Dance, Tanya

Title: Dance, Tanya
Author: Patricia Lee Gauch
Genre: Realistic Fiction

Dance, Tanya is a story about a young girl who puts on a tutu and dances around with her older sister who is a ballerina. Though Tanya is still too young to take ballet lessons, she endlessly whirls around her home in her tutu and slippers with her sister Elise. However, whenever Tanya's sister leaves to go to her ballet lessons, Tanya is not allowed to come. Occasionally Tanya is allowed to watch her practice from the window, but never join in. When it is time for Elise's dance recital, Tanya and her family watch from the audience with awe. Tanya is so proud of her sisters dancing abilities, but is so tired that she falls asleep towards the end of the recital. When they are leaving, Tanya's Aunt May tells Tanya's mother what a wonderful dancer Elise is. When they return home, Tanya wakes up to hear the score to Swan Lake being played over the radio while her family laugh and talk amongst themselves. Tanya puts on her tutu and grabs her scarf and dances even though she knows no one is watching. However, unbeknownst to Tanya, her whole family is watching. When she is through they applaud, and Aunt May corrects herself by saying that there are in fact two wonderful dancers in their family. The book then shows a scene from Christmas the next year where Tanya has finally received her own pair of ballet slippers now that she is old enough to take lessons. The book then closes with Tanya and Elise heading off to ballet practice, together.