DANCING ON COALS

Moore presents a wide-ranging memoir as an artist, spiritual seeker, and overachiever.

The author was a child living in the Bahamas when local Bahamians were “rebelling against three hundred years of British domination”; in response, her English mother and stepfather moved the family to Geneva in 1963. There, Moore was enrolled in a finishing school that she found cold, gray, and stodgy. She resolved to make the best of her situation with a plan: “I conclude that henceforth, I must be the best. I must be so exceptional that no one will overlook me.” Several years later, when she was 19, this drive led her to train in a revolutionary form of physical theater in the Netherlands, which involved regularly flinging herself across the room, into walls, and returning to a primitive state for an attentive audience. Soon, however, she’d had enough of the avant-garde theater world and decided to leave for a few years; she joined another theater group in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1973—this time, to great success. Slowly, however, Moore experienced an awakening by reading the works of various female writers (including Virginia Woolf, Colette, and Anaïs Nin), moved into solo shows, and eventually left the theater world behind. Throughout this book-length exploration of her personal growth, Moore details her relationships with neurotic, artistic men before she decided to marry an auto mechanic, settle down, and have two children. Moore presents an account of quite a notable life spiked with sharp, often funny dialogue, whether she’s detailing the initial courting of her husband or her first sessions as a therapist-in-training later in life: “‘Tell me what’s happening,’ I murmured in a soothing tone, holding my chin in one hand and crossing my legs so I would at least look like a therapist.” Moore frequently recounts experiencing profound moments, seeming to come to grips with great revelations—only to carry on with her life as before. For readers, though, this habit is not frustrating but relatable, and those taking note will walk away with some wisdom.

A wise, insightful, and always-entertaining recollection of a journey of self-discovery.