Archive for the ‘2010 | 03 | March-April’ Category

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Ask Rhee Gold 
2 Tips for Teachers  
A Better You 
On My Mind 
Teacher to Teacher 
EditorSpeak 

Departments
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Teacher in the Spotlight | Kim Lampp

Feature Articles
 Ballet Scene | Minding the Men by Theodore Bale
 As the Dance Teacher Turns by Julie Holt Lucia
 Schools With Staying Power – A Charleston Tradition by Jennifer Kaplan
 Giving Back- Dancers for All by Steve Sucato
 Why Modern Matters by Bonner Odell
 Three Billys, One Master by Darrah Carr
 Essential Evans by Bill Evans
 The Voice of Experience

 
Hi Rhee,
A parent signed her kid up for a 4:00 p.m. jazz class for 5- to 8-year-olds. We didn’t have enough children to run the class, so the secretary asked the parents if the children could move to the 4:45 p.m. jazz class and told me that all three moms said yes. I sent an email confirming the change before winter break, since we were ordering costumes. No one contacted me to say they were not interested in the change, so I ordered the costumes. After the break the class met, and one mom claimed her daughter left in tears and hated it (which didn’t happen because I was there to see how it went), and she wants a refund for her costume.

The woman claims that she had said that they would try the class but it isn’t working, so she wants a refund. I told her I was there and no one was crying, nor did anyone say that the class was not going to work when they were asked to make the change. She then went on about how driving home later was a traffic issue and her daughter can’t get her homework done. So I told her that the costume was already ordered and paid for. She signed a form that said “No refunds,” but she is complaining that the change in class is the issue.

I offered to ask the students’ parents if the class could move to an earlier time, but she said that wouldn’t work. Then I suggested that her daughter be a helper in the class and that the student teacher could spend some extra time with the girl so she would feel more comfortable, and she said it wasn’t going to work. She thanked me for all the suggestions but still wants a refund for her daughter’s costume. I don’t know what more to say to her. Can you help me? —Joan

Hello Joan,
It is obvious that this mom doesn’t want to abide by your policy on refunds, which you’ve made clear to her. My usual reaction to this kind of situation would be to explain that the costume payment has already been sent to the manufacturer and the only option is to mail the costume to the child when it arrives. However, in this case, the mom registered her daughter for a class on a certain day and time and you changed that commitment. You don’t have any confirmation in writing or verbally that this mom had agreed to the change, which could put you in a bind legally. I’m sure, if an attorney asked her why she wants a refund, her response would be that you made a change in the class time that does not work for her or her daughter.

For me, the mess of fighting the mom would not be worth the cost of the costume. I would try telling her that you’ll send the costume to her when it arrives, but if she argues, I would give her a refund and put the incident behind me. Then I would create a form that notifies parents of any changes in times or days of classes and states that in signing the form, the parents agree to the change.

We all learn through experience and this is one of those lessons you won’t forget. Good luck. —Rhee

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Dear Rhee, 
I am in negotiations to purchase a dance studio where I have been employed for six years. I am nervous in this economy and feel their asking price is way too high. I have read articles in your magazine about being able to pay for your business purchase in three to five years. I would need to apply to take over the lease and there are many needed repairs. When purchasing the business, should income generated remain in the business account, or should the previous owners get to keep it? I don’t have the financial stability to support the business through the summer months, and the changeover would occur during the summer.

I also am curious about what is reasonable regarding a non-compete clause. The current owner has no desire to open another studio but wishes to continue to teach at various nursery school, churches, and YMCA-type programs. I feel that this is a conflict to the operation of a business I would be purchasing. —Concerned, Confused, and Eager

Dear Concerned,
I am not sure that you are in the financial place to purchase this business, especially if you think the asking price is too high and you don’t have the funds to get through the summer months. I also sense that you don’t trust the current owner and that you think she is trying to take advantage of you. Whether or not your perception is correct, that is not a good way to start these negotiations.

