The Dance (2009) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Hanns: Recently returned from the Middle East where he worked as a filmmaker, Hanns is ready for whatever adventure will happen next.
• Anna: Anna is an uninhibited dressmaker and chocolate maker who delights in life's philosophical absurdities. She's married to Tino
• Tino: Tino is a painter and flamenco guitarist extraordinaire. When his guitar is destroyed, he accompanies Hanns to Spain to help film a documentary and find a new one.
• Antonio: Is an amateur bullfighter determined to prove himself in the ring. He arrives quite by accident along with another remarkable coincidence that catalyzes the group's decision to travel from Germany to Span.
• Kalimba: The child of a witch doctor and a missionary, Kalimba escaped from the African diamond mines, got an education and became a pilot. He lives on a sailboat in Spain and comes along on the journey.

Quotes edit see section history

• ““Traditional floral arrangements are fine for funerals,” she explained, “but I’ve never understood people’s obsessions with killing things. Cut flowers are beautiful for a few days and then they wither and wilt—terrible symbolism, especially for a marriage, don’t you think?””

  Anna

• ““Life on the sea is full of powerful magic,” Kalimba responded. “It is always my great pleasure to introduce it to good people who can slow down enough to experience its effects on time.’”

  Kalimba

• “When I make a painting, I look for people to love it, but I also look for people to hate it.I don’t like that they hate it, but it’s like dropping an object into water. If you drop a heavy object, waves spread rapidly to all sides. It doesn’t matter which side you measure. Anybody will tell you they love something just to be polite. Compliments are often inauthentic. When people say they hate my work, I know they are being honest. If I see big, fast-moving waves on the negative side of the pool, I know with certainty I have dropped an object with some weight—with some impact—and the laws of physics dictate that waves must also affect the positive side. If I see only inconsequential ripples, I can infer the work has no real mass. It is a feather—fluff. I am not afraid of people hating my work. I’m afraid of people being unaffected by it one way or the other.”

  Tino

• “It’s very limiting and short-sighted to live on planet Earth for a few decades and settle on hard and fast conclusions about how and why things work. The world of mathematically quantifiable things is pretty solid for practical purposes but when it comes to the world of magic and meaning, there’s a lot we don’t know and quite a lot we don’t even know we don’t know. I’m just saying I’m not going to give you a nice, gift-wrapped picture of the Universe all tied up with a pretty bow and a card that says “wish you were here.” Belief systems can be very comforting, as can be adopting a community of people who share that belief system, but they prevent a lot of us from ultimately exploring or experiencing the meaning and the mystery—what a friend of mine would call the ‘essential absurdities.’”

  Hanns

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Kaiserslautern: traditional German villages with half-timbered "gingerbread" houses in the woods.
• L'Estartit, Spain: a small fishing town on the Spanish coast that's rapidly being overtaken by tourism. Kalimba has his boat docked there.
• Sevilla: The City in Spain where the group settles in to start filming at the Corrida de Toros
• Ronda: An ancient Spanish town high on a mountain top where Antonio's corrida takes place in one of Spain's oldest bull rings.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Dave Bricker (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Dave Bricker (Designer)

First Edition edit see section history

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Thrillers › Psychological & Suspense

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• The Dance: Book's site
• Essential Absurdities Press: Publisher's site