Step by Step by Sirrka-Liisa Konttinen

‘A woman came to the dancing school and she said: “Can I enrol my granddaughter for dancing classes?” I said: “Yes, come in, I’ll take down her details.” I was busy taking down the details and I asked: “How old is your granddaughter?” The woman’s face lit up and she said: “She was born this morning!”’

Thirty years later the granddaughter is a mother herself: “I can’t remember learning... I can’t remember ever not being able to dance! When I go dancing, I’m not Quinn’s and Shelley’s mother and I’m not Dave’s wife, I’m Denise - there to do what I want to do.’

A book tracing the lives of mothers and daughters from a dancing school in North Shields into the outside world over a period of seven years, documenting their dreams and realities in conversations and photographs.

‘I hope,’ says Konttinen in her introduction, ‘it will continue to serve as a springboard for both critical and sympathetic examination of women’s lives within our society, and offer insight into our own dreams as well as others.’

Soft cover, very good condition. 1989.