In 2012 Joy Womack made history when she became the first American ballerina to sign a contract with the Bolshoi Ballet Theater in Moscow, Russia. This book is an unflinching look at her life in dance and the heartbreaking sacrifices that she had to make in order to chase her dream of a professional career as a ballerina.

Dancing in Moscow was not the fairy tale that Joy had hoped for. The Bolshoi and its school were filled with cutthroat competition, acts of violence, and coaches who encouraged obsessive devotion. They sent her on stage with broken bones, helped her forge immigration paperwork, and encouraged her to toe a dangerous political line - all for the privilege of dancing on one of the world's most storied stages.

As Joy's career took off and she made a name for herself in the Russian ballet world, she had to face a hard choice. Were the growing dangers of a professional lifestyle descending into corruption worth the realization of her life's dream?

Joy Womack is a ballerina, currently working at the Paris Opera. She has a combined social media following of approximately 75,000 across all platforms, was featured in a 2021 independent documentary, Joy Womack: The White Swan, and is also the subject of a biopic film, Joika, set to premiere in 2023. Her story has been followed by news outlets around the world, including The New York Times, The Moscow Times, Reuters, Time Magazine, the L.A. Times, and NBC News.

Elizabeth Shockman is a public radio journalist based in Minnesota with nationally and internationally published work at NPR, PRI, MPR, Reuters, The Moscow Times, BBC, and many other publications. Elizabeth met Joy while working for Reuters in Moscow and has spent more than 12 years interviewing her for this book.