Grier Cooper's Blog, page 7

5 New Ballets to Love

February is the month we traditionally associate with love, the month when many people run out to buy cards, flowers and chocolate to give to their significant others. But not everyone has a partner and love comes in many other forms besides romantic love. I propose we reclaim February as a month celebrate love in its many forms–from friendships to family–and most importantly as a time to reflect on the things that we most love about life and discover new things to love. In that spirit I’m de...

5 Dance Films To Love

February is the month of love, whether you’re down with the idea or think it’s trite Hallmark trash. This month, in honor of the sentiment of love, (which is a beautiful thing when it’s not being commercialized beyond recognition) I went in search of new things to fall in love with, beginning with this first installment: 5 Dance FIlms to Love. I hope they make your heart beat just that little bit faster, as they did mine.

artwork © Grier Cooper 2015

Ballet 422. If you’ve ever wondered how balle...

How The Paleo Diet Will Help You Look and Feel Your Best

During last week’s interview, Smuin Ballet’s Erica Chipp mentioned how following a Paleo diet changedher life. Erica said this way of eating not only helped her to successfully heal multiple bone fractures,she’s now in the best shape of her life. For a dancer that’s saying a lot! ThePaleo diet has become a personal interest because I got sick of dealing with terrible allergies and learned that changing my diet could make a big difference. It was only by eliminating some of the prime suspects...

Interview With Smuin Ballet’s Erica Chipp

During a recent interview withSmuin Ballet’s Erica Chipp, she shared her (comical) story of getting into Smuin Ballet andwhat she’s learned about dealing with dance injuries

A native of Lake Tahoe, NV, Erica Chipp trained at The Harid Conservatory in Florida before joining Festival Ballet Providence in 2004. Directed by Mihailo Djuric, she performed featured roles in Viktor Plotnikov’sCinderella, Agnes de Mille’sRodeo, Colleen Cavanaugh’sPippiand Balanchine’sTarantella, Rubies andDonizetti Var...

WISH Book Tour

I’m excited to announce the Official WISH Blog Tour kicks off today! We’ve got a lot of great posts to share with you including insider infoabout ballet, interviews, excerpts, the official playlist and a giveaway. Hope you’ll tune in and enjoy!

THE OFFICIAL BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE:

January 12th

-Dark Readers>> Review

-Indie Authors You Want to Read>> Excerpt

-Catch the Lune>> Guest Post

-A British Bookworm’s Blog>> Review

-Books Direct>> Review + Excerpt

January 13th

-Book Bitches Blog>> Review

-The Bookish...

A New Year, A New Way to Dance

There’s a bright and shiny, brand-spanking new year ahead of us and I don’t know about you but I long to do something different, try something new. For those of you who long to take a break from learning choreography and dance your own way for a change, there’s good news: freedom can be found in the form of 5Rhythms®. This free-flowing form of dance sprouted from the mind of dance pioneer Gabrielle Roth, who used these teachings in her dance therapy classes at Esalen Institute before launchin...

The Top 10 Gifts From the World of Ballet in 2014

It’s been said that the best gifts can’t be bought– and this was never more true than this past year. 2014 was a huge year of gifts from ballet, with some high-tech breakthroughs and historical firsts. Here’s my list of the Top Ten Gifts from the ballet world.

1. World Ballet Day. This unprecedented, uber-exciting event gave us twenty-four hours straight of livestream ballet from the Australian Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, The Bolshoi Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and the Royal Ballet. Mo...

The Gift Everyone Wants This Holiday

During the holidays It’s easy to get swept up in the pursuit of getting and giving stuff but with the end of 2014 looming just around the corner it’s also a time to take stock of where you are in life and where you want to go next.Whether you are a dancer or not, all of us secretly want the same thing: to be the best version of ourselves we can be. Even though you may ask for that new, perfect leotard in the hopes that you’ll stand out in a crowd or a pair of jeans that make your butt look go...

My Holiday Motto: Less is More

The past few months have reached new heights of hectic-ness, just in time for the end-of-year push of the holiday season. Every year I tell myself I want to do things differently; to slow down, do less, enjoy more, but my good intentions get swallowed up and buried in the middle of too many activities (setting up a tree, shopping, decorating, baking and parties, parties, parties). This year is going to be different–not only because I’ve been super sick for the past six weeks and don’t have th...

WISH Official Release Day! Author Q & A

The countdown is over–today is the big day–the official release of WISH! Today I’d like to share author Q & A to give you a little more background information about the book.

Why did you write WISH?

There were several factors at play when I wrote WISH. I knew I wanted to set the book in the ballet world because dance has shaped who I am and has been one of the few constants in my life. Many people don’t get to experience this world firsthand and I wanted to give readers an insider’s perspective...