Part of the bonding process for our blended family involved costuming. When my step-daughter Nicole developed a passion for creating and wearing costumes, our family united behind a shared activity. From Cosplay to Halloween, themed parties to cultural celebrations, costumes may be big business, but for others, they’re a lifestyle.
Costuming is integral to ballroom dancing. Is it an art or a sport? Perhaps a combination of both?
I knew nothing about Ballroom dance until my daughter and co-author Merida Bass and her husband Ron began taking lessons at the Best of Ballroom studio, “just for fun.” They quickly became immersed in the world of the waltz, tango, and rumba.
Costumes came later.
The granddaughters and my step-daughter all had their stints in the dance classes that so many young girls attend. Parents are obliged to buy expensive costumes that are worn for recitals. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles are obliged to purchase tickets to recitals for the joy of seeing their precious relative perform for five minutes.
Am I poking a little fun at children’s dance classes? I shouldn’t. For some, dance becomes a passion. A life-saver.
For one granddaughter, the lessons took hold. Dance became her life. The Barbara Ellis School of Dance provides her with mentors and friendships. She has blossomed from a socially awkward and introverted kid into a beautiful, confident, and graceful young woman. And a prize-winning dancer.
The second Friday in May, my daughter invited me to a dance competition. She, Ron, and my granddaughter were performing at the Broadmoor.
The world-famous Broadmoor is a historically significant hotel that has hosted US presidents. The Legacy dance competition happened in the Rocky Mountain Ballroom. Vendors offered their wares.
And that brings us to costuming. Okay, this is serious business, and I should call them ballroom gowns, not costumes. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was how a grown woman could become a princess for a day. Or evening.
To earn the right to be royalty requires hours, days, years, in a dance studio. Practice, practice, practice. My husband and I took lessons from the amazing, award-winning Jessica Mancini for a short while, until he begged off due to a bad knee. This isn’t exactly an insider’s view, but I’m not completely foreign to the ballroom scene.
While at the dance competition, I met Summer and Maria from Designs to Shine. I stopped to watch them sewing beads onto dress pieces. Please notice all the shimmering beads on the dress above. Each one of those was sewn on. By hand.
Yes, the ballroom gowns are expensive. Consider the amount of creativity, care, and labor that goes into creating each one.
What about the men? According to my daughter, their role is to make the woman look good. No peacocks here! The men, for the most part, were dressed in dark slacks and long-sleeved shirts. Handsome, yes, but serving more as a prop for their dance partner. Although there was one team of two women dancers.
If I had unlimited time, I might dip back into ballroom dancing. But there is only so much time in a day, and I have many more stories to write.
Does dance find a way into my fiction? Yes! It already has! In book two of The Ninja Grandparent Placement Mysteries, Grandma’s Valentine Abduction, the senior is a dance instructor. Lovey Dearheart is a retired Las Vegas showgirl and one-time famous cable TV hostess for The Hopeless Romantic. Lovey has never been lucky in love. Does she escape the unwanted attention of an obsessive fan only to be whisked away by a ninja?
Basecamp Books and Adventure carries the Ninja Grandparent Placement Mysteries, and exclusively carries Catherine’s Rose Creek Mystery series.
3918 Maizeland Rd, Colorado Springs, CO, United States, 80909
Basecamp Books and Adventure’s Facebook
Hidden Gems (University Village Colorado Springs Location) also carries the Ninja Grandparent series.
5020 North Nevada Ave Suite 120, Colorado Springs, CO, United States, 80918
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Join us and the author of The Jelly Monster for our book signing. Free stickers! Who doesn’t want those?
Sunday, May 31st
11:00 - ?:00 pm
Barnes & Noble in Chapel Hills, Colorado
1565 Briargate Blvd, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
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