A Teen Ballerina Speaks Out About Racism in the Dance World In ‘The Other Side of Perfect’

Mariko Turk was first inspired to write The Other Side of Perfect, her new young adult novel about a teen dancer who has to give up her dream of becoming a professional ballerina after suffering a devastating injury, after her own dance ambitions ended when she severely broke her leg in her early 20s.

“I had just gotten a job teaching ballet to little kids at a community center and I was showing my friends around the studio and doing turns and I just fell,” Turk told the FBomb. “People couldn't believe I’d injured myself that badly.”

Surgery and a long recovery time followed. As she rehabbed her leg, Turk was ultimately thankful for one thing. “I was so grateful that it hadn’t happened when I was a teenager, because dancing was such a big part of my life,” she said.

The Other Side of Perfect, which was released on May 11, imagines what a teen dancer would do if they suddenly couldn’t pursue dance professionally anymore. As a result of her accident, the book’s main character, Alina Keeler, has to leave her performing arts program to transfer to her local public high school, and struggles with depression and anxiety as she figures out who she is meant to be without dance in her life. When Alina is cast in a production of Singin’ in the Rain at her new school, she begins to find new friends and wonders if she can handle dancing again.

The FBomb had the chance to chat with Turk about her debut novel, loving problematic art, and how her experiences being a theater kid shaped her.

Alina has a white father and Japanese American mother, and we see glimpses of how Japanese culture is part of her life throughout the book. Did those scenes reflect your own background?

Yes, they did. My mom is Japanese American and my dad is white. I also think that Alina has a sense of feeling a bit far away from her Japanese heritage, and that comes from my experiences as well. My grandmother was born in the U.S., so I am a fourth-generation Japanese American and my Japanese relatives have been in the U.S. for a really long time. And so, when I think of being Japanese, I really mean the Japanese American experience. I’ve never been to Japan. My Japanese grandma was interned during World War II and my mom didn’t speak Japanese growing up because her mom was here. With Alina, she’ll have these bits of Japanese culture with things like food, but also she might feel the way I did growing up about how there’s a lot about your culture that you also don't know because your relatives have been in America for so long.

Before her injury, Alina was already a bit frustrated with ballet because she notices that she is constantly cast in stereotypical roles. For example, she dances the Chinese Tea solo in The Nutcracker several years in a row, even though she knows she qualified for better parts. Did you notice the subtle racism of the dance world when you were that age?

I think it wasn't until I was in grad school that I really started thinking about systemic racism in terms of ballet. I studied children's literature in grad school and there are lots of really beloved children's books like The Secret Garden and others that when you read them today, you realize how many racist or harmful messages are in them. So then there is the question of ‘How do people reconcile that something they love has really harmful aspects to it?’ Do you still love it or do you now have a different kind of relationship with it?

Studying classic books through that lens led me to think about other things that I loved, like ballet, that have problematic aspects. Ballet is a really beautiful art form and people can love it and feel really passionate about it, but it has this really racist history and several classic ballets like The Nutcracker have these racist aspects as well.

When Alina tries to push back against being cast in the Chinese Tea dance, her ballet teacher gets angry at the implication that racism might have been involved in her decision and shuts down the conversation. I thought that moment showed just how hard it is for teens to challenge an authority figure like that.

That particular scene really was informed by a conversation with a dancer named Phil Chan, who wrote a book called Final Bow For Yellowface: Dancing Between Intention and Impact. He’s an advocate for dancers and an activist, and he’s actually worked with artistic directors to change the way the Chinese Tea dance is portrayed in The Nutcracker and has worked with other ballets as well.

Phil was nice enough to read a draft of The Other Side of Perfect, and we had a conversation about it and he pointed out that in an earlier version of that scene, the teacher just doesn’t like what Alina is saying, but she doesn’t try to gaslight her — originally they just move on.

But then Phil said, ‘These dancers have such respect and admiration for their teachers that if they brought anything like this up and it was shot down, they’d feel terrible and think, ‘Oh, OK, I was wrong. I can't believe I even thought that.’ Talking with him about what it's like in that pre-professional ballet context really helped shape that scene. You could see how that would affect a young dancer’s psyche and make them think, ‘I’m never gonna step out of line again.’

How did you get the teen voice down in the scenes where Alina is preparing for the high school musical at her new school? Were you a theater kid growing up?

Yes, I definitely was a theater kid growing up. The high school musicals were one of the best parts of high school for me. They were so much fun, and because I did have a dancing background I was able to do really well. I couldn’t really sing, but I could dance.

So I loved musical theater and I thought about those memories while writing those parts of the book. We have these kids who are exuberant and excited to be performing together and just bonding. It’s such a special atmosphere. I really thought back to those memories and tried to capture that as much as possible.