"I spent almost the entirety of Motion Dazzle with my heart in my throat for one reason or another." Tyler Feder, author of Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir and Bodies Are Cool Former competitive figure skater and coach Jocelyn Jane Cox is desperate to care for her toddler and her ailing mother, all while preparing to host a fabulous zebra-themed first birthday party at her house. As a new parent whose supportive mom is slipping away with dementia, she finds herself spinning in the middle of the so-called "sandwich generation". Cox draws on the strengths she learned while competing with her older brother as her partner. On the ice, she battled injuries and uncertainties while trying to dazzle audiences, discovering along the way that we can love and hate an activity in equal measure, and that "faking it 'til you make it" can be a viable way forward. As an adult, Jocelyn leans into performance and distraction as coping strategies while demonstrating a capability we all have: to find moments of celebration alongside pain. Splicing her own early motherhood with memories of her single mother's TLC, Cox's choreography takes readers around the rink of a high stakes sport and into the stands...where her mother, a bit of a mystery, sits quietly amid the ovation. Motion Dazzle shines a spotlight on the life cycle and how we pass love from one generation to the next.
