Life as a Tarantella

This memoir describes the life and times of the author's mother, Barbara Adams Stephens, a Broadway dancer and stage-manager in the 1930s. Barbara's story is a classic feminist tale. It is also a narrative of resilience. Barbara was an only child, born in Toronto, Canada in 1915. Her mother, Ethel was a want-to-be Bohemian artist and her father, Stanley was a professional singer. Neither parent concentrated on raising Barbara. It was after Ethel took her daughter with her to Paris in the 1920s that Barbara learned her parents were getting divorced. It was also in Paris that Ethel enrolled Barbara in a Catholic boarding school run by nuns. This gave Ethel freedom from parenting, but it was also the most miserable period of Barbara's life. She was the only American student. No one spoke English. She quickly learned to speak French, but until she stressed her ties to Canada rather than America, no one befriended her.