This study guide was created using the following version of this book: Yoon, Nicola. “Instructions for Dancing.” Delacorte Press. 2021.

Instructions for Dancing tells the story of Yvette “Evie” Thomas, a high school senior who is coming to terms with the end of her parents’ marriage and her own thoughts about love. After Evie catches her father cheating on her mother, Evie turns her back on love. Once a great lover of romance novels, Evie gives her books away and vows to not get her heartbroken. Evie encounters a mysterious old woman who gives her a book titled Instructions for Dancing. After taking the book, Evie realizes she has a strange new power.

Evie’s power is the ability to see the entire arc of a couple’s relationship if she sees them kiss. This convinces Evie that all relationships end in heartbreak as she sees her sister Danica breaking up with her boyfriend after she sees him kissing his ex-girlfriend and friends at school breaking up after going away to college. Evie confides in her friend Martin about what she is able to see. Martin convinces Evie to try and find the lesson in her visions. Evie starts by going to the dance studio listed on the Instructions for Dancing book.

At the dance studio, Evie meets a young man named X. Fifi, a dance instructor at the studio, partners Evie and X together, ultimately convincing them to participate in a dance competition. Evie fights her attraction to X, but they continue to get closer. Evie and X bond over loss and music and dancing. As Evie continues to see visions of couple’s relationship ending, Evie keeps herself from falling for X.

Evie learns that her father is getting married to Shirley, the woman Evie caught her dad kissing. Evie’s relationship with her father seems irreparable, but X helps Evie make an effort with her father. Evie continues to waiver about whether or not she will go to her father’s wedding, but eventually decides to go.

At the dance competition, Evie and X kiss and Evie has a vision about their relationship. When Evie realizes that X will die within the next year, Evie runs away. When X contacts Evie to see if she is okay and to tell her that they won the dance competition, Evie breaks up with X. Evie cannot fathom letting herself love X and lose him.

Evie thinks a lot about love and loss and what her life would be like without X. Evie cannot tell X about her visions and must shoulder the burden on her own. Eventually, Evie decides that it is better to love X while she can than to not be able to love him at all. Evie and X stay a couple until X dies from an undiagnosed heart defect X has had since birth.

Evie learns that it is better to risk heartbreak to be in love. After reflecting on her experiences, Evie comes to the conclusion that the end of a relationship is not the point. Rather the experience of being in love outweighs the pain when the relationship comes to its natural end.