Author Gail Sidonie Sobat Interview on Dancing and Being Different

Please welcome Gail Sidonie Sobat, author of Chance to Dance For You, to StephTheBookworm! Gail's new novel is about Ian, a young gay man, living in a town where everyone is the same. Even though he doesn't fit in, he finds joy in dancing, which he hopes to pursue professionally. Then, he falls in love with the high school quarterback...

What was the process of titling Chance to Dance For You?

The title came from “The Music and Mirror” which is a key song in the musical,  A Chorus Line.  The song is basically about loving to dance, the need to be a dancer because the desire to dance is bone deep.

What prompted you to write about a gay teen? What problems do you feel gay youth face today?

The book came out of my experience working as a high school teacher in an affluent suburb.  The boys in the book are based on several real-life people, one of whom took his own life in his grade 12 year because his father was a fundamentalist Christian and a military man who forbade his son to be gay.  So many young people are in such pain, and those who are marginalized, often suffer greatly.   I think you need only look to the news and the tragic suicides of the past year to recognize the difficulties that GBLTQ youth face: bullying, cyberbullying, gay bashing, depression, shunning by family members, the list goes on.  We seem more enlightened as a society, and then another young person throws him or herself off a bridge.

 Since Ian is a dancer, what are your top three favorite songs to dance to?

Well, I’m particularly fond of “Thriller.”  A more contemporary piece that’s fun to dance to is “Bad Romance.”  And I can’t resist ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”  But because these days I focus on salsa dancing, I really like the music of the Buena Vista Social Club.

What has been the most exciting thing about being an author?

Meeting readers and traveling across Canada, to the US, to Switzerland, and to Doha, Qatar as an author.  Of course, there’s nothing like holding your book in your hands for the first time!

What messages do you hope to get across in Chance To Dance For You?

I guess I’d like people to question the status quo, to ask questions about the scripts that are supposedly written for their lives, to challenge those who say there is one mono-culture, one way to live, one colour to paint a house, one correct way to love, one way to be a man.  And I’d like us to all stand up for each other a little more.  I hope these are some of the themes that readers recognize when they read the book.

Thanks so much for being here today, Gail! A Chorus Line is one of my very favorite musicals (after Rent and Wicked, of course!). I am thrilled to see an author bringing light to such important issues as GBLQT.