With that said, if I were planning to purchase a school and needed to get through the summer months, I would come up with a way to generate income during that time. My reasons would be twofold: to sustain the business through the summer and to increase fall enrollment by offering summer activities or classes that would bring in new students.

When you purchase a business, it’s not typical to receive the cash assets (cash in the business account), unless such a transfer is specified in the sales agreement.

As for the non-compete agreement, I would definitely put one in place that specifies that the former owner could not open a school or teach for another school within a certain time period and distance. However, I would not try to keep the teacher from working in places like nursery schools because her students would have to move on (perhaps to your school) if they want to continue with dance. If you maintain a good relationship with the previous owner, I would think that she would recommend your school to the children’s parents. As for the YMCA, church programs, or other options, you could include a clause that allows her to teach in those venues for a specified number of hours or if they are distant enough from your school.

Pursue professional legal advice and hire an accountant to help you evaluate this business and to offer you advice on the negotiations, value of the business, and any other concerns. Regarding the asking price being too high, you need to understand that the current owner has built this business and she is selling you her investment in time, money, and energy to make it what it is. You are purchasing her current student base as well as her goodwill within the community and among her clientele. Sometimes the value of the business isn’t measured only in the asking price; it also takes into account the potential for future income.

The school’s continued success also depends on the new owner being creative and attentive to what the clientele needs. You must make this purchase because you are enthusiastic about building the business and with the understanding that you, not the previous owner, will be responsible for its future. I wish you good luck! —Rhee

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Hi Rhee,
I do a bunhead contest for all my ballet classes for 6-year-olds and up. If they wear a bun for 10 classes, they get a small prize like a tattoo or button. I’ve done this for the past six years.

Recently, a new student who has short hair went home crying, and her mom called to complain about the contest. What do I say to her? It’s not a short-hair contest, it’s ballet class. I want to encourage buns and pulled-back hair and the kids love the contest. Also, I don’t believe in giving everyone a prize just to be fair. Thanks! —Raquel

Hello Raquel,
I agree that students should wear their hair in a bun for ballet class; after all, that is one of the ways they learn the discipline of ballet, not to mention the lesson of respect. But in my mind, it should be a policy, not something students get rewarded for.

I also agree that it’s not good to give every child a prize just to be fair. So if you are going to have a contest, it should be something that every child can participate in. Your contest excludes children who have short hair, and you’ve already seen the kind of problems that creates. Hope that helps. —Rhee

By Mignon Furman

Tip 1
Batterie is often overlooked in classes when time is a consideration. So make sure the first allegro combination is suitable to be performed with batterie. For example, if the warm-up is four sautés in first and four changements, the changement can be changed to royale (changement battu). Or try four changement and two échappé sautés. Beat the changement and the closing movement of the échappé.

Tip 2
When beginning the allegro section of class, make the first combination simple, with small jumps off of and alighting on two feet. Tell your students to think of the feet pushing the floor away. I remember well my teacher, Anna Severskaya, a leading teacher in London, saying, “Treat the floor as your enemy”—push it away—“and it will be your best friend.”

When it comes to smoking, it’s good to be a quitter

By Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT

Did you start your day with a typical dancer’s breakfast? In the not-too-distant past, that would have meant a “continental breakfast” of a cigarette and black coffee.

Personally, I dodged the smoking bullet. My parents, both children of the Great Depression generation of smokers, quit the habit cold turkey when I was young. Both parents developed cardiovascular disease; my father succumbed to it when I was a teenager. My two siblings and I never became smokers, probably because of that early example. (I remember being able to find my mother in church by the sound of her cough.)

It has taken a long time for the anti-smoking message to take hold, even among medical practitioners. When my interest turned toward the medical field, I was concerned that I couldn’t do it because of my aversion to the billows of smoke in the medical institutions I explored. But now designated smoking areas, found in outdoor spaces near work and social areas, are mandated by laws in most states as a result of the pressures of social and political correctness, as well as research. The simple pleasure of smoking is not as simple as it used to be.

