Ballroom Bonanza

Title:                Ballroom Bonanza
Author:            Nina Rycroft and Stephen Harris
Illustrator:        Nina Rycroft

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Author / Illustrator:   Picture books have been Nina Rycroft’s passion ever since she received a copy of Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen when she was a child. After graduating with a Diploma in Graphic Design from Randwick, in 1992 she spent 6 years working as a designer in Sydney, London and Rome. She returned to Sydney in 1998 with her English husband, Andy, and began working on her first picture book, Little Platypus written by Nette Hilton, which was a 2001 CBCA notable book.  In 2008 she illustrated the award-winning picture book Boom Bah! written by Phil Cummings which was published in conjunction with the Australian children’s theatre production of the same name by Windmill Performing Arts Company. Ballroom Bonanza is Nina’s most ambitious project yet. She conceived the idea for the book after a visit to Blackpool, England where her grandfather-in-law, Tommy Jones, was once a big band leader. It has taken more than five years for the book to be finally published. Nina lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband and two children, Charlie and Jayme. Other picture books by Nina include Tricky Little Hippo written by Jane Bowring and Elephant Dance written by Sue Whiting both published by Koala Books.
Author:           Stephen Harris is an award-winning writer of books and radio scripts. He was born in Melbourne, and attended The Victorian College of Arts before joining The Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a radio producer and presenter. He still dabbles in radio, but is happiest when writing books for children and adults. Stephen Harris assisted Nina Rycroft with the storyline by writing the verse for Ballroom Bonanza. Stephen enjoyed working with Nina on the text. When he saw Nina’s photographs of the Tower  Ballroom, he could see why she wanted to use it as the backdrop for the story. Stephen says, “It’s a sumptuous space, which must have looked particularly good when filled with people wearing their ballroom finery”. He enjoyed the notion of an annual meeting of the animals, where they all participate in a remarkable ballroom dancing contest.

SYNOPSIS
On one level Ballroom Bonanza is a simple animal alphabet book, featuring a different animal for each letter. On another level it is a delightful story of a dance competition set in the sumptuous Tower Ballroom, and featuring lavishly dressed animals performing a variety of wonderful dances. Two impetuous impalas/Tango on the tabletops./Next a jaguar who jetés/Blushes as her tutu drops. In addition readers are invited to find twenty-six musical instruments that have mysteriously disappeared, and are hidden on “each page from A to Z”.  Ballroom Bonanza is picture book for primary-aged children, but will also be enjoyed by younger children and adults who will respond to its lively exuberance.

WRITING STYLE
Ballroom Bonanza is told inverse. Each double page spread has a four-line stanza, with rhyming words at the end of the second and fourth lines. Where two animals are featured on one spread, the stanza is divided into two lines per page. While working on the text Stephen and Nina were limited to using animals that began with the appropriate letter of the alphabet. Stephen says, “That’s harder than it sounds. We rapidly found that there are very few animals that begin with the letter U, so we had to invent one”. These are ‘the Ugwumps’. They also had to think of twenty-six different dances. Stephen was delighted to find dances he’d never heard of before, and he tried hard to find ones appropriate for each letter. For some letters he used alliteration - vampire bats valeta, zebra do the zapateado. When it was impossible to find a dance that started with the correct letter, he attempted to feature one that contained the sound of the letter. In poetic terms this is known as assonance - orangutans bopping and doing the boogaloo, oxen doing the foxtrot. Because the story features an orchestra, Stephen thought it important to get the rhythm absolutely correct. The rhythmic form of the verse is trochaic tetrameter. This is where a long syllable, or stressed syllable, is followed by a short or unstressed one: DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da. This means that, even if some of the words are tricky, it’s fun to read the story out loud. Penguins proudly take their partners,/Then the polka they present./Quails dance a quaint quadrille/And question where the monkeys went. The story is bursting with expressive and lively descriptive words - The groovy goats try go-go dancing. The quails dance a quaint quadrille. Sassy swans perform the samba. Vampire bats veleta slowly. Jiving, flinging, stomping, swinging animals are everywhere. The pace of the story changes following the letter Zz. Here three four-line stanzas on two single pages set up the mystery of the missing instruments.

