Author, Educator, Innovator
Janette DeFelice, MD, MPH, MA, is a health sciences educator, public-health communicator, former professional dancer, and author of The Last Pirouette: A Novel in Three Acts. Her work explores health, art, ambition, identity, family, climate, and the forces that shape human lives.
Trained in medicine, public health, and the humanities, Janette translates complex systems into stories people can understand. In her fiction and nonfiction, she is drawn to questions of risk, performance, resilience, and the cost of becoming who we are.
Featured in Chicago Review of Books · 4.9/5 IndieReader · IR Approved
The Last Pirouette: A Novel in Three Acts
A haunting, emotionally charged novel about the burden of being a woman, the grip of childhood trauma, and a mother’s fight to reclaim her life before losing her daughter—and herself—forever.
When Delia lands a coveted spot with a prestigious New York ballet company, she steps into a world of beauty, betrayal, and brutal ambition—while her mother, Victoria, is left behind to confront the wreckage of her own unrealized dreams and long-buried trauma. A cryptic prophecy shadows their lives and as Delia’s path toward womanhood is marred by injury and manipulation, Victoria embarks on a tender, midlife metamorphosis—rekindling her own desire and learning, too late, that letting go is not the same as giving up.
Told with lyrical grace and unflinching honesty, this haunting, feminist portrait of art, sacrifice, and rebirth reminds us: life dances on, a tragic ballet.