Dance
Why a dance section on an author's page?
Because I was a dancer long before I was a writer.
It was all part of a master plan: Dance first, because the body ages at the speed of sound; then acting, because your voice lasts longer than your legs; and then writing, because your hands--and with luck, your brain--should outlast everything else.
As my first (and still) great love, dance prepared me for a life of writing. The discipline of facing a blank page is just once removed from facing your mirror image in ballet class, every day, over and over. And over. Keep moving no matter what. Keep writing no matter what.
Both involve great risk, giant leaps of faith, and the ability to stay grounded in technique and fly with abandon simultaneously. Like writers, dancers have a private language. We earn the right to speak it only by dancing. Unlike writing, dance is live and immediate. Onstage--sometimes for hours--there is no place to hide, and no edit button.
Cynics might think that anyone with a computer is a writer. But not everyone with feet is a dancer. We recognize one another almost immediately, no matter how many years since those feet were in the spotlight. The stage is a magical world that outsiders can visit--and we do love visitors--but to us it is our home. It's where we belong. -- JC