A memoir of renewal and self discovery that explores the magic of ballroom dancing and its power to bring grace, balance and passion into everyday life.
I’ve been dancing steadily since that Valentine’s Day. I have taken countless lessons and classes, passed a professional certification exam, done several shows and a competition — yes, dressed in those outrageous gowns and false eyelashes — and then gone back home to the kids, the soccer, the housework, and to work the next day. It hasn’t been easy to make room in the schedule for my passion, but I have done it, because I’m certain now that it is necessary for life. This new period is rich — as rich in some ways as having my two children because it has been a kind of birth, but it has also been extraordinarily painful thanks to the self-examination that dancing has provoked in me. And so, because of dance, I can say, unequivocally and gratefully, that I am alive at last.”
— From Quick, Before the Music Stops (Broadway Books) by Janet Carlson
See my ballroom dancing activities and credentials.