A Young Dancer's Apprenticeship

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

This true story of a young Canadian ballerina who rose from obscurity to
become a soloist with a major ballet company will delight all who love
the ballet and its unique world. At the age of 14, Olympia Dowd was
taken from a Vancouver ballet workshop and offered a position with the
Moscow City Ballet as it prepared to tour Asia and Northern Europe. Dowd
found herself in a dreamworld where life ranged from the rigors of
training to the thrills of touring and performing in Taiwan, Russia, and
Northern Europe with a professional ballet company.

Dowd’s autobiography is both gentle and bold. She came from Mennonite
stock who lived in the forests of the Hollyburn Mountains near West
Vancouver. Her desire to be a ballerina sprang from seeing a performance
of The Nutcracker when she was only six years old. The text is enriched
with many color photographs of her performances in roles ranging from
Cinderella to Carmen. With simplicity and charm, she tells her story of
training, travel, and performing. Her exciting adventure had “great
highs, [and] some lows” and, she concludes, “I’m only eighteen, I
have a lifetime of dance to look forward to!”

This unusual autobiography will be of special interest to young girls,
to aspiring dancers, and to all who love the world of ballet. Highly
recommended.