Toni Bentley

Toni Bentley (born 1958) is an Australian-American dancer and writer. Bentley was born in Perth, Australia.

Her father, P. J. Bentley, is an Australian biologist and endocrinologist. Her brother, Dr. David Bentley, is a molecular biologist at the University of Denver. She took her first ballet class at age four in Bristol, England and entered the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet, at age ten. At age seventeen she joined George Balanchine's New York City Ballet where she performed for ten years under his tutelage. She retired from the stage at age 26 due to a hip injury.

Bentley has written five books. Winter Season, A Dancer's Journal, was published when she was 22 years old by Random House. It is a diary of her life as a corps-de-ballet dancer in the New York City Ballet. It was called "a mini-marvel" by Robert Craft in the New York Review of Books. Her other books include Holding On to the Air: the Autobiography of Suzanne Farrell (co-authored with Farrell), (Simon & Schuster, 1990), Costumes by Karinska, (Harry N. Abrams,1995) about Russian costumer designer Barbara Karinska, Sisters of Salome, (Yale University Press, 2002), a cultural history of the femme fatale and origins of modern striptease, and The Surrender, An Erotic Memoir (ReganBooks/HarperCollins, 2004). All of her books have been named Notable Books of the Year by The New York Times. She has written essays and reviews for the New York Times Book Review,Vogue,The New Republic,Bookforum, and CR Fashionbook. Her essay "The Bad Lion," originally published in the New York Review of Books, was selected for The Best American Essays 2010 by editor Christopher Hitchens.