Olivia Book was promoted to the corps de ballet of Ballet West in Salt Lake City, making her one of the first professional ballerinas with a limb difference. She has a congenital limb difference — her right arm is smaller than her left.
In recent years dance has been rethinking its relationship to diversity in areas like race and body type.
Bradford Chin, an assistant professor of dance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said that Book's promotion allows us to question how we conceptualize what a healthy body looks like and how we approach the idea who is a qualified dancer.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/arts/dance/olivia-book-ballet-west-limb-difference.html
