The Perfect Dancer

'The Perfect Dancer' is the third novel by author Philip James Kirke. The Perfect Dancer’ is set in Perth Western Australia, and charts ten years of the life of a girl from around age 8 to her leaving for a career in classical ballet in London. The story slowly builds several threads of mystique around a legendary dancer who disappeared in the prime of her young career and in parallel, the growing relationship between the girl and a young woman who lives next door to her. That friendship grows into one of deep personal and artistic mentorship, and the reader is left wondering at the strange connections between the legendary dancer who had vanished and the unassuming neighbour of our heroine. Nothing can prepare the reader for the shocking climax of the tale, but the thread of love draws it all together on the last line of the last page.