Holiday Tradition: Nutcracker Ballet

     For many years of my life I was a dancer – That meant hours upon hours of class and then if there was a show, even MORE hours of rehearsal.

     And for nearly a decade of my life, that meant Auditions, Rehearsals, and Performances of the Nutcracker. To this day, I can still remember all of the choreography from my company, for every dance. Put the needle down on the record (oh wow, did I just date myself there?) and I can tell you who is on stage and what they are doing.

     The Music for the Nutcracker ballet was composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and has a First Act that is generally portrayed as the “Party Scene” – the “Battle with the Mouse King” – and lastly “Snow.”   (side note: if the Party Scene refrain sounds familiar, it’s because it’s also the melody of the Smurfberry Crunch jingle)

     Then you’ll have the intermission where the audience gets to stretch their legs and the dancers get to do the same.

     When the Second Act starts, we were in the land of the Sweets and the music becomes a bunch of short divertissements with delights from different countries. Spanish Chocolate, Arabian Coffee, Chinese Pretzels, etc. All of this leads up to the Waltz of the Flowers and the Pas de Deux (partner dance) of the Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier.

     For years and years little girls and little boys have danced on stage in many of the roles, moving up through the ranks in dance companies from group dances to demi-solo roles or featured performers. 

     Why am I mentioning all of this?

     Recently I was introduced to a project called the Ornamental Match Maker Series – where Mrs. Claus sends out gifts of an ornament to one lucky person and that begins their holiday romance!

I have a bunch of Nutcracker Ornaments, but I had to find an image suitable for a cover and found a lovely picture of a pair of pointe shoes. [The hard ‘boxed’ shoes that allow a dancer to appear to be dancing on the tips of their toes] and then I sat down to write the story.

     Now, they say to write what you know, so there are a FEW tidbits in the story that are from my past. Others, like some TV shows are INSPIRED BY. And the rest is all love… literally. Love. Lots of it.

     And right now I have ‘Advanced Reader Copies’ Available –

     So if you’d like to read and review this Sweet Contemporary Holiday Novella (less than 30K words) – you can visit this link BookHip.com/PGSPZX  and download your copy.

     I ask that if you download a copy that you post a review to the Amazon (and/or) Goodreads (and/or) BookBub page for the book on the day that book goes live or within a few days.

Happy Holidays to You and Yours!

A Dance for Christmas

Sometimes love could use a little push - Mrs. Claus is ready with a little magic for the Holiday Season

For the last ten years, Laura Chun put her heart and soul into becoming a physical therapist and sharing her love of dance with young students. When she receives an ornament and a mysterious message, she chalks it up to a Secret Santa – or in this case Mrs. Claus. It comes at the perfect time. A former student invites her to dance in the Nutcracker with her… & her father.

Matthew Benson would do anything for his daughter, Juliet. After they lost her mother years ago to a sudden illness it’s been just the two of them. Now Juliet’s earned the role of her young lifetime in a local ballet company. The only obstacle is that each dancer’s parents are expected to appear on stage. Juliet asks her favorite dance teacher to step in, and soon Matthew understands why his daughter thinks Laura hung the moon. He’s losing his heart to her as well.

Spending hours rehearsing together brings Laura and Matthew closer together and soon their onstage family may just become one offstage as well.

Will they take the chance and have… A Dance for Christmas?