In 2004, after taking adult absolute beginner and beginning ballet class at OBT for four years, OBT’s Dance Historian & Lecturer Linda Besant wrote an essay called “Ballet in Bifocals” that was published in “Open Spaces,” a regional quarterly magazine. It’s both a humorous and thoughtful look at the rewards and perils of attempting ballet class in one’s 50s.

University of Washington Press had published an anthology of essays from the magazine, and it is being released this week. “Ballet in Bifocals” is included in “Open Spaces: Voices from the Northwest.” On Wednesday evening (June 22) at 7:30 pm, John Daniels, Kim Stafford and OBT’s own Linda Besant will join editor Penny Harrison at the main Powell’s store on Burnside to read from the anthology.

If you’ve ever taken, or toyed with taking, ballet class as an adult, you might enjoy it!