To Dance on Sands: The Life And Art of Death Valley’s Marta Becket

To Dance on Sands is the autobiography of Marta Becket, artist, dancer, performer and subject of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Amargosa. From her childhood in bohemian New York of the 1920s and 30s to her career as a successful – but often financially insecure – painter, designer and chorus performer on Broadway and television. Beckett tells, in honest prose, the story of the many ups and downs she faced living a life in the arts.In To Dance on Sands, Becket reveals the obstacles she had to overcome on her way to becoming a dancer and artist – a distant, judgmental father she almost never saw.a mother who both encouraged and tried to smother her ambitions.the grueling regimen of rehearsals and auditions. the lack of money and the heartbreak of unrequited love. It’s a tale of victories (starring roles as a ballerina), defeats ($10-a-night engagements in the dying days of variety), and her eventual artistic rebirth as the owner, choreographer, and star performer for almost 40 years at the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley.