DANCER

NOW TRADED
This week's challenge on TMTA is to use a dance theme. When I was a child my parents believed TV was bad for children, so we never had one - with the result that I read voraciously and lived in my imagination more than most children my age.

Among my mother's books was a biography of Anna Pavlova, and I was totally riveted by the account of her considerable suffering and health problems, yet how she always put her art before anything else. Her feet used to bleed so much that she had to change her point shoes often throughout a performance!

So this ATC is a sort of shrine to Pavlova - and I deliberately chose not to show her in the iconic role of the dying swan, but used this image taken in 1902 which shows someone alive and vibrant. The crackle background is there because I was thinking about the pain she endured behind all the glitz and glamour of the theatre, and I used the German scrap frame because I see her as an icon of inspiration. The golden wings are because she rose above everything to enthrall and amaze those who saw her dance, and the crown is because she was one of, if not the greatest ballerina of all time.

And yes of course I dreamed of being a ballerina myself - I did a lot of pirouetting in front of the mirror but couldn't cope with the grinding reality of barre exercises!! Also, I wasn't really the right shape, not to mention having two left feet. But in my dreams ....