A beautiful graphic novel

This long graphic novel Bastien Vives follows the evolution of a young dancer from the time, six years old, she joined a prestigious ballet school. There she met her mentor, Professor Bojinski, known for its classicism and a severity that has already led many of his students to leave, slamming the door. Later, we see her change schools, then take a decisive turn by joining with her boyfriend a troop vanguard ...

At first, I struggled to hang on drawings in black and white and minimalist trait as the author trembled. Gradually, incompleteness printing faded and I began to find that on the contrary, counting the graphics used sensitivity of history. Through the course of his heroine Polina, Bastien Vives speaks very strong relationships that can exist between a teacher and his pupil, but also the opposition between tradition and modernity in art. His characters are not very talkative, and the author suggests their feelings more than it exposes. During the first three quarters of the story, I wondered who was really Polina and why she was dancing, and I confess that it made me a little embarrassed. But I liked how she ended up being when it starts in Germany, and just stop becomes voluntary and passionate. The conclusion, both nostalgic and looking to the future, is one of the prettiest I have ever seen in comics. Only regret: leaps in time, as it flows several years between a page and the next, would have benefited from being more explicitly marked. But overall, "Polina" remains a great discovery, and an album that deserves the awards he has collected.