Patrice Tanaka Shares Business and Life Lessons Learned From Ballroom Dancing in "Becoming Ginger Rogers ... How Ballroom Dancing Made Me a Happier Woman, Better Partner and Smarter CEO"

NEW YORK, Aug. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Becoming Ginger Rogers is the perfect book for every "Dancing with the Stars" fan. It is the inspiring and uplifting story of how one woman, Patrice Tanaka, started ballroom dance lessons at age 50 to satisfy a lifelong dream of dancing like Ginger Rogers and, in so doing, found her way to unimaginable joy. Ms. Tanaka shares her personal story of how she took up ballroom dancing to lift herself from a deep depression she fell into post-9/11, the unraveling of a successful business she co-founded, and the prolonged illness and death of her beloved husband.

Becoming Ginger Rogers is, in part, a memoir of a Japanese-American woman born and raised in Hawaii who fulfilled her dream of "making it" in the PR agency world of New York; it's also a voyeuristic glimpse into the world of competitive "pro-am" ballroom dancing – similar to "Dancing With The Stars" where a professional dancer partners with an amateur dancer; and, finally, it's a business book about the lessons learned from ballroom dancing that made Ms. Tanaka a better partner and a smarter CEO.

If, like the author, you've spent the past 20 to 30+ years working, raising your family and caring for ill or infirmed loved ones and, in the process, neglected your own needs and desires, this book is for you. If you're exhausted, unexcited and uninspired by your own life and see no light at the end of the tunnel, Becoming Ginger Rogers may be that light.

In Becoming Ginger Rogers, Ms. Tanaka talks about:

• How to reclaim, re-energize and re-excite yourself about life by engaging in an activity that has nothing to do with what you do every day.
• How to "reschedule yourself" back into your own life as the first step toward reclaiming your life.
• How lessons learned in ballroom dance such as the importance of being fully present – mind, body and spirit – have applications beyond the ballroom floor in helping you to communicate more effectively, create stronger connections and partner more successfully with others in your personal and professional life.
• How to let go and follow someone else's lead and realizing that this is not necessarily a second-best solution, but a strategy for winning!
• How "overrated" and inhibiting perfectionism is; more important is to live full-out and fearlessly even if you make some missteps.
• How visualizing your dreams are the first step in manifesting them.
• How living every moment of your life in a way that is fulfilling in and of itself, and not dependent on some future you may not have, is the best way to live and to be prepared to die especially if you have little advance warning like the nearly 3,000 people who perished on 9/11.

Patrice Tanaka is the co-chair, chief creative officer and whatcanbe ambassador for CRT/tanaka, an award-winning, national PR and marketing agency she co-founded in September 2005. Her agency's brand vision of whatcanbe is the reason CRT/tanaka has been recognized for its workplace culture and won more than 300 PR and marketing awards for client campaigns.

A widow since 2003, Ms. Tanaka lives in Manhattan. She devotes much of her free time to serving on the boards of non-profit organizations dedicated to helping women and girls, including the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, the American Friends of Phelophepa (the South African health care train) and Asian Women in Business. She is also a competitive ballroom dancer and avid tennis player.

BenBella Books is a Dallas-based, publishing boutique that aims to be the publisher of choice for a select group of authors who value personal attention, a partnership philosophy, flexibility and a creative approach to marketing. The company publishes a range of nonfiction, in particular quality nonfiction aimed at a niche market. BenBella is strong in health and nutrition, with a growing presence in business and popular science.

Follow Patrice Tanaka and Becoming Ginger Rogers on Facebook and Twitter. To purchase the book, please go to Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

SOURCE CRT/tanaka