An Interview with Composer Federico Ferrandina You, Fascinating You, a novel based on the epic story behind a timeless love song, will soon come full circle on the stage as a dramatic musical. I returned to my roots in Theater to write the book and lyrics. Because music resides at the very heart of this [...]
Dance and Aging
An Interview with Linda Ashley, Ph.D. “Dance, dance, or we are lost!” Pina Bausch In the highly competitive and youth-dominated world of professional dance, most performers retire in their thirties and early forties. For a dancer whose very identity is bound up in performance, what more does a life in dance have to offer? The [...]
Mystery Revealed: Author Casper Silk Unmasks
Silk and Subterfuge… For the past several years I have been dancing with a shady male alter ego, channeling his dark visions and lofty ideals into novels, and hiding my double identity from all but a few close friends. In short, dear reader, I am the mind and soul behind the mysterious Casper Silk, author [...]
2012
A Look Back In Gratitude Year’s end has become a time of lists—top news events, best books, memorable quotes… Having lived 2012 at full tilt with my sights on the horizon, I’ve kept no list, but my writings—both on this blog and elsewhere— suggest what has mattered to me and who has shared my journey. You, [...]
The Anthropology of Serendipity
Dr. Peter Cleave on Avoiding the Hamster Trap Dr. Peter Cleave has one of those storybook CVs that reads like Gulliver’s Travels, epic adventure of a restless mind. An accomplished anthropologist, Rhodes Scholar and Oxford Ph.D., an iconoclast and risk-taker, Peter has eked out a unique niche in the Performing Arts as a musician, playwright [...]
A Love Letter to Readers
Dear Reader, I may not know you personally, but chances are we have “met” through our shared love of books. You know me in a way few friends ever will: through my stories and my characters, the themes with which I grapple book after book, my running “lover’s quarrel” with language and the prose that somehow [...]
Born to Dance
Ballerina Ursula Verduzco on Reaching Beyond the Dream Ursula Verduzco has not had the glamorous career she dreamed of as a little girl. An artist of tremendous heart, she has nonetheless triumphed as a dancer, choreographer, entrepreneur and patron of the arts. Ursula Verduzco trained at Ballet Austin Academy and the Joffrey Ballet School in New [...]
Life as Art
Barbara Conelli on All Things Dolce Who hasn’t dreamed of living la dolce vita in some achingly quaint corner of Italy? Italophile Barbara Conelli is one of those rare “artists of life” with a knack for finding sweetness wherever she goes. A bestselling author, seasoned travel writer specializing in Italy, and acclaimed radio hostess, Barb [...]
Dancing Through Upheaval
Amy Gould on the Desire to See Things Grow Does place play a part in an artist’s development and ultimate success? Dancer, choreographer and entrepreneur Amy Gould, a South African resident in Cape Town, provides a compelling example of one artist driven to adapt and thrive through world-shaking upheaval and change. Fellow of the Imperial [...]
Dance, Despite All
Jamie Benson on the Art of Not Fitting In Jamie Benson aims to challenge performance traditions and create accessibly original work as a dancer, choreographer, producer and instructor. Jamie attended the Dance Department of Cornish College of Fine Art and Spectrum Dance Theater on scholarship—and there any resemblance to Billy Elliot ends. A boundary-pusher and [...]
