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.
Chapters 56-60Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 56 Summary: “Once and Again”
At graduation, Evie listens to the valedictorian, Olivia, give a speech about their high school experience with cheese as a metaphor: They’re all like aged cheese. The students throw up their caps. Evie finds Martin, who states Danica is single again. Even if Danica rejects Martin, Evie thinks he’s stronger than her to face the pain of romance.
The pair find Cassidy next. Cassidy’s famous parents attend, to her shock, and she says she’s going to Asia with them for the summer. She apologizes for missing the road trip. The three hug, and Evie knows their relationships are changing.
When Evie and Martin find Sophie, she tells them that Olivia asked her out; Olivia will be attending Stanford too, and Sophie accepted her offer of a date. Evie hugs Sophie, wishing their friend group could hang out again—but feels that their friendships aren’t any less real because they’re ending, like her mother said about her marriage.
Chapter 57 Summary: “Two Dresses”
Danica comes into Evie’s room with two dress options, though Evie hasn’t changed her mind about not attending their father’s wedding. The former wants help on deciding her own dress, and Evie picks a detailed, teal one. She thanks Evie and says she broke up with her boyfriend Archer. Evie comforts her sister, and then asks if she’ll be over him soon, since Martin has liked her “since the dawn of time” (265). Danica is delighted, as she didn’t think Evie would approve of them dating. With a changed mindset, Evie tells Danica that she and Martin will be happy together.
Danica asks Evie why she decided not to attend the wedding anymore, and questions if their father had an affair. Evie can’t bring herself to tell the truth, as she doesn’t want to break her promise of secrecy to her mother or change her sister’s view of their father. Danica encourages her to come to the wedding to support their father and her since she doesn’t want to go alone. Evie takes the second lavender dress and agrees to go.
Chapter 58 Summary: “Answers”
The next morning, Evie tackles her apologies. She starts at the dance studio, where she finds Fifi, who calls her the “vanishing dancing queen” (268). Evie apologizes for running away and not thanking her. Fifi accepts Evie’s apology as Archibald and Maggie appear, explaining that the studio has been busy since she and X won the Danceball competition. They hired a formal receptionist, have more customers, and LA Weekly is going to write a story about them. Evie is thrilled for their success.
Evie shares her future at NYU and promises to take more dance lessons. She says her goodbyes, but then spots the Instructions for Dancing book on the counter; Fifi says she can have it back. Evie looks into a studio, and watches Archibald and Maggie twirl.
Evie returns Instructions for Dancing to the Little Free Book Library. The mysterious woman who made the library greets Evie, though Evie never shared her name. She erupts at the woman, asking why she gave her the power to watch people get their hearts broken. The woman smiles and says it wasn’t meant to be a curse but a gift, that she “gave her the power to see love,” not heartbreak (271). She questions why Evie only focused on her visions’ endings, since they’re not the most important part. Evie cries and asks when the visions will stop, and the woman answers that they will when she’s ready. She bikes away to prepare for her father’s wedding.
Chapter 59 Summary: “Do Us Part”
Evie and Danica’s father is thrilled by his daughters’ attendance; they share a group hug and tears. The girls sit next to their aunt and watch the wedding ceremony. Though everyone else watches the bride, Evie watches her father’s face and recognizes him as someone “who just can’t believe his luck” (275). When the couple is pronounced man and wife, and they kiss, Evie closes her eyes to pretend they have forever.
At the reception, Evie enjoys the band and her father’s first dance with Shirley, who cries as he wipes her tears. She is struck by the thought that all anyone has is the depth of their love now. She tells Danica that she has to go and rushes to X’s house.
Maggie welcomes Evie inside, and Evie tells X that she’s just come from her father’s wedding but needs a dance partner. She opens up about how it seemed safer to leave him because she’s terrified of losing him. X says she isn’t making sense, but then she says that endings don’t matter as much as now and that he’s the love of her life. X feels the same about her and agrees to join her at the reception.
Chapter 60 Summary: “The Future”
Evie and X arrive at the reception to find most people dancing, including Evie’s father and Shirley. She requests an Argentine tango from the band, and she and X dance.
Eight months from now, X will be playing his guitar when he’ll feel a pain in his chest. After his death, doctors will conclude he had a bad valve all his life. He and Evie will have written an album of songs together, danced for hours, made love many times, and said “I love you” every day by then. Evie knows love can last forever, relishing the here and now as she and her true love dance.
Chapters 56-60 Analysis
In this section, Evie protects not only her heart but Danica’s too. She doesn’t tell her the truth about their father’s affair, despite the latter considering it. Evie doesn’t want to cause undue pain, so unlike with Sophie, Cassidy, and X, she doesn’t push Danica away. She doesn’t want her to see their father differently, so chooses to protect her feelings and honor her promise to their mother. By considering Danica’s feelings above her own, she’s learned from not supporting Sophie and Cassidy, and avoiding X.
Evie’s character arc comes full circle when she learns to trust love again. Her choosing to close her eyes when her father and Shirley kiss, to pretend they have forever, is her way of looking past her visions’ endings. The mysterious woman reveals that she gave Evie her power to better appreciate love, not mourn its ending. Evie processes the woman’s words and learns to value her gift, ultimately choosing to attend her father’s wedding, apologize to X, and cherish every moment of their love—rather than running away because she’ll lose him. Despite love often being painful, she realizes its benefits outweigh potential pain. Evie now focuses on her and X’s journey, not X’s death, which allows her to love him freely and live in the present.
Although Evie ultimately chooses to be with X, the novel could have ended on a cliffhanger if Yoon hadn’t offered flash forwards to their future and how X dies. These flash forwards of Evie and X making strides establish a satisfying conclusion. There is minor foreshadowing of X’s death, such as when he jokes that his heart can’t take Evie’s teasing; he is later revealed to have a bad valve in his heart. Readers get a glimpse of the young couple’s time together before he passes away, rather than an ambiguous cliffhanger.
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