Why all the fuss over smoking? If people enjoy it, leave them alone, right? One big problem is that people start smoking voluntarily, yet their habit turns into a loathed addiction. When I was a student of researcher George Brooks at the University of California at Berkeley, doing my prerequisites for physical therapy school, I was deeply impressed by something he said: If you laid out all the cells of the lungs, they would cover a tennis court. This stunning fact made me realize why ’tweeners couldn’t care less when their parents wag their fingers and ground them for sneaking smokes. Youngsters don’t see other kids hacking and dying. The lungs are so cellularly dense that it takes about 20 years before they show the effects of a smoking habit.

Now that the government is bracing itself to cover the increasing public health costs of the aging boomer generation, the door to permissiveness about smoking has slammed shut. Smoking is a leading cause of lung cancer, and lung cancer is lethal. Unequivocally, smoking is not the attractive habit it was once touted to be (and still is, according to its marketing). Smoking exacerbated my father’s heart condition, and it interferes with anything to do with the lungs, causing emphysema (permanent trapped air that causes a loss of elasticity), asthma, chronic bronchitis, and pneumonia. And this list is only the tip of the iceberg. Smoking increases the incidence and severity of colds, makes asthma worse, impairs vision, decreases physical fitness, increases the risk of early heart trouble, and causes early skin wrinkling, hoarseness, and bone thinning. The list of negatives is almost endless.

Challenges to quitting
Think you can sidestep addiction and just smoke every once in a while? Think again. Aside from the physical addiction, there’s the psychological pull. The tobacco industry’s advertising is so pervasive. The Federal Trade Commission estimated that the tobacco industry spent $8.2 billion to market its products in 1999. Not only have marketers targeted young boys with campaigns like the now-defunct Joe Camel one, they link smoking to independence, self-reliance, popularity, and self-fulfillment in order to market to young women.

One big reason women often won’t quit is the fear of weight gain. According to Arden G. Christen, DDS, of Indiana University’s Department of Oral Biology and Nicotine Dependence Program, a 6- to 12-pound weight increase is typical after quitting. A fitness trainer told me that when she quit smoking, after a year of doing aerobic exercise, her metabolism eventually changed. She can now eat the same amount of calories that she ate as a smoker without gaining weight.

OK, so now you’re convinced you can never stop because you’ll gain weight. Take heart. Remember, with persistence and fortitude, you can quit smoking and reset your metabolism to remain lean, or even become lean again. We all know women who have succeeded in quitting without becoming overweight, so it can be done.

Where to find help
Help is available from many sources. You can get medical help and perhaps consider taking an antidepressant medication such as Bupropion, commonly called Wellbutrin. For smoking cessation, it’s sold under the brand name Zyban and is supposed to reduce cravings and withdrawal effects.

More help is available online. You can find 20 free tips on how to quit smoking at quitsmoking.com/info/articles/20tips.htm. Another great source for personal help is an online coach at quitsmokingcoach.org, a site run by Blair Price, who has psychology training. I encourage anyone who is serious about wanting to quit to try her eight-week counseling method. She has a high success rate; she is affordable; and she is completely accessible by email on a daily basis. When you sign up and pay for her coaching, she gives you an e-book with advice and tips. Of interest to dancers is her advice on weight control: Wear a nicotine patch in gradually diminishing amounts. Give yourself a realistic year in order to reset your metabolism, especially if you’re a longtime smoker.

One method of increasing your success at stopping smoking could be via the nicotine patch. In a study cited in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, “The Role of Nicotine Replacement Therapy in Early Quitting Success” by Nancy Amodei and R. J. Lamb (November 6, 2009), half of 400 smokers were given the patches two weeks before their quit date, and the other half got placebo patches. Then both groups got standard therapy for the next 10 weeks. The people in the group that received nicotine patches were twice as likely to quit smoking and were still abstinent 10 months later. The patch instructions say to quit smoking before using the patch so you don’t get an overload of nicotine, but research shows that doubling up does not have adverse effects. However, if you choose this method, switching to light, low-nicotine cigarettes while you wear the patch is recommended.

