The Secret Dancer

by Mabel Esther Allan

Eleven year old Mandelina Kerensky has lived all her life in the Lancashire town of Stoneborough. Although her mother comes from London, her father was Russian and one of her grandmothers was Greek.

After her father's death she and her mother have very little money, but two things make Mandelina happy - the Russian dances her father taught her, and what she and her Alice call 'the ballet dream.' It all started because Mandelina once said that her grandfather was the stage doorkeeper at the Lingeraux Theatre. Together the two girls learn about ballet from books, listen to the music and watch performances on television.

Then Mandelina and her mother leave Lancashire to live with her grandfather in the heart of London. At first Mandelia has no London friends for she has not yet begun school, but she is happy exploring London, sitting in the stage-door office at the theatre, and visiting her uncle who is caretaker at the Lingeraux Ballet School. Soon, standing at the back of the balcony, Mandelina sees her first live ballet. Then, secretly, she learns more and more about the Lingeraux Company and School and in doing so makes friendw with a young dancer named Jack. He is something of a mystery, and she longs to know why he is so unhappy at school.

Of course, Mandelina knows that there is very little hope that she will have the chance to learn ballet. But then Jack takes a hand...

134 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 1971

About the author

A prolific British children's author, who also wrote under the pen-names Jean Estoril, Priscilla Hagon, Anne Pilgrim, and Kathleen M. Pearcey, Mabel Esther Allan is particularly known for her school and ballet stories.

Born in 1915 at Wallasey on the Wirral Peninsula, Allan knew from an early age that she wanted to be an author, and published her first short stories in the 1930s. Her writing career was interrupted by World War II, during which time she served in the Women's Land Army and taught school in Liverpool, but the 1948 publication of The Glen Castle Mystery saw it begin to take off in earnest. Influenced by Scottish educator A.S. Neill, Allan held progressive views about education, views that often found their way into her books, particularly her school stories. She was interested in folk dance and ballet - another common subject in her work - and was a frequent traveler. She died in 1998.