Talkshow Thursday: A Post by Lorri Dudley

 

Behind the Curtain of Regency London’s Ballet

by Lorri Dudley

Becoming a ballerina who floated across the stage with graceful movements was a childhood dream of mine that never came to fruition. But when I began writing The Ballerina’s Bargain, I discovered the next best thing. I could live that dream through my characters.

There is a romantic whimsy to ballet—the airy skirts, graceful movements, and illusion of defying gravity as dancers rise en pointe and extend their limbs with such elegance that they seem almost weightless. Yet my research took me behind the heavy stage curtains of Regency England’s opera-ballet, where I discovered that the fanciful world of the stage could be far darker than the enchanting performances suggested.

Ballet demands extraordinary physical endurance. Even today, dancers spend countless hours rehearsing, pushing through blisters, aching muscles, and injuries. During the Regency era, many ballerinas began training as children, often coming from families who struggled to put food on the table. For these girls, a career on the stage could offer an alternative to some of the grueling occupations available to working-class women. Instead of spending their days as scullery maids scrubbing floors and emptying chamber pots, laundresses laboring around scalding water and hot irons, or factory workers tending dangerous machinery, a talented young girl might find an opportunity to earn money through dancing.

But the stage offered no guarantee of an easier life.

It did hold the possibility of applause—provided the performance pleased the audience. And Regency spectators could be notoriously unforgiving. Performers might be heckled, shouted down, or even pelted with food. Fights were known to break out among spectators in the pit or upper gallery, turning an evening at the theatre into a spectacle both on and off the stage.

And then there was Fops’ Alley.

This area at the front of the theatre was notorious for attracting fashionable young men who came not

only to watch the performance but to admire the ballerinas themselves, and sometimes just for a scandalous peek at a ballerina’s ankles. To modern eyes, the attention might sound flattering. However, for many young women on the stage, the attention could carry a troublesome price.

Wealthy men could become what was known as a ballerina’s “protector,” offering gifts and financial assistance in exchange for the dancer’s exclusive attention and companionship. A pair of ballet slippers, ribbons, jewelry, or other small trinkets were luxurious gifts to a young woman whose family had little money.

Behind the applause, these arrangements could leave a vulnerable young ballerina with very little power of her own, and the word protector appears to be a misnomer. Becoming in a family way (or with child) brought a devastating end to her career. A dancer who could no longer perform might find herself without an income and facing the additional burden of supporting a child. For a family already struggling financially, the consequences could be heartbreaking.

The darker side of Regency ballet forms the premise behind The Ballerina’s Bargain. Yet I didn't want the novel to dwell upon the most sordid aspects of backstage life. Instead, the story focuses on two people’s heroic determination to spare the young ballerinas from a wretched fate by those who’d take advantage of their innocence.

Still, the danger is always there, lurking backstage.

Because sometimes the greatest threats in a theatre aren't waiting in the audience. They're waiting behind the curtain.

In The Ballerina’s Bargain, saving the theatre may require far more than keeping its doors open—it may mean fighting for the young women whose dreams depend upon it.

To learn more, check out my website at lorridudley.com or follow me on: 

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About The Ballerina’s Bargain

A burdened earl. A determined ballerina. Saving the theatre may cost them both their hearts.

London, 1815
Emmeline Laurent has survived by grace and grit. After her parents’ execution in France, she has learned to live unseen as a humble ballerina instructing young pupils in a small London theatre. When whispers spread that the Danforth Theatre may be sold to an unscrupulous buyer, Emmeline fears not only for her livelihood but for the safety of her impressionable students. With no time and no options, she does the only thing she knows to do: leap into a moving carriage and bargain with the new lord who holds their fate. 

Grant Atherton, the Earl of Quincy, has inherited the crushing weight of duty along with a failing theatre, an arranged engagement, two younger sisters to usher into society, and a mountain of his father's secrets. Selling the Danforth is the only way to save his family from ruin. The last thing he needs is a beautiful, infuriatingly determined ballerina turning his careful plans upside down.

 
But when Emmeline's hidden past begins surfacing and the danger circling the theatre proves far deadlier than either of them realized, Grant must choose between the life he planned and the one God may have been preparing all along.

For fans of Roseanna M. White and Jen Turano — a sweeping Regency romance about the grace found in surrender, the courage it takes to trust, and the God who makes a way when every door seems closed.

Purchase link: https://amzn.to/4bVdTuc  

About the Author:
Lorri Dudley is the bestselling author of The Leeward Island Series and The Agents of Espionage Series. She has a master’s degree in psychology and lives in Ashland, Massachusetts with her husband and three teenage sons, where writing romance allows her an escape from her testosterone filled household.

Photo credits:

Author Photo and book image: Courtesy Lorri Dudley

Ballet Shoes: Pixabay

Ballerina: Pixabay/mgnorrisphotos