Meet Samantha-Ellen Bound

Samantha-Ellen Bound graciously answered questions relating to her Silver Shoes series. The latest additions, Rhythm and Blues, and Studio Showdown (published January 4) will be reviewed here soon. Let’s meet Samantha-Ellen Bound.

Samantha-Ellen is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, author and bookseller. What was it like combining all her passions for this one series?

This is exactly what I love and enjoy so much about being an author – that you can take all the things you love and turn them into something that is going to speak to someone else on their own personal level. It was seriously an absolute ball and because I was so comfortable and in my element I had a lot of fun with the writing and the four Silver Shoes girls and hopefully that is what leaps (full jete style!) off the page.

Is this series true to life? Does it show the hard work, highs and lows of being a young dancer?

Well the drama has definitely been upped, but at the same time I wanted the series to very realistically portray these four young girls who adore dance and are right in the middle of a hobby and sport that whilst fun, is extremely challenging and competitive. Every little drama is a massive ordeal when you’re ten years old and dancing is your everything, you know what I’m saying? If you forget a move you don’t just forget a move; you can ruin a whole term’s worth of hard work as well as the expectation and hopes of a school, a parent, your friends etc. It’s a lot to put on a young girl! So it’s easy to see how huge minor dramas can become when you’re ten, and that was the perspective I wrote from.

I have a dance background and I’ve taught young kids and definitely things I’ve seen, heard, and observed – from the amusing, to the horrifying, to the inspiring – have all made it into the book. My own primary school years have been plundered for their fabulously precocious and hilarious offerings! But most of all yes, the highs, lows and hard work involved in being a young dancer are definitely at the heart of Silver Shoes. Exams, competitions, concerts, injuries, auditions, backstage drama, it’s all there, as is the breathless, giddy, heart-stopping joy the feeling of simply being on stage can give you – that was what I wanted to convey most of all.

Is this the perfect gift for fans of Dancing with The Stars?

Absolutely, it definitely has the sparkly glamour, the backstage antics, and the fun of DWTS. Especially for Paige, our little ballroom star. But each girl has her own style along with the individual challenges associated with each, so hopefully readers will find one girl who especially speaks to them and who they can relate to.

Who would you tip in a dance-off: Madonna or Beyonce?

My girl ‘Yonce for sure!