SOLVED. Middle Grade or YA novel read in early 2000's about girl who has been training as a ballerina her whole life but is contemplating being a pianist instead. [s]

[Michelle]

I think I started reading this pre-2005 but definitely pre-2010. I keep thinking it was from the American Girl Library of books when they were branching out into longer form Middle Grade books, but I can't seem to find a book that matches. I only read about the first chapter before realizing I was really aging out of the intended audience and couldn't relate to the main character.

MC was a girl who was about to apply for a prestigious school like Julliard for ballet, because she had been training for it her whole life, but she actually kind of wants to play piano instead. I think she might have had an older sister that she felt like she had to live up to, and that or just regular pressure from her parents was keeping her from following her real dreams/she was very good at ballet and was weighing where her talent lay vs her passion. The only scene I recall clearly is that she's sitting at the piano and watching her profile in the mirror and considering her appearance, how it wasn't "strictly necessary for a dancer to be beautiful, but it was good to have a symmetrical face" and so on, basically the author sneaking in the MC's description in as natural a way as possible when the book was from first person or third person limited. I believe the cover was a closeup of the main character's face in profile or angled slightly toward the reader but with eyes downcast, and that she was blond.

There is a possibility that I am misremembering the premise and that it's the other way around - MC is on track to get into Julliard or expy school for piano but she really wants to be a ballerina but I think it's more likely the other way around.

[Capn]

Have you been through the "Middle Grade Ballet" list already?

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

(I briefly scrolled through the "Piano Themed" list ( https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7... ) and "MG Music Books" (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... ) but didn't see the cover you described). :)

There's also a "YA Performing Arts" list that might have caught it, if you haven't already scrolled through: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

[[deleted user]]

Only a distant possibility, but I'm reminded of the family in the Gemma series: Gemma, Gemma and Sisters, Gemma Alone, Good-Bye, Gemma. Three siblings and a cousin who all have distinct performing arts training (ballet, classical piano, classical voice, child movie actress), but who all end up doing something different, and some of them really hating it, while some of them much prefer the new thing to the old. I think I remember a similar scene to the one you remember with the singer (Ann, I believe), thinking about her features. Gemma is blonde, and some of the editions are just her face. Probably too old and too young, but I these were the bell your post rang.

[Becca]

Broken Chords by Barbara Snow Gilbert? It's been published with a few different covers but this one possibly matches your description:

And this might be the quote you remember?

Narrow waist, flat stomach. Good proportions for ballet—if only she weren’t so tall. Her gaze moved up. A nice face wasn’t essential for a dancer, but it didn’t hurt.

[Daisy]

Michelle, what do you mean by "expy school"?

[Michelle]

Becca wrote: "Broken Chords by Barbara Snow Gilbert? It's been published with a few different covers but this one possibly matches your description:

And this might..."

That's the one! Thank you so much!

[Michelle]

Daisy wrote: "Michelle, what do you mean by "expy school"?"

Sorry, I have to stop using that word. Expy is a term they use on the TV Tropes wiki site for a character who is meant to be a fictional stand-in for a real world person. I tend to use it as a blanket term for anything that is a fictional representation of a specific real world thing. There's probably a better word for such things.

[Michelle]

Solved: it was Broken Chords by Barbara Snow Gilbert