ANOTHER WAY TO DANCE

A probing ballet story about a young dancer who is untangling the differences between blending into the corps de ballet and subsuming her own individuality. Vicki Harris is in love with Mikhail Baryshnikov. She's thrilled to be accepted into the summer program at the prestigious School of American Ballet—where she might run into Misha—but she's also worried: The school is extremely demanding. Vicki is one of two African-Americans in the program, pronounced the other ``chip in the cookie,'' by sassy Stacey. They support each other in their rigorous classes but suspect that no matter how hard they work or how good they are, the subtle racism that pervades classical ballet and therefore the school has no room for anyone at the top who isn't white. Vicki has her own prejudices: Swept up in her ideal of the perfect ballerina, she has straightened her hair (over her mother's objections) and wears it in a bun; she's embarrassed at the ``loud and crazy'' antics of a group of black girls on the subway and dislikes the oversize clothing of ``homies.'' She faces these prejudices while coping with the rigors of school, family relationships, and her growing feelings for a boy in this compelling first novel about growing up, a summer of dance, and the haunting, competitive world of classical ballet. Readers will be rooting for Vicki all the way. (Fiction. 12+)