Just can’t seem to say no? Consider alternative methods of quitting. Acupuncture, hypnotherapy, meditation, or counseling could be the right method for you. One client of mine quit cold turkey after getting acupuncture, although before that she had tried to quit numerous times. Hypnotherapy, a “back door” route to cessation, works for some people; your subconscious helps you bypass your conscious mind to form a new behavior pattern. Meditation and talk therapy can help you handle stressors and find productive and effective coping mechanisms to replace cigarettes. It may take trial and error to find which technique is right for you.

What not to do
One smoking-cessation method to avoid is something called the “e-cigarette,” a plastic electronic device that looks like a cigarette and even “lights up.” It gives you a nicotine hit when you suck on it. It was created as a way for people to “smoke” without violating the new laws and rules about secondhand smoke in public environments, since it limits the vaporous contents to the smoker. Unfortunately, the Food and Drug Administration has found that this device transmits toxins like those found in antifreeze.

Quit for your students as well as yourself
Aside from being a personal health problem, your smoking habit can affect your students. Teachers, like other adults, serve as lifestyle role models for youngsters. I remember the thick smoke of the mothers puffing away in the foyer while I was in class as a child. Seeing people smoke at dance-related activities makes it seem normal, like what adults do. I have a dance teacher friend who is a mainstay at outdoor café tables, where he can smoke. His students are in awe of him, yet it’s little wonder that now I see them lighting up outside the studio. Adults are known to say, “Do as I say, not as I do.” But the fact is, children are more inclined to imitate what they see.

Think twice before you light up, for you, for your family, and your students. You can find a way.

I have faith in you.

In today’s nonstop world, doing too much seems to have become the norm. And it’s easy to get so caught up in the whirlwind that you don’t notice that you’re stretched too thin. For me, that realization came at the start of last summer. My to-do lists were so long that just looking at them made me feel stressed. I was working at a mile-a-minute pace to get everything done, which took the joy out of the process and didn’t give me enough time to appreciate the successes.

Until that point, I had accepted every speaking job that came my way, which had become every-weekend happenings. Because I consider each engagement an opportunity to spread the word, it seemed impossible to turn any of them down. But with the travel involved, many one-day jobs would turn into four-day commitments. That left only three days a week for everything else, and it simply wasn’t enough.

While dealing with one of those stressful days, I came across an article that I had written a few years before, called “ ‘No’ Is a Beautiful Word” (Goldrush, October 2006), and decided it was time to practice what I preach! I started to turn down bookings for the first time. Another decision I made was to hold the DanceLife Teacher Conference every other year. When I announced it at the last conference, I felt like a big weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I knew I was back in control of my life.

Many well-intentioned friends and supporters told me they didn’t think I was making the right choice. They said, “Someone else will grab your clientele,” or “If you take that much time between events, you could be forgotten.” Those comments increased my anxiety and made me wonder if I had made the right decision.

But when I came back from the conference and didn’t have to immediately start planning one for 2010, I felt great. The decision gave me the chance to focus on the other things on my plate, along with some much-needed free time. I was enjoying my work again, so I considered the strategy a success.

Since then I have used the time I would have spent planning the next conference to build a new website for Dance Studio Life and create new concepts for DanceLifeTV.com. I am experimenting with the new wave of social networking, and I have learned how to use tools like Facebook and Twitter to help my businesses. In the last few months I have thrived, because there is nothing more exciting to me than learning.

So why am I writing about this? To give you the message that I believe you should follow your instinct. We all have supporters with good intentions who might see our choices as the wrong ones, but they’re not dancing in our shoes. I encourage all of you to listen to your heart and base your decisions on what you know to be true for yourself.

By the way, last month my twin brother, Rennie, and I created a seminar for July 2010 that will take place at our family school. I promoted it on my new websites and social networking pages and it was sold out in 72 hours! I am not worried about being forgotten anymore. How cool is that?

