Review of "Ballerina Garden" by Once Upon a Dance

Score: 95/100 (9.5 out of 10)

Imagine a book... a book in which every single page is something you could put on your wall or mirror—something you could learn, be inspired by, and even live by?

That's what you're getting with Ballerina Garden by the perennial OCA winners Once Upon a Dance!

We have to preface this by saying that this book, like many of Once Upon a Dance's books, focuses on dance, ballet, and the performing arts. With that said, however, we think you could easily apply a lot of these lessons to your own life and/orcareer—anything you're passionate about, whether it be writing, sports, business, relationships, or more. This book could apply to anything that needs nurturing.

That's something we appreciated the most about this book. It's practical, applicable, and yet ironically idealistic. Those aren't things that typically go hand in hand, and yet the creators struck a tactful and fine balance.

In a lot of ways, this isn't purely a children's book, this is a non-fiction book that's applicable to everyone including adults.

This book uses the beautiful and poetic metaphorical analogy of flowers and gardening, comparing them to performing arts.

Chances are, you've had flowers in your home, yard, or garden fairly recently. How long did they last? Did they bloom? Did they whither and die? What caused these things to happen? What could you have done better or differently? What if you had stuck with it and nurtured them properly and with attention?

Performing arts is like flowers in a garden. You can't just plant the seeds and abandon them. They require commitment, determination, dedication, time, focus, effort, and even some intelligence on part of their caretaker, i.e. the gardener. It's actually a remarkable and fitting analogy for how we need to tend to our passions, in this case dance and/or ballet.

You can't wake up one day and be a professional. But you can work at it day by day, refining your craft and your skills.

One of our favorite pages in this book talks about "Timing & Opportunity." Many times in life, it's easy to become discouraged or feel invisible. We're not performing on the biggest stages. We feel like we're not being seen or noticed. We're not getting millions, thousands, or even hundreds of views on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram. And we ask ourselves: Does any of it actually matter? Does anyone really care?

That's where self-determination and self-discipline comes in. Imagine if you were Napoleon, but instead of becoming an artillery officer at just the right time during the French Revolution, you decided to go into baking or something because the moment was too big and scary. Imagine if you were Tom Brady, but instead of going in the 6th round of the 2000 NFL Draft, you decided that all the QBs in front of you were just better, that you had no realistic shot in the pros, and you started working a 9 to 5 instead.

Imagine if you were Once Upon a Dance, but instead of publishing children's books, you decided to ... well, quit publishing and quit spreading the message years ago. There would be no book awards, but worst yet, the many young lives touched by these books would've probably have had to find their inspiration from somewhere else, if that somewhere else even exists in their lives.

Luck and opportunity work best when they're faired with hard-work and skill/talent—skill/talent that is honed over time and with great attention.

Who's to say you can't be performing on Broadway or for Cirque du Soleil someday? The sky's the limit. Don't let limiting beliefs keep you from reaching your full potential. Don't let past failures and disappointments crush your dreams and cause you to abandon your passions.

The illustrations in this book are artistic, stylistic, and visually stunning. They really match the poetic nature of this book. The dancers, as depicted in the illustrations, are poetically paired with images of flowers. The dancers' tutus, limbs, and movements literally emerge from petals and watercolor blooms. We liked the variety of colors and dancers of all genders and ethnicities, which is something that's easy to overlook. This is such a diverse cast! And they're not named. However, that anonymity just makes the message more powerful and impactful: anyone can dance, even YOU!

The only complaint you could probably concoct is that there's A LOT of stuff happening on each page, so much so that the text and beautiful writing gets eclipsed at times. There's color, there's action, there's action on top of action, there are dancers and flowers. Then there's text. And the text, unfortunately, kinda gets mixed up, overshadowed, and sometimes even buried amidst all the chaos on the page. It doesn't help that some of the titles are in cursive or that the text isn't lifted or bolded. There is a faint white background behind the text, which actually helps quite a bit.

Think of it like this: if you want to read the book, it might take some effort to dig the gems (the text) out from the chaos, but it's worth it.

Check it out on Amazon!