I did remember this cover, with Laura posing in the red dress, though I hadn't remembered just how late-60s it looks! (It was published in 1968.) I remembered the London ballet school relocating to the seaside, the old house, the painting of the little girl gazing out the window which becomes the basis for the students' ballet, and the old lady giving them the original red silk dress to dance in.
I'd utterly forgotten the whole subplot of Doreen, the horseback dancer, who doesn't want to become a ballerina. I'd also utterly forgotten hot, brooding older student Scott who is kind of Laura's love interest, I guess -- at the age I first read it, I clearly wasn't open to forming a crush on him myself, and he is deeply annoying, with his dramatic manners, sarcasm and effortless charm. Shades of Sebastian Scott from the Wells ballet books!
I also weirdly remember the line: "When I die, they'll find the word 'arabesque' carved on my heart..." which, unlike Scott, made a deep impression. And then there was the scene that I really purchased this book for (spending way too much), and didn't find! I could have sworn there was a scene on the beach where one of Laura's friends confesses that she isn't as keen on dancing as she is on becoming a choreographer, and there was a whole section about the strange notation that choreographers use to write out the movements. I can't have invented that, surely, and for a while as I read this book, I thought I might have mis-remembered Scott in this part. But no, it just wasn't there at all! And now I'm wondering if this scene might have appeared in the first book, Ballet for Laura, to which Laura's Summer Ballet is the sequel? Does this scene mean anything to anyone? I don't want to spend another fortune hunting in vain for a scene that I might have dreamed up! Help!
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