Instead of choosing legendary artists with household names, Eliot focuses on lesser-known dancers. For example, Giovanna Baccelli, an Italian, danced ballet throughout Europe in the 1700s, and Catherine Kerr, an American, was a soloist with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company during the 1980s. These dancers may not be well known, but their stories link closely with those of famous peers, producers and choreographers.

While this gives a puzzling impression that the “real stars” are always hovering elsewhere, it adds weight to a theme of the work: The replaceability of the female dancer. Nineteenth-century Parisians used the word rats to describe the women who performed in the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera. The name aptly conveys the interchangeability of the dancers—when one rat fell down, another was always available to step into her place.

Dancing Lives lacks an organization that explicitly draws connections between the lives of the dancers; yet the undercurrent is the deep dedication that each woman brings to her dancing. Eliot’s writing is a labor of love, and her affection toward her subjects is inspiring.