Margalea Warner is a creative writer and retired person after almost 36 years as a secretary at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She received a BA in Liberal Arts with a Communications major and a French language minor in 1981 from Bethany College in Bethany, WV. She studied in Paris and in Quebec City, Canada. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Anabaptist World magazine, Rejoice! magazine, Guidepost’s sister publication Angels on Earth, The Mennonite, Faith at Work, Purpose, and bimonthly news reports in Mennonite World Review.

Her connection to the ballet is that she has lived with schizophrenia her whole adult life and has been in recovery without a psychiatric hospitalization or suicide attempt for 27 years. She has a collection of "27 Keys to Better Mental Health" to celebrate each of those years, named after concepts that have kept her well including appropriate medication, talking therapy and support, education, and advocacy from the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Margalea has practiced the Wu style of Tai Chi and observed the 70 percent principle of respecting healthy boundaries, both physical and mental, for ten years. Her Tai Chi teacher, Joseph Wyse, calls her the "Triumphant Tai Chi Tortoise" for her persistence. Her most recent key is titled Dancing in the Dark. 

What if, instead of running from schizophrenia, we danced with it?  We might find a terrible beauty.