Dancing in the Dash: My Story of Empowerment, Diplomacy, and Resilience

by Lauri Fitz-Pegado

Overview

Dancing in the Dash tells the inspiring and compelling story of a woman whose experiences have taken her around the world. Lauri Fitz-Pegado has had a remarkable life performing in the arts, embracing activism and advocacy, and working in the world of policy, politics, and diplomacy. She became a career diplomat, a presidential appointee in the Clinton Administration at the Department of Commerce under Secretary Ron Brown, and she met with renowned world leaders. Ballet provided ballast and grace throughout the rigors of her life and career, beginning with her training at the prestigious Jones-Haywood School of Ballet in Washington, DC.

The author explores her life's journey, and how her training in dance helped establish the skills-balance, endurance, perseverance-that informed her approach to the challenges that she faced, both professionally and personally, as an African American woman. This memoir is particularly relevant today, during our national conversation reassessing our assumptions, our past, as well as our path forward. In telling her story, the author reveals her insights and observations about history and its consequences, about opportunity and obstacles, and about loss and redemption.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940162559405
Publisher:	Bold Story Press
Publication date:	10/01/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Cultural and commercial diplomacy are the hallmarks of Lauri Fitz-Pegado’s career. She has been a civil servant at the Voice of America and a Foreign Service Officer in cultural affairs in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Appointed by President Clinton, she was confirmed by the Senate to serve as Assistant Secretary and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service at the Department of Commerce led by Secretary Ronald H. Brown. In the private sector she advised countries, corporations, individuals, and non-profits on trade as a senior executive at Hill and Knowlton and Gray and Company, and as a partner at The Livingston Group. Lauri also was an executive at Iridium, the global mobile satellite communications company. With a history of ballet training and performing with the Capitol Ballet, Vassar Dance Theatre, and Ballet Santo Domingo, she now has returned to her passions by teaching ballet and mentoring. She applies her communications and public relations skills to promoting artists, and her business and leadership experience to advising dance institutions sharing her commitment to social change, empowerment, and inclusion. Lauri received her MA from the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies and a BA. from Vassar College, speaks Spanish and Portuguese. She is grateful for her children and grandchildren in Scotland, Angola, and Mozambique.

Editorial Reviews

With special resonance for this moment in our country's history, Lauri, a friend of many years, shares a creative and compelling portrait of a Black woman making her mark, while handling her personal and professional lives with grace. Her story is a compelling testament to the transcendence of resolve, perseverance and resilience across generations of an American family.

Former US National Security Advisor - Susan E. Rice

From private dinners with revolutionaries and heads of state to marathon strategy sessions with presidents and diplomats, Lauri Fitz-Pegado walks gracefully as a citizen of the world. Bolstered by a childhood of love and privilege, her personal quest for excellence created a launching pad for a life of purpose, impact and adventure. Dancing in the Dash will challenge us all to do more and will inspire young women to dream and dare to make a difference.

Author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker - ALelia Bundles

Lauri Fitz-Pegado shares her captivating life story with an honesty, insightfulness and humanity that make her book inspired and inspiring. Truly a 'page-turner' from start to finish.

Artistic Director and CEO, Canada's National Ballet School - Mavis Staines

Lauri-Fitz-Pegado's Dancing in the Dash provides an interesting peek inside the development of a performing artist in a challenging time.

Artistic Director, Dance Theater of Harlem - Virginia Johnson

Secretary Ron Brown was a singularly impressive figure, and in his time at the Commerce Department gathered the most remarkable, enthusiastic, and diverse group of young colleagues I ever had the pleasure of meeting in my time as ambassador. Lauri was not just a part, but a key formal and informal leader of this group. I hope that through the book she will continue to inspire, entertain, and teach, as she has done all her life.

Founder of Dubrovnik International University, Former Ambassador of Croatia to the United Nations and the United States, - Miomir Zuzul