![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Becoming-Spectacular-author-photo-courtesy-Ben-Esner-200x300.jpg\")
c.2025, Amistad\n$26.99
\n208 pages<\/p>\n
c.2025, Amistad
\n$26.99
\n208 pages<\/p>\n
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/p>\n
Step, step, kick.<\/p>\n
Twirl, step, and kick again. Left, right, step. The choreography is all new to you, but you\u2019ll get it eventually, no problem. You know what it takes to be a great dancer: getting enough rest, taking care of yourself, practice, and as in the new book Becoming Spectacular, <\/em>by Jennifer Jones<\/strong>, you\u2019ll need all the perseverance you can muster.<\/p>\n Born in New Jersey in 1967, Jennifer Jones had a relatively happy childhood. The daughter of an interracial couple, her parents worked hard to give their three girls good lives, fun activities, safe neighborhoods in which to live, good schools, and a firm love of the arts.<\/p>\n As a youngster, Jones took twirling classes and tap lessons; she remembers seeing plays on Broadway and imaging she could be the next Stephanie Mills in The Wiz<\/em>. Even though Jones was a child then, Mills\u2019 iconic performance made it clear that there was a place for little Black girls on the Great White Way.<\/p>\n When Jones was a pre-teen, her mother paid for dance lessons and Jones found a mentor, Frank Hatchett, co-founder of the Broadway Dance Center. She also entered a pageant and got fourth runner-up but over time, her love of performing began to take a backseat to boys and drugs as she entered her teens.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t help that her parents fought, and they divorced.<\/p>\n At 17, Jones expressed an interest in rekindling her love of dance, but her then-boyfriend scoffed \u2013 which she took as a challenge, and she worked her way onto a music video. Seizing her passion, she took classes in Manhattan while attending college, working odd jobs to pay the bills, and attending try-outs as often as possible.<\/p>\n A painful break-up with a different boyfriend sent Jones back to New Jersey, but dance was still in her blood. She\u2019d noticed a listed audition for Radio City Music Hall\u2019s Rockettes, and the ad specified that minorities were welcome to try out \u2013 so she did.<\/p>\n And in an instant, she was a Rockette.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s that, right?<\/p>\n Not so fast. That\u2019s what you get in the first half of Becoming Spectacular<\/em>, but author Jennifer Jones has a whole lot more to tell. Are you sure you want to read it, though?<\/p>\n Think twice: Jones\u2019 basic story and her perseverance are worth cheering about, but readers may sometimes feel uncomfortable in what may seem like oversharing of private matters and parent-child issues in other places in the tale. Jones rushes her early story quite a bit, sometimes barely touching upon areas that might have served to inspire readers, and all her hard-won triumphs are often minimized \u2013 especially considering the end of Jones\u2019 story, her struggles and the difficulties she experienced as a Black woman. That makes this tale as uneven as a cobblestone street.<\/p>\n Overall, this quick story could\u2019ve been longer and better but even so, there\u2019s inspiration here to be found, if you look for it. Know that, going into Becoming Spectacular<\/em>, and you might get a kick out of it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" c.2025, Amistad $26.99 208 pages By Terri Schlichenmeyer The Truth Contributor Step, step, kick. Twirl, step, and kick again. Left, right, step. The choreography is all new to you, but you\u2019ll get it eventually, no problem. You know what it takes to be a great dancer: getting enough rest, taking care of yourself, practice, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[20],"class_list":["post-15266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15269,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15266\/revisions\/15269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15266"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=15266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}