More answers to common question about me. 84 Ribbons and writing. Feel free to send your questions at any time. Was it difficult to jump from writing non fiction (Educating America) to writing ballet-themed fiction? Not really. I read mostly fiction and I love the world of ballet. Since I used to dance, I thought it would be fun to visit that first love (from age 3) and build the world of a young professional dancer. Marta came to me one evening with her life and her story outlined. The novel grew from her early conversations with me in my...

I am often asked what traits I feel Marta exhibits throughout 84 Ribbons. So, I’m asking you to tell me what traits stand out to you after reading the book. Send a comment back about today’s post using the numbers in front of each trait. I’ll tabulate your ideas and post them in a future blog post. Feel free to list as many traits as you wish, adding your own ideas as well. Here goes traits from A-H. We’ll do I-W in a future blog post. A.  amazement          B. amusement          C. annoyance          D.  anxiety         E.  confidence          F.  confusion          G.  curiosity         ...

I love trivia and hope you find these ballet and dancer factoids of interest. **  Male dancers lift 1-1.5 tons worth of ballerinas during a simple performance. **  Dance competitions exist for all forms of dance: from hip-hop to cheer squads to classical ballet. **  Moderate dancing burns 250-300 calories an hour. Triple that for ballet performances. **  Dance classes start at 9AM and run for 1.5 to 2 hours. Performances rehearsals being at 11 and run until at least 4:30. **  When companies are preparing for a performance, many rehearsals overlap., sending dancers from practice room to practice room...

Yesterday I visited three writing classes at Shahala Middle School in Vancouver, WA. I had the chance to share writing ideas such as “what’s in the protagonists purse/wallet/school backpack/gym bag”, Lauraine Snelling’s glad/mad/sad/bad activity and then a detailed character worksheet. Those grade six students caught on easily. Wish I’d had a writer come speak with my class when I was their age. I might have started writing much sooner. Now I am turning my attention to a handful of book events. I hope you will share this information with family and friends you have in any of these areas. For...

Are dancers Athletes? There is considerable controversy over that question. Here are a few similarities to consider before you decide. 1.  The level of precision for a ballet dancers is comparable to those of gymnasts. Their bodies must ‘hit the mark’ or experience injury or miss their intended outcome. 2. The energy needed to perform a full length ballet is about the same as playing two full soccer matches OR running 18 miles. Many athletes and dancers exert energy in spurts with rest periods (time between dances and commercial breaks /timeouts  for TV sports. 3.  Many movement are the same...

Writing from experience means turning bits and pieces of your real life into a fictionalized scene. All writers use their life details as jumping off points. It may be closely related to an actual event or it may spring from an idea that circles a real event and grows to be its own, imagined but almost real event. It’s difficult to know sometimes, even for the author. Fact: Like Marta I had a difficult time in school learning to read.  Merged Fact & Fiction: While Marta struggled in school and saw no hope of going to college, I didn’t. I...

Over the past century, ballet lovers have flocked to see the classic story ballets like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Coppelia  and  Nutcracker. They’ve lasted thru the modern and abstract ballets and will probably continue in popularity for decades to come. A new series of full-length story or narrative ballets is emerging. Choreographers are using Disney-esque ideas and popular books as resources to create. The trick is to translate stories into the wordless medium of ballet; hence the need for mime. Christopher Wheeldon, in January, 2014’s Dance magazine says, “Choreographers gravitate to fantasy, escape and romance because these are themes that work...

New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet and American Ballet Theatre are all large ballet companies. Most of us are not able to attend their performances unless we’re on vacation or they are touring near us. What we have are over one hundred-twenty small companies in and around our medium and large cities. (See the complete list in wikipedia under list_of_ballet_companies_in_United_States) I’d say we’re fortunate to have so many chances to see ballet performed! The smaller companies maintain between 30 and 50 dancers. They often bring in well-known soloists to dance (and draw in larger audiences). Their seasons...

May 12 – 18 is Children’s Book Week. Here are several resources of ballet books, stickers and stories.  Enjoy! 1.  Usborne.com (sticker books and story books) 2.  Barnes & Noble.com/children’s ballet books. You’ll find 1,390 books, both fiction and non-fiction selling for $.99 and up. 3.  Amazon.com books are by category: picture books, novels, etc. on 95 lists. They range from a penny to $30.00. 4.  www.wish-upon-a-ballet.com/ballet stories 5. www.delightfulchildrensbooks.com/2010/dance  

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...