Dance, writing, movement - and all that flows from
I dance as a way to survive. I write fiction to make sense of the world. These are the gifts I hope to give to others – the love of moving, the joy of watching others dance, the wonderful connections and discoveries created through fiction.
I was four years old when I was taken to my first dancing class, to help me to get over my shyness. It was terrifying and I refused to join in – but despite this I begged to return the next week. There was something in the strange ritual of skipping, hopping and jumping to music that I recognised, and craved. And so began my dancing life.
At around the same time, I discovered that the jumble of letters in a book transformed into wonderful stories, and so the world of books opened for me. Dance and writing have been partners in my life ever since.
Dance is a key theme in both my novels, published by Cinnamon Press. Dance is a way of survival in The Green Table, a novel set during the German Occupation of the Netherlands. In The Dancer at Worlds End, dance for my main character Gregor Von Loeben is a way of both escaping from and facing guilt and terror.
My memoir, Upside Down in a Hoop, is about loss and letting go. It explores what it was that kept me going through tough times, the joy of dancing as a child, and the adventures I might dare to take as an adult. What began as a book has now developed into a performance, mixing words and movement. Who knows where it will lead me next?
Tricia Durdey
I dance as a way to survive. I write fiction to make sense of the world. These are the gifts I hope to give to others – the love of moving, the joy of watching others dance, the wonderful connections and discoveries created through fiction.
I was four years old when I was taken to my first dancing class, to help me to get over my shyness. It was terrifying and I refused to join in – but despite this I begged to return the next week. There was something in the strange ritual of skipping, hopping and jumping to music that I recognised, and craved. And so began my dancing life.
At around the same time, I discovered that the jumble of letters in a book transformed into wonderful stories, and so the world of books opened for me. Dance and writing have been partners in my life ever since.
Dance is a key theme in both my novels, published by Cinnamon Press. Dance is a way of survival in The Green Table, a novel set during the German Occupation of the Netherlands. In The Dancer at Worlds End, dance for my main character Gregor Von Loeben is a way of both escaping from and facing guilt and terror.
My memoir, Upside Down in a Hoop, is about loss and letting go. It explores what it was that kept me going through tough times, the joy of dancing as a child, and the adventures I might dare to take as an adult. What began as a book has now developed into a performance, mixing words and movement. Who knows where it will lead me next?
Tricia Durdey