity.