In this engaging, witty, and poignant memoir, Greg and his wife Joan make the frightening trek to the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Dayton, Ohio, for a few lessons to better enjoy the professional formal functions they attend. What they find is nothing short of miraculous.

Dancing With Natasha takes the reader from "I Can't Dance," to "I'm A Dancing Machine." Greg and co-author Natasha detail the often agonizing, but always rewarding endeavor of learning Ballroom Dance. In this engaging, witty and poignant memoir, Greg and his wife, Joan make the trek to the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Dayton, Ohio, for a few lessons to better enjoy the professional formal functions they attend. What they find is nothing short of miraculous. In her own exuberant style, Natasha, their Russian instructress, explains how she moves beginners who consider the 'obligatory grope' on the floor to be dancing, to graceful self-expression. With the foreword written by Barbara Haller, Four-time United States Professional Theatrical Arts champion, and details from other students, instructors, and dance pros, Dancing With Natasha gives the reader an uncommon peek into this incredibly popular and exciting endeavor.

History on a grand scale--an enchanting masterpiece that explores the making of one of the world's most vibrant civilizations A People's Tragedy, wrote Eric Hobsbawm, did "more to help us understand the Russian Revolution than any other book I know." Now, in Natasha's Dance, internationally renowned historian Orlando Figes does the same for Russian culture, summoning the myriad elements that formed a nation and held it together. Beginning in the eighteenth century with the building of St. Petersburg--a "window on the West"--and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself--its character, spiritual essence, and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works--by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall--with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons, and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world. Figes's characters range high and low: the revered Tolstoy, who left his deathbed to search for the Kingdom of God, as well as the serf girl Praskovya, who became Russian opera's first superstar and shocked society by becoming her owner's wife. Like the European-schooled countess Natasha performing an impromptu folk dance in Tolstoy's War and Peace, the spirit of "Russianness" is revealed by Figes as rich and uplifting, complex and contradictory--a powerful force that unified a vast country and proved more lasting than any Russian ruler or state.

Natasha loves to dance and people in her village call her the best dancer they've ever seen. When her cousin from Moscow tells her about the ballet, Natasha longs to dance on the stage.

"It's the night before a young girl's first dance recital. At the dress rehearsal, she and her class go over the steps one last time. What if she messes up? she worries. But the next day, she's ready to perform. When the class spins left she spins right. Without missing a beat, she keeps on dancing and smiling"--Amazon.com.

When Luke Coleman first touches his sister’s doll, he feels an extraordinary warmth travel the length of his arm. Natasha is like nothing he’s ever seen, but the attraction soon develops into a crippling obsession. In desperation, Luke turns to his eccentric aunt Nadia for support. Why was Natasha the only doll of her kind ever made? What is the history his aunt is so reluctant to reveal? At nineteen, Luke is still a loner, unable to form a relationship and no closer to understanding the reasons behind his fixation. But someone has been watching him, someone else who is looking for answers, and when they meet, Luke’s life will change forever. Content warning: while this story is a romance, it also includes scenes relating to childhood abuse, suicide ideation and domestic violence.

Hailed as one of the greatest novels of all time, Tolstoy's epic unfolds during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia and encompasses episodes of romance and historical scope as well as insightful social observation.

Rumba music starts and a floor full of dancers alternate clinging to one another and turning away. Here, Julia Ericksen, a competitive ballroom dancer herself, takes the reader onto the competition floor exploring the allure of this hyper-competitive, difficult, and often expensive activity.

All things pass – is this your philosophy? Is there no room for love in your philosophy of life? Renowned and best-selling novelist William Boyd, CBE, adapts two Chekhov short stories, A Visit to Friends and My Life, to weave a comic tale about nineteenth-century Russian provincial life, both familiar and unfamiliar. When Kolia is invited to visit his oldest friends on their Estate in the country he anticipates a pleasant break from Moscow life. But as the comedy of provincial life plays out around him, he finds himself adrift in a miasma of false expectations, missed opportunities, and unspoken passions.