“Well enough to dance” becomes the new barometer by which I measure my pain.

Muscle Memory is a quietly seething braided memoir in three acts: part personal account of a lifelong relationship with ballet; part pain narrative; part researched examination of classical ballets. Dancyger exposes the systematic dismissal of women’s suffering, tests the linkages between chronic pain and trauma, and looks for answers in The Firebird—a folktale-turned-ballet about the bargains we make to free ourselves.