My love for all things dance

I first witnessed ballet was when I was seven years old. My mother had taken me to see the Sadlers Wells Ballet perform Les Sylphides in London, and I was instantly mesmerized! Little did I know at the time that I would become a professional dancer, and then later transition to a costume designer.

That's not me in the photo. I just like the picture!

I never lost my love of dance and dancers. I know how hard it is to train, to become really good, and how short a ballet career will most likely be. Dancers of any age speak a common language, a language of sore muscles, intense and disciplined training, and the pure joy of artistic expression through movement.

In fact, it was my experience as a dancer that got me my first costuming job. I met one of the producers of Ann-Margret's lavish Las Vegas act, who was looking for someone to co-ordinate the 12 dancers' and 6 singers' costumes for her show. I thought I didn't know anything about costumes, only having worn them, never having made them, but the brilliant producer said I must understand what dancers need, and so gave me the job! That was what started it all.

Through Ann-Margret, I met Bob Mackie and became his assistant for the lavish Las Vegas show "Jubilee," and once again found myself costuming dancers. During rehearsals, I even took class with them from time to time if I wasn't busy downstairs in the wardrobe department. 

Leigh Taylor Young in Passions"

Many years later, while designing the show Passions, I had an unusual experience with actress Leigh Taylor Young. It turned out we had a unique connection from the past. She asked me, "Were you ever a student at the National Ballet School in Toronto?" I was surprised at the question, as that wasn't something that was in my bio. It turns out that she was also a ballet student there, a couple of years younger, and "looked up" to me, one of the "older" students at age fourteen!

From ballet to Broadway to ball gowns in Hollywood. Who would have thought!