Barbara File Marangon traded her pointe shoes to perform with an elephant — touring all over the U.S. with Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus.
She wrote about her experience dancing and performing with an elephant named Peggy in her memoir, Detour on an Elephant: A Year Dancing with the Greatest Show on Earth. The book was nominated for the Circus Historical Society’s Stuart Thayer Award.
Barbara taught and choreographed ballets in Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic. While living in Europe, she was the owner and artistic director for the Scuola di Danza American Ballet in Italy. Her experiences in Italy inspired her second memoir, Chasing Castles: Nineteen Years Living and Teaching Ballet in Italy.
Read more about Barbara and her forthcoming novel, The Body in the Malibran Theater, winner of the Bronze for unpublished mystery by Florida Writers Association's Royal Palm Literary Awards.
“It is a great pleasure to endorse Barbara File Marangon’s book on flamenco and the Ballets Russes..." —Mary Margaret Holt, Dean, Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts
“Marangon proves a gifted storyteller,
penning her tales with humor and sensitivity.”
—Barbara Bamberger Scott, US Review of Books
“With intensity and honesty, she opens
the doors to a world unfamiliar to most people.”
—Phil Jason, Florida Weekly Magazine