Overview

Norma knew from being a little girl that all she ever wanted to do was dance. Growing up in Harlem, life was tough - her father died before she was born and her mother worked long hours to keep the family together. But Norma's desire to be a dancer never faltered, inspiring her to overcome racism and poverty and become a world famous dancer and choreographer. This inspiring tale is brought vividly to life by black and white illustrations by prize-winning artist Martin French.

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9780763622442

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Reviews

In this compact, vivid hybrid, Govenar transforms his taped and transcribed interviews with dancer Norma Miller into her account of life as a globe-traveling Lindy Hopper in the 1930s and '40s. Young Norma danced the Charleston at her widowed mother's 1920s rent parties, peeked into Harlem's hopping theatres and clubs and entered every possible amateur night. Her determined apprenticeship and eight decade (and counting) career spanned the jazz and swing eras, took her to Europe and Rio and led to comedy, choreography, TV and film. Govenar captures both Miller's remarkable experiences (including incidents of racism on the road) and her sparkling evocation of American music and dance when swing was king. French's pictures pull out all the stops: bold, gestural strokes, chiaroscuro, canted perspective and art deco elements rekindle the era's excitement. Lacking documentation beyond Govenar's brief introduction, this begs to be paired with recorded music and film footage of the period. (Nonfiction. 9-13) (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Alan Govenar is an artist, filmmaker, folklorist and renowned scholar of the blues. He lives in Texas, USA. Martin French is an award-winning artist who has provided illustrations for the 2005 Grammy Awards, for jazz festivals and for several children's books including The Scarecrow's Dance and Sophisticated Ladies. He lives in Oregon, USA.

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