Book Description

Born in the UK and raised in the US, Terry Dance-Bennink found her way to Toronto as a university student in 1966. A sixties activist who never stopped, she became a peace advocate, civil rights campaigner, women’s rights defender, union organizer, adult educator, environmental activist, and democracy champion. Dance Through Time traces the author’s evolution from youthful Marxism to electoral politics to peaceful civil disobedience. As a spiritual seeker, Terry relies on her faith to overcome personal and political obstacles. Born a Catholic, she becomes an atheist during her Marxist years, then returns to progressive Christianity in the nineties, joining the United Church when she moves to Victoria, B.C. She eventually calls herself a Buddhist-Christian with no church address. A heart-breaking divorce, childlessness, breast cancer, and blindness challenge her, along with despair about the fate of the earth. But her belief in a power greater than fallible human beings—the “great mystery”— sustains her as she keeps pushing forward. In mid-life, Terry encounters “the man in her dreams,” her second husband, and builds a truly formidable career in both the non-profit and public sectors as an impassioned, spiritually informed advocate for adult education, proportional representation, Indigenous peoples, old-growth forests, and so much more. Seventy-five years later, Terry is still on the front lines to save B.C.’s ancient forests and combat climate change. Dance Through Time revisits the revolutionary potential of the sixties and celebrates the enduring power of political solidarity, forgiveness, and spiritual connection.