Born in 1921 to a working-class East London family, Celia Franca was an unlikely candidate for ballet greatness. Despite great odds, France became a star performer with the English Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company. When a Toronto group in 1951 invited her across the Atlantic to establish a national ballet company, she eagerly took on that challenge. The Pursuit of Perfection tells of the battles, heartbreaks, successes and international accolades shared by Celia Franca and the company she founded.
The book was shortlisted in 2012 for the Governor-General’s literary award for Non-Fiction, The Charles Taylor Prize and selected by the Globe and Mail as one of the best 100 books.