ILLUSTRATIONS
Nina Rycroft used watercolour, gouache and coloured pencil for the illustrations in Ballroom Bonanza. Each single or double page spread, and each stanza of verse, is contained within an ornate border, evoking the scroll-work at the top of the Tower and Empress Ballroom stages. Within these borders the ballrooms come to life. The illustrations depict the vibrant colour, glamour, glitz and razzmatazz of the animal dance competition – glittering mirror balls, twinkling lights, sparkling jewels, brilliant costumes, luxurious red velvet curtains, the grand scale and opulence of the ballrooms with the high ceilings, balconies, parquetry floors, grand staircases, and intricate plasterwork. The characters – the dancing animals - appear larger-than-life, ready to burst out of the frame. They are shown in all their finery - feathers and tiaras, silks and chiffons, nail polish and stilettos, gloves and lacy knickers. The temperament of each set of animals is clearly shown in their facial expressions and body language. The quails are dainty. The ugwumps are silly. The jaguar is embarrassed. The zebras are elegant. The style and movement of the different dances is captured through the bold use of use of colour, line, and space. The musical instruments, delicately drawn on the endpapers, are cleverly hidden on pages throughout the book. Nina says, “A big thank you to Tommy Jones and the Tower Band for making the music that brings this book to life!”

DISCUSSION POINTS AND ACTIVITIES

• Have fun reading Ballroom Bonanza aloud, highlighting the rhythms of each dance, and emphasising the humour of what is happening – Elephants like belly-dancing,/Entertaining all their friends/Watch their bellies wibble-wobble/even when the music ends.
• Read each verse from A to Z, and do the actions for each dance – pound your feet with the hefty hippos, cancan with the kangaroos, twist with the turkeys, and rumba with the rhinos.
• Nina Rycroft took some time to choose the right animal for each letter. She says, “After much discussion, chickens became camels, giraffes became goats, tigers became turkeys and quokkas became quails. Make lists of different animals beginning with each letter. Choose your own animal and make up a new verse using alliteration and/or assonance, and the ‘DUM da DUM da’ rhythm.
• The zebras dance the zapateado – (No one can pronounce it though). If you go to Nina Rycroft’s website you will find a link to an interview about Ballroom Bonanza. You will find out how Nina pronounces ‘zapateado’

• There are twenty-six different dances in Ballroom Bonanza. Find out how to dance the hootchy-kootchy, the flamenco, the jitterbug, the twist, or the quaint quadrille. What are the steps? What is the rhythm?
• Listen to music for each of the dances. Do you know anyone who can do these dances? Ask them to come and show you how.
• Create your own ballroom pictures, using Nina’s drawings as a model. Create a double page spread, using your favourite animal (or two) as the character/s. Keep in mind where the animals should be on the page and how you will show action. Will some characters be in the foreground (bigger) and others in the background (smaller)?
• Think about how your animals will be dressed. How will you make them look gorgeous, like the animals in Ballroom Bonanza? Talk about how Nina has done this. Look at her drawing style – her use of colour, movement and space, and the addition of small details like nail polish, bracelets, hats, shoes.
• All of the pictures are set in a ballroom. Talk about how Nina Rycroft creates atmosphere in this setting. In the background look for the stage, curtains, the balconies, the parquetry floor, columns, coloured spotlights, the band poster, stairs, audience. Which page shows the view from one of the balconies? Can you include background details in your own drawings?
• The dances come from a range of different countries and cultures. Find out more about the origins of the dances. Look carefully at the illustrations to find out what kind of costumes the animals wear if they are dancing a particular dance. Why are the camels wearing fruit hats when they conga? What clothes do the kangaroos wear when they dance the cancan? Why?
• Find out more about how Nina creates picture books by going to her website. You can see how she works on a book from first sketches, to finished artwork.
• Can you solve the mystery of the missing instruments? Check each page from A to Z now./Prove you’re good at monkey tricks!/Find the hidden instruments/(In total there are twenty-six). Some are very tricky to find. Try and find them all without looking at the answers. Help each other.
• Look at the instruments on the end papers. Divide them into groups – percussion, woodwind, strings, brass.
• Have a Ballroom Bonanza!