Dancing Changes Lives At Any Age

Kristina Hayes is a Los Angeles-based actress who stumbled (or samba-ed) into her life’s work: teaching the elderly to dance.

In this beautiful (get your hankies out) short film about Kristina's work, Waltzing Through Life by Mary Matthews, Kristina explores the ins and outs of teaching dance in nursing homes. The impact it’s having on the students lives is obvious. Some are newbies, some are coming back to dance and some have been dancing their entire lives. Kristina’s students talk about the impact dancing has made on their well-being and Kristina tells us the impact teaching classes to the elderly has had on hers.

Women Artists Helping Other Women Artists

Los Angeles-based book publicity firm Jack Jones Literary Arts is holding its very first writer’s retreat this October at the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, AR.

What’s exciting about this is that the retreat is open exclusively to women of color. And what’s SPECTACULAR about this is that celebrated authors like Roxanne Gay, Angela Flournoy and Natalie Diaz are providing fellowships for writers to cover the price of the retreat and, in some cases, travel costs. There are also fellowships named after literary greats like Lorraine Hansberry (oictured above) and Zora Neale Hurston.

Marta Becket: Ballerina With A Dream

Upon, learning about Marta Becket and the dream she made real in Death Valley, we were blown away. In 1967, this ballerina and New York native blew a tire on a camping trip with her husband in Death Valley. They had to travel forty miles to the nearest gas station where she spotted the future site of the Amargosa Opera house. After renting the theater for only $45 a month, Ms. Becket started her very own ballet theater in the middle of nowhere when she was 43 years old.