Fun Facts

I love the world! I’ve traveled to 14 countries and throughout the U.S. and plan to travel more.

In eighth grade I read Gone with the Wind in one day from start to finish without stopping.

When asked to bring in a prop for my first dance improv class, I brought a toilet plunger. I washed it first.  

One of the most moving experiences I witnessed as a teacher was dance-drama improv created by a group of seventh graders. They silently depicted the anguish and pain of farm workers in the field.  I cried.

When I get in a writer’s rut or seek inspiration, I play rousing music and dance with abandonment. New ideas and phrases emerge when I move my body through space. 

I trained as an opera singer for umpteen years and sang German lieder. Not lederhosen.

Before my son was born, I purchased over 100 picture books—and read him the stories in utero. He absorbed a healthy dose of music—singing and dancing drums—as I was a dance instructor while pregnant.  

My baby brother once chased me down the street throwing oranges at me. (Okay, so he has six older sisters. Give him a break.)

I sometimes find myself in a love-hate relationship with books. When reading a great book, the rest of life is put on a hold—I’m totally mesmerized—hooked in a trance (and that means nothing else gets done. Sorry, familia.)  

I presented a song recital at the Kennedy Center for the Arts as part of my Teacher of the Arts Fellowship!

In high school I was convinced that birds flocked to my window to sing back to me as I rehearsed. Really.

Once upon a time in Aspen, I sang at the top of my lungs as my friends pushed me down a hill in a “borrowed” grocery cart.

Like many composers and poets, a walk outdoors opens up my writing, deepening my perception of the world in new and different ways.