Change

Throughout the novel, the author uses the main character Dara's relationship with The Durant School of Dance, Marie, and Charlie to explore the individual's fear of change. In the opening section of Part I, "We Three," the narrator describes Dara's family's ballet school as "an institution" (7). Even after the sisters' parents die, and Dara, Marie, and Charlie are left to run the school on their own, Dara continues to rely upon the school as a symbol of constancy in her life. "Everything worked, nothing ever changed," the narrator goes on to say of the school in the same passage (7). Dara repeats iterations of this line to herself over the course of the chapters that follow, thus illustrating her fear of change and her need for stability. Her close relationships with Marie and Charlie similarly define Dara's world and identity. She believes that like the school, this...