Sunday, April 18, 2010

Quick, Before the Music Stops by Janet Carlson

Subtitled "How Ballroom Dancing Saved my Life", this personal history caught my eye at Amazon.com. I'm happy for her that she feels better in her life, and enjoyed the look at the ballroom competition world from a student's eye.
Janet Carlson writes for Town and Country magazine, so you see her frame of reference, the insulated NYC rich, far from the down to earth characters we think of ourselves on Cape Cod. The money to take endless private lessons and enter the competitions is beyond our reach. She relates her problems with her husband that end in an amicable divorce. She loves her daughters. The connection of leading and following is the part that saves her life and illuminates various parts of her psyche.
The nicest thing she does, in my opinion, is to run social dances on a Caribbean island with Bill Davies, a beloved teacher I met once at an event Mary took me to in Boston, teacher training for the International Style.

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