Thank you for joining me on my 84 days of blogging. It’s been a challenge! Now I’ll slip back to 1-2 blogs a week so I’ll have more time to work on finishing When the Music Stops. Thank you also to those of you who joined me at my book events. I met a lot of new people around my stops and made at least one new best friend. I discovered that most drivers are courteous and drive very fast on the open roads of Eastern WA and along I-90 to and from Billings.  I also discovered I can drive...

What is the most important message you hope readers will take away from 84 Ribbons ? All careers have struggles as well as successes. It is important to meet those challenges, honor our definition of success and work to change what is holding us back. Since writing Marta’s story, I’ve been told she’s strong and resilient; “I couldn’t do what she did”. That is not true. When our commitment to our passions is strong, most everyone can dig deep and find inner strength. We discover more about ourselves every time we solve a problem. It is my hope that the trilogy...

If you arrived after the first day of my 84 days of blogs, I hope you will take the time to look back and find the topics that interest you. I’ve tried to cover 84 Ribbons book topics, share information on ballet, let you in on a few secrets and answer questions about writing. After June 12th I’ll return to writing one or two blogs a week. Please let me know if you have lingering questions I might answer. I also invite you to invite your friends who enjoy or perform ballet to join us.

I have an amazing book of traits called The Emotional Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression. I depend on it to help me delve into various situations I create for my characters to navigate. Over the last couple of week, I asked you blog readers to share your thoughts. After reading the novel, the traits  that you feel Marta demonstrates (from the two lists I provided) include: anxious, determined, humble, resourceful and nostalgic. Some of you added your own ideas: persistent, imaginative, talented and sacrificing. Your choices interest me as I move forward with Marta’s story. I agree with...

Madame Cosper holds many secrets from you and from me. Much as I try to peel back her layers, she refuses. I’m afraid if I push her too hard she’ll use her cane and thump me! I know she loved to dance and had an illustrious career in Europe and on the East Coast but she is stingy with why she came to Montana. Maybe it was Herbert. I’m not certain yet. I do know why she is so hard on Marta. She sees Marta as a reflection of her teen self: talented and naive as well as fragile yet determined....

So, ballet started in the 16th Century. It began as a social court dance then became a specialized career and grew to include women. Early music was classical with music written specifically written for ballets. Since early on, choreography stressed flexibility, rhythmic flow and beautiful lines of movement. In modern ballets the emphasis often shifts to expressing more theatrical and less fluid movements which no longer adhere to the classic forms. Which is best? Classical or modern? It would be as if we tried to compare driving cars with baking a cake: there are similarities of course, but the differences...

Dance are often on a quest for greater and greater flexibility. To that end, they may  actually go too far and create weakness instead of strength in what they do. Here are two new suggestions about stretching that all of us should heed. 1. Don’t hold static stretches before warming up. If you hold a static stretch for more than 30 seconds before you warm up you may damage your ligament and tendons. Instead, keep the muscles moving, flowing from one position to  another. If you force your use of your muscles without warming them up, you may injury your joints....

This month Kaori Nakamura will retire from Pacific Northwest Ballet. She’ll join other premiere dancers like Patricia Barkley, Suzanne Farrell and Mikhail Baryshnikov by retiring after two or more decades of dancing. Many move on the focus on their young families; others become artistic directors, guest instructors or guest performers. Still others form their own dance academies. Like many of us, it is difficult to walk away from a career that consumes us from a very young age. Finding a replacement life experience often takes patience as well as capital. Gelsey Kirkland is a prime example of a dancer turned...

Grab a needle and thread. If you dance, you sew. Yep. Guys and gals are responsible for sewing parts of their wardrobe to prepare for performances. For Women Pointe shoes do not come with ribbons. Dancers must sew on the ribbons, attach elastic and them break-in the box (where the toes fit into the pointe shoes). Professional dancers soften the box by placing it against the hinge side of a door and closing the door. It helps reduce the harsh clopping sound of a new shoe during a performance. Young dancers are not allowed to crush their shoes since they...

Dance had become a worldwide interest. TV and movie presentations as well as live programs draw in  hundreds of millions of viewers a year. So, what’s happened to dance in the USA? A new breed of choreographer is changing the world of dance one step at a time. Here’s the list of the top US choreographers over the past century. How many names sound familiar? 1.  George Balanchine (ballet) 2.  Paul Taylor  (modern) 3.  Bob Fosse (jazz) 4.  Alvin Ailey (modern) 5.  Katherine Dunham (established black dance) 6.  Agnes de Mille (ballet/ broadway) 7.  Shane Sparks (hip-hop) 8. Martha Graham...