For the love of Falling - A Dancer’s Memoir on grief, Love and climbing trees

Hot off the presses •Just finished the book • Looking for an agent and publisher.

Watch the She Said Podcast on YouTube. Hear the backstory on the talk “For the Love of Falling” that generated the book, and a sneak preview of the first pages.

Synopsis of the Book

Within the span of two years, I lose everything – my soul mate of forty-two years, my two beloved doggies, my job, career, and purpose. You will first find me climbing a Catalpa tree, trying to make sense of all my losses. As a professional dancer, I revel in the sheer joy of being off-balance, off-kilter, wild and free in a world that often asks us to remain complacently vertical. As ageing takes its toll on my body and death takes everything from me, should I abandon living on the edge? And what about my own death? Will I eventually just discard my treasured teacher, the body, like a worn-out t-shirt?

My body takes me on a circuitous journey inward, illuminating the lessons of my past dance journeys, and opening pathways to let go of everything I desperately wants to hold onto. I leave no body part unturned as I investigate my heart, gut, bones, skin and spine to look for clues as to how I might recover. I immerse myself in challenging experiences, from white water rafting through the Grand Canyon to climbing to the top of my trees. As I shed layers of self, I become more energetically connected to the larger pull of gravity on the trees, the stars, and the moon. I refuse to grow old, and rather, desire to grow wild. I return to a creative life in surprising ways, making Witchy Dances and performing again. Through immersion in nature, dance, and yoga, I begin to viscerally comprehend that one day, I will discard my most treasured possession, my body. Until then, I will climb upward toward the awe and wonder of this one beautiful world.

The structural Container

Twelve chapters create the structural container for the work: Falling Apart – Bleeding Out – Free Falling – Falling Down – Building Up – Diving Inward – Falling Out – Falling Away – Gravity’s Pull – Climbing Upward – Diving And Flying – Falling Upward. The journey follows the gravitational pull on our emotional and physical beings from the tender, raw and unfiltered weight of grief to the buoyancy of sweet joy and everyday ecstasies.

The manuscript is finished… help me find a publisher!