61 pages • 2 hours read
Nicola YoonInstructions for Dancing
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Fear of Vulnerability: Whether or Not Love Is Worth the Pain
The theme of whether or not love is worth the pain is deeply ingrained in Instructions for Dancing, as this is Evie’s question to answer and creates the plot’s momentum. Even before her visions, Evie had become withdrawn due to her father’s affair. She feels her father abandoned and betrayed his family. Though she used to believe in fairy-tale love and romance novels, Evie can’t comprehend why anyone would subject themselves to inevitable heartache. Evie’s belief system changed as a result of seeing her father cheat on her mother, causing her to be angry and afraid of opening up.
While Evie contemplates why anyone would pursue love, her sister Danica and their mother Grace both start dating to cope with their new life. Danica is a serial dater, putting her heart on the line without regrets. In contrast to Evie, Grace trusts love despite being hurt and begins dating Bob, telling Evie that she must move on. Evie actively avoids love until she can’t deny her attraction to X. Upon falling for X, Evie can’t stand the thought of losing him, of knowing he’ll die in 10 months—but as her family, friends, the mysterious woman, and X tell her, love is worth the pain. Her father thinks “pain is the proof of a life well lived and loved” and that love “is everything” (248-49). Though Evie is distraught over X’s imminent death, she realizes that her father is right: Her time with X outweighs her grief over his death.
As this theme is deeply personal, so is Evie’s journey. She learns that just because love ends, this doesn’t make it less real; love creates memories and new parts of oneself, like children. Her parents’ marriage had worthwhile moments, from family trips to romantic nights out, and led to the priceless creation of Evie and Danica. Evie’s cynical belief system changes when she dances with X at her father’s wedding, cherishing every second rather than denying time with him due to her fear of heartbreak. She embodies X’s advice to take advantage of now, a lesson he learned after losing bandmate and friend Clay. She finally believes that love is worth every second of bliss, which she recognizes in her visions of Archibald and Maggie, her father and Shirley, and herself and X. Every vision contains more love than loss, more happiness than pain, and she knows it will be the same for her and X.
Avoidance: Ways to Handle Conflict
In the face of conflict, Evie uses avoidance as a coping mechanism. For the first half of the novel, Evie stubbornly avoids her father, not even accepting phone calls. This behavior speaks to her anger, confusion, and hurt—all of which have made her a cynic. Before her father’s affair, she believed in love—but now, she avoids it to the point of not reading her favorite romance novels. Evie suppresses any inkling of love, judging Danica and their mother for dating, ignoring her feelings for X, and looking away from couples’ kissing to avoid visions.
Evie continually chooses avoidance rather than confronting her feelings and tough conversations. She decides to shun Sophie and Cassidy, rather than talk to them about why she doesn’t approve of their romance. Only when the girls confront her does Evie speak up. Likewise, Evie evades her father, and he’s forced to tell her about his wedding over the phone. She makes the conscious choice to not see him anymore, despite him working to repair their relationship. While Evie’s allotted to her anger, this behavior only reinforces her habit of avoiding conflict.
When Evie sees a vision of X’s death in 10 months, she runs away. She doesn’t answer his calls and texts, nor those of her family and friends, and wallows in grief: “I roll away from [my mom] and face the wall, wishing I were a stranger to her, to everyone. Right now, I don’t want to be known” (242). Although she loves X, Evie can’t face losing him and chooses to avoid being with him at all in order to protect herself, rather than consider his feelings (which she also did with Sophie and Cassidy). However, she realizes she can’t keep avoiding conflict (shutting others out, and pretending her absence and actions don’t affect others) and fixes her relationship with X.
Taking Risks
Throughout the novel, there are countless examples of characters taking risks. On the negative side, Evie’s father took a risk by having an affair with Shirley, rather than breaking off his marriage to Grace first. His actions led to Evie and Grace’s resentment and anger. Danica has a string of boyfriends, risking her heart over and over to find love. Sophie and Cassidy risk their friendship, as well as that with Evie and Martin, to become a couple. X takes risks with his “say yes” policy, since he believes in seizing each day. He also took a risk by dropping out of high school, moving to LA, and pursuing a music career. Archibald and Maggie dared to start a dance studio, following their lifelong dream.
As the plot progresses, Evie risks her heart by dancing and loving X wholeheartedly until he dies. Her biggest risk is learning to be vulnerable enough to love, even if love includes pain. Because X loves Evie, he feels confident in moving his band to New York while she attends college, changing his plans for her. They easily settle on the plan, as there is “no mistaking” that they’re “promising each other a future” together (231), though Evie knows their future will end. She knows she’ll be heartbroken, but continues to love X anyway. She realizes that all love involves risk, and that to truly fall in love, one needs to believe in the journey.
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By Nicola Yoon
