Category: Ballet Trilogy

Tutus are costumes worn by female ballet dancers.  In Marta’s setting, they cost several hundred dollars to make. Today those same tutus may cost over $1,000. All must be handmade and require more than 60 hours to gather the yards and yards of tule plus the added beading and over layers of silk or satin. Tutus are all the rage with teens, but there’s nothing stopping you from making small child or adult tutus! Learn how to make a tutu. Go to You Tube and type in tutu making. A plethora of ideas will arise. Enjoy the variety of presentations...

Lots of people talk about dance. These quotes say a lot about dancers who are truly dedicated. Enjoy *** Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made.  Ted Shawn *** To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.  Agnes De Mille *** Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another.  Unknown *** It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer.  Shanna La Fleur *** Dancing can reveal all the mystery that music conceals.  Charles Baudelaire...

During book events people often ask questions. Here are a few of the more common questions and my answers. When did you start writing? I started writing poetry when I was a child. I also made my own cards and wrote short stories. As a teacher I wrote plays and song lyrics but my interest in writing didn’t happen until I retired and had time to write at length. My first project was taking the training ideas Linda Belz and I developed for our classroom parents and turning them into my first book, Educating America: 101 Strategies for Adult Assistants ...

In our current world not every dancers leaves home to finish high school in a dance academy or graduates from high school and auditions  straight-away to join a ballet company. Some actually put their careers on hold and choose to attend college. True, many still seek out apprenticeships in ballet companies but a growing number of dancers go to college and earn Bachelors degrees in Fine Arts. Part of the draw is the chance to study dance history, kinesiology (mechanics of movement of the human body), and other interests such as early childhood education in addition to being able to...

The resurgence in interest in ballet stories is probably related to movies like The Company and Black Swan as well as the reality TV programs such as SYTYCD:  So You Think You Can Dance and Breaking Pointe. Many ballet stories are for young adults (YA); a few are for mature adults (MA). Please share your comments about any of the listed ballet stories you’ve read or if their synopsis sounds interesting to you. For more extensive synopses look to Amazon or Barnes and Noble online where you will also find reviews and ratings. 1.  Dancing on My Grave by Gelsey...

Here are the short answers to the French terms listed yesterday. For longer answers, check ballet terminology online. 1.  allegro – rapid movements accompanied by jumps, turns, etc. 2.  pas de deux – a dance done by two people (usually a man and a woman) 3.  tour en l’air – complete turns executed in the air 4.  balance’ – a waltz-like step where the weight is shifted from one foot to the other 5.  bourre’ – a traveling foot movement of tiny steps on releve’ beginning in fifth position 6.  glissade – gliding steps performed to prepare for a leap...

More French terms for you to decode. Use your background knowledge to  determine the meaning for each term as it relates to dance and especially ballet. Good luck! 1.  allegro 2.  pas de deux 3. tour en l’air 4.  balance’ 5.  bourre’ 6.  glissade 7.  grand battement 8.  re’verence’ 9.  passe’

Writers begin with reality and life situations and go wild from there. I did that with Miss Holland, Marta’s dance teacher. She is based on my wonderful Bremerton dance instructor Margie Speck. Here’s how they became one in my mind. Both dance instructors were thoughtful, positive and gave 110% to all their students from beginner to advanced. Both used record players and tape decks as sources of music. Both had commercial building spaces with concrete floors covered with linoleum. These and other facts moved to fiction as I began 84 Ribbons. They continue into book two, When the Music Stops...

Since 1948  ballet-themed movies and movies with a significant  numbers of dances in them have become a small sub-genre of movies. Here are a few of note: 1.  Red Shoes (1948) 2.  American in Paris (1951) 3.  West Side Story (1961) 4.  Turing Point ( 1977) 5.  Nijinsky (1980) 6.  The Company ( 2003) 7.  Mao’s Last Dancer (2009) 8.  Black Swan (2010) Which, if any of these movies, left positive and lasting images that shared true dance expertise?