A note about tHe cover art

The cover art incorporates a painting of Klym when he was a principal dancer at the State Ballet of Missouri. The painter is Ken Southwick. The photography session that informed the painting occurred at the Westport Allen Center in Kansas City, while Kendall was suffering from a stress fracture to his left cuboid. When asked what he thinks of having a picture of himself on the cover of his book, Klym said the following: “It reminds me of the hell I went though. As a short and diminutive male dancer, I had to exaggerate my turnout, increase my extension, and jump higher, just to be recognized and to secure roles, and even then, I was not always successful. Having a picture of myself on the cover is painful and humbling—the antithesis of narcissistic.”

Goal for Readers

My goal in this collection is to use words and stories to redefine dance—to show that we all dance, whether we are performing a ballet or an appendectomy. Perhaps the surgeon who removed your appendix never had the privilege of studying ballet, but the movements she made when slicing into your abdomen require the precision and artistry of a ballet dancer raising his partner in a bluebird lift, making sure she looks beautiful and stays safe. Both sets of hands manipulate bodies. Both the dancer and the doctor set out to improve and preserve humans’ quality of life. When such a comparison is made, the definition of dance expands. My stories redefine dance through characters who run the gamut, from professional ballet dancers and directors in “Pavlova” to honeybees and a piano teacher in “The Dancing Bee.” While the collection focuses more on ballet than other dance forms, common themes predominate, including the loss of love and the devastation of war. My hope is that through these stories readers can make their own connection between language and dance, and that they can add to my definition of dance.