Rose Armentano always loved reading summer novels, the sort of mysteries and romances that come out on lists for people take to the beach. Each time she finished one, it crossed her mind that she might have a novel in her, too.
Twenty years ago, she spent a summer not reading novels but writing one, blocking out a few hours each morning to write her narrative in long hand, a murder-mystery and romance about a trio of ballet dancers. “I wrote it to prove to myself that I could do it,” she says. “My husband gets all the credit for getting it published.”
Dom Armentano found the manuscript boxed up in the garage and sent it to Xlibris, the self-publisher. “Phantom Dancer” is now for sale in e-book and hard-cover. Copies of her book are available at the Vero Beach Book Center.
Writing had always come naturally – she has a master’s degree in comparative literature and taught high school English for years. But her real passion had always been dance.
“And I’ve got the bunion to prove it,” says Armentano, who at 73 has kept her dancer’s body by teaching an exercise class twice a week that combines yoga, weights, Pilates, and ballet barre.
But fitness classes are a far cry from her childhood fantasy – dancing with Gene Kelly. Later, as a teenager, she wanted to dance with a professional ballet company. She had to set that dream aside, though, to put her mother’s mind at rest: A woman had to be able to support herself, something she learned when she was left without a husband and two children to raise, Rose and a younger brother. She worked as a waitress during the day, and as a telephone operator at night.
Growing up in Springfield, MA, the family had no car; she took public transportation or walked, Rose recalls. But across the street from their apartment was a dance studio. Every afternoon after school, she would watch as girls and their mothers came and went from classes. “I could hear the music,” she says, “but there was no way I could ever go. My mother couldn’t afford it.”
One day, when she was 12, she summoned the courage to climb the two flights of stairs by herself. She slipped past the receptionist and through the mothers’ waiting room to the studios.
“Nobody stopped me,” she said. “I stood outside one of the classrooms and it happened to be intermediate ballet. I was just enthralled.”
When class ended, the girls scuttled past her to their waiting moms until she was left alone with only the teacher remaining, the studio owner.
“I want to dance,” she told her. “She must have thought I was crazy. I explained my mother couldn’t afford lessons and I asked if there was anything I could do?”
The teacher put her to work tidying up the dressing rooms and picking up a couple of orders for lunch. When she came back, the teacher invited her to the Saturday beginning ballet class.
Rose was ecstatic. By 15 she was teaching beginning students herself and by 16, the advanced classes as well. In the summer, she found work in local theater companies, and saved her money to take master classes.
At 18 she had to make a choice. Pursuing dance professionally meant moving to New York, and always being an injury away from unemployment. Growing up poor, that risk was a real one. Instead, she enrolled in college in Springfield, living at home to save money and working for an insurance company. “Having watched my mother struggle all those years,” she says, “she was sympathetic with my desire to dance but she wasn’t terribly supportive. You have to be able to make a living.”
Armentano quickly found a job teaching English in Westfield, MA. In the summer of 1965, she scraped enough money together to go to Nice, France, with a girlfriend. While she was there, she bought a bikini, modest by today’s standards. When she came home to the states, she packed it for a trip to the beach hoping to get one more wear out of it. She had it on when Dominick Armentano watched her go back and forth into the water to swim and finally decided to join her.
They’ve been married 48 years. Dom Armentano has a Ph.D. in economics. He taught and served as adjunct faculty with the Cato institute.
The couple moved to Vero after visiting friends here, selling their homes in Connecticut and Misquamicut, RI. The village of Watch Hill provided the inspiration for the fictional Misty Harbor in which “Phantom Dancer” is set, a hideaway for dancers preparing for a competition in Paris.
“I found it in a box while I was cleaning the garage,” says Dom. “She tried to get it published but then she put it away.” Before she shelved it though, Dom put it on a floppy disk and got it printed out.
