By Linda Levi

 

To say everyone who attended the New York Women in Communications Foundation’s Sept. 22 scholarship fundraiser left with an extra spring in their step — dance step that is — is no understatement. The toe-tapping, hip-swiveling event was inspired by the recent book launch of Becoming Ginger Rogers: How Ballroom Dancing Made Me a Happier Woman, Better Partner and Smarter CEO. Written by Patrice Tanaka, a former NYWICI President and Matrix Award winner, the book chronicles how taking up ballroom dancing in 2002 at age 50 not only satisfied a lifelong dream to dance like Ginger Rogers but something even more important — through the journal Tanaka found a pathway to unimaginable joy.

 

Born and raised in Hawaii, Patrice moved to NYC in 1979 to further her PR career. She steadily climbed the proverbial ladder and today is co-chair, chief creative officer and “whatcanbe” Ambassador at CRT/tanaka. Still, following the horrors of 9/11 and the stress of caring for a sick husband who succumbed to brain cancer in 2003 and battling breast and ovarian cancer herself, Patrice, in her own words, “was totally burnt out and uninspired by my own life.”   

 

Next step: a life coach who asked her what her great life plan was. Stumped for an answer after two weeks, Patrice finally saw the light: “To choose joy every day and to be mindful of it and share it.” Easier said than done, but dancing turned out to be the path to her joy. At the same time, dancing became the route to becoming a more effective manager and boss, Patrice says, because she learned that the goal is not perfection but rather to be fully present in each moment, to strive for continual improvement and to accept that failure is the stepping stone to success. 

 

The fundraiser also featured three spectacular dance performances by Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine, world salsa and mambo champion, and his partner Liana Churilova, both of whom have appeared on ABC-TV’s Dancing with the Stars and The View as well as PBS’s America’s Ballroom Challenge. In addition, attending NYWICI members and their guests joined in a spirited group mambo lesson and were inspired by a performance from Patrice herself with her dance teacher Pierre-Antoine.