"Detour on an Elephant, A Year Dancing with the Greatest Show on Earth" by Barbara File Marangon

Barbara File Marangon is a writer, teacher, choreographer, and painter. Born in New York, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from the Empire State University. She danced professionally in classical ballets, operas, musicals—and the circus.

Barbara traded her pointe shoes to perform with an elephant—touring all over the U.S. with Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus in 1978.  She wrote about her dancing and performing with an elephant named Peggy in her memoir, Detour on an Elephant, A Year Dancing with the Greatest Show on Earth. The book was nominated by the Circus Historical Society for the Stuart Thayer Award.

Barbara taught and choreographed ballets in Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic. While living in Europe, she was the artistic director of the Scuola di Danza American Ballet in Italy. Her experience in Italy inspired her second memoir, Chasing Castles, Nineteen Years Living and Teaching Ballet in Italy.  In 2016, she was awarded the Ballets Russes Fellowship from the University of Oklahoma where she taught ballet and received her Master of Fine Arts in Dance. Her research there led to her book, Passion and Elegance, How Flamenco and Classical Ballet Met at the Ballets Russes, published by Routledge in England.

In addition, Barbara received her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the Southern New Hampshire University. Her writing has appeared in Dance Magazine, Florida Writers Magazine, and The AutoEthnographer Literary Arts Magazine. After two published memoirs and a dance history book, she is now writing a mystery series. Her first novel, The Body in the Malibran Theater, was a finalist in the Royal Palm Literary Award Competition in 2023.

Barbara File Marangon's books will be available for purchase after the presentation.  The author will also be signing her books.