The Reluctant Mamoushka

Last year Edel O'Brien went to Russia as unpaid chaperone to nine Irish teenage girls beginning their first term at the Perm Ballet School. With no school lessons or activities set up for the girls, and virtually no contact with the Irish organisers, Edel's job soon becomes a nightmare of chaos and frustration. Struggling to look after the group, whose major preoccupations are Russian boys and chocolate, she tries to combat their boredom and homesickness. Meanwhile, the ballet school seems totally unprepared for its western pupils and more interested in the money they are paying than their dancing abilities.