Damage Control: Memoirs of a Rockette
How to Survive Trauma in the Dance Industry, Prevent Emotional Injury, & Choreograph a Joy Filled Career
Damage Control: Memoirs of a Rockette, is the incredible true story of choreographer and teaching artist, Dre Lakin. Through the authentic telling of a thirty year career in the dance industry, beginning at age eleven, you will learn how you, too, can achieve your biggest dreams in the midst of your greatest adversities! After surviving an adrenal crisis in June of 2021, the mission and purpose of Damage Control became crystalized. In each struggle throughout her journey there were lessons; all of which have been compiled into eleven chapters to help you avoid the same pitfalls, and most importantly, help you prevent emotional injury!
With journal prompts at the end of each chapter, designed to help you choreograph the life of your dreams based on what brings you the most joy, Dre’s testimony will also give much needed and long overdue insight to an industry in need of change. Educators, choreographers, directors, agents, dancers, athletes, and parents alike, will find solutions within these pages to some of the dance industry’s largest hurdles.
Dre bravely takes you behind the curtain into the real world of showbiz as she experienced it, and overcoming thirty years of collective trauma led to the writing of this survival guide, in order that you may see the landmines in advance. Despite repeated hardships of epic proportion, her love of lyrical reaches, and her devotion to keep lyrical alive at all costs in honor of her late mentors, allowed Dre to experience a real-life Cinderella story. Determined to make it better for the next generation of artists, every hilarious twist and turn will provide a roadmap to your very own golden hour.
While some of the revelations within Damage Control are on the extreme end of the spectrum, the very same enlightenment will lead to conversations that have the potential to change the game entirely. To whom much is given much is required, and this does not apply solely to our victories. Shining a light on the darkest corners of the dance world is an overwhelming responsibility we all must share, collectively, if there is any hope of keeping dance safe for our youth.
About the Author
Dre Lakin’s inspiring true story is a riveting testimony of faith and a masterclass in gratitude. Despite unspeakable hardship throughout a thirty year career in the dance world and a ferocious battle with Addison’s disease, her love and devotion to the genre of lyrical carried her into a life of joy. At the center of her very own Cinderella story, is a bold and triumphant message: Transmuting the pain from the wounds we collect, is a responsibility we all carry in order to make it better for the next generation.
Dancers, artists, and athletes of all walks of life will benefit greatly from the many lessons throughout Damage Control, which span from hilarious to heartbreaking. Written entirely to Dre’s students and their parents, this collection of memoirs will also give educators and leaders in the dance industry at large, much insight from Dre’s first-hand accounts of surviving repeated trauma, while simultaneously living her dreams.
Throughout the journey and as the tragedies continued to add up, her mission to write the survival guide became clear. Now, with journal prompts at the end of each chapter, Dre helps you apply the lessons within each, by encouraging you to think your way to joy. A master at visualization and storytelling, Dre will mentor you through every word as you read along. By the time you have finished each written challenge, you will have the tools required to build a life of joy. Only once you get to know who you truly are, can you begin to take steps towards the life you are meant to live: A life of genuine purpose where the light inside you is the driving force. Allow Dre to teach you how to work through the pain and brokenness, so that your unique light can shine, for all the world to see!
Most important of all, Damage Control will help dancers and athletes see that their biggest dreams are possible, while preventing emotional injury, especially those of a permanent nature. Leaving dancers feeling better than when they arrived has always been Dre’s goal in the studio, and becoming the teacher she needed most as a child, is at the root of it all. Helping educators foster an environment of support and creating safe dance spaces at all levels of the industry, are only two of the ways Dre hopes to leave the dance world better than when she arrived in it.
Damage Control: Memoirs of a Rockette
How to Survive Trauma in the Dance Industry, Prevent Emotional Injury, & Choreograph a Joy Filled Career
Chapter 1: Pulse = Purpose
A look into surviving an adrenal crisis and the importance of setting boundaries.
Chapter 2: Beginning of the End
Building a solid foundation makes all the difference in your success story.
Chapter 3: Evidence of a Dream
Manifest the reality you desire with visualization techniques and proper goal setting.
Chapter 4: The Burn Within
Dre’s love of lyrical reaches takes her to Los Angeles to pursue a dance career.
Chapter 5: Crossroads
Invest in all of your talents and they will be multiplied.
Chapter 6: Nine Lives
Go behind the curtain with Dre on the national tour of CATS.
Chapter 7: Show Monkey
A career ending injury teaches the hardest lesson of all: NO is a complete sentence.
Chapter 8: Desperate For Release
The transition from dancer to teaching artist and choreographer leads to an awakening.
Chapter 9: Damaged Goods
The final puzzle piece to Dre’s traumatic past is revealed along with many red flags.
Chapter 10: Freedom At Last
A Cinderella story teaches you how to beat the odds and live the life of your dreams.
Chapter 11: Blissful Career
How Dre built a legacy and how you can transmute your pain to serve others.
Damage Control: Memoirs of a Rockette
How to Survive Trauma in the Dance Industry, Prevent Emotional Injury, & Choreograph a Joy Filled Career
Get the book NOW on Amazon!!!