By Carol Crawford Smith

It’s been years since my two sons studied dance. The older, Hunter, studied for nine years until the age of 12. Never did I force him to take dance lessons. Year after year, he took ballet class of his own volition. He was good at it and loved the training. Naturally, he had my full support and encouragement. I was proud to see him excel in my art of passion.

My younger son, Garland, on the other hand, did not stick with dancing. Now 14, he took his first and only dance class at age 3. Years later, I asked him why he refused to continue. He answered, “Because you wouldn’t let me get a drink of water.” He explained that at one point during the class he asked to get a drink and I said no because it was not time for a water break.

I sometimes wonder what kind of dancers my sons would be today if they had continued their training. Would they be budding professionals with the promise of an illustrious career with a reputable international concert company such as American Ballet Theatre? It’s possible they could be on their way to a Broadway career as a triple threat to rival the dancing/singing/acting stars Hugh Jackman and Tommy Tune. Or maybe they would be choreographers-in-the-making with a future to create for So You Think You Can Dance, as have world-renowned dance artists Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, founders of Complexions Contemporary Ballet and former members of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

One thing I am sure of is that my sons would not be happy dancing if they had been forced to continue. Nor would they show the love and dedication to the sports they have elected to do instead. Look at Rhoden and Richardson and you can see that their love for dance is undeniable. Both men have choreographed and performed extensively, for their own company and others. I am confident that if a childhood dance instructor had not let them get a drink of water on demand, they would have continued to train in the field they were clearly born to pursue. They were meant to express their passion and share their gifts in performance, including in Revelations, the 1960 Ailey masterpiece set to spirituals and blues music that tells the story of African American faith and tenacity from slavery to freedom.

It would have been an affirmation of years of coaching and nurturing on my part to see my sons as members of an Ailey ensemble—wading through “water,” poised to be “fixed,” and “shouting” with yellow-chapeau–wearing, churchgoing ladies fanning with ferocious fervor. I feel uplifted and rejuvenated by the spirit-filled dance every time I see it. There’s no doubt that seeing my sons dancing Revelations would lead me to tears of joy.

When Hunter was still dancing, I purchased the 2002 documentary Born to Be Wild: Leading Men of the American Ballet Theatre. Hunter remained motivated to dance after seeing premier danseurs such as Ethan Stiefel and Jose Manuel Carreño. There are scenes of Carreño dancing salsa in his hometown of Havana, Cuba, as well as performing athletic leaps and turns in the coda from Diana and Actaeon. Stiefel does exquisite brisés volé; then, after breezing through Wisconsin farms on a Harley, he talks about one of the perks of being a male dancer: spending his days, he says, “working hands-on” with “fit” women.

I believe the revelations and excellence shown in the film could motivate any dance artist, from beginner boys to seasoned instructors, to extend a developpé from greater turnout, sauté in arabesque with more ballon, turn in multiple pirouettes with marionette-like suspension, and jeté with cannon-shot propulsion.

These superhuman approaches to perfecting technique reveal the athletic prowess of dance, and watching Born to Be Wild influences my sons’ performances in their chosen pastimes, gymnastics and soccer. They recognize the potential of having a winning season if they strive to achieve what these men who dance do: move their solid, strong bodies with grace and command, so light of foot that their skill and artistry seem effortless.

I’ll never know whether my sons could have displayed such magic in dance. But if they had been destined to pursue it, I am sure that a trip to the water fountain 11 years ago would not have made a difference. If a boy wants to dance, he will.

By Cheryl Ossola and David Favrot

 

Critiquing as a Learning Tool
I’m a fiction writer, working on my first novel. With such a solitary task, it helps to find a group of like-minded souls with whom to share travails, epiphanies, and complaints about the sorry state of publishing. But the greater purpose of such groups is to exchange pages of works in progress and provide constructive criticism. I’ve found critiquing others’ work to be as valuable as the input on my own work is (and at times more so), and it occurs to me that this process of learning through analysis could be true for dance students as well.

The typical studio climate tends to discourage students from criticizing others, in an effort to keep bruised egos and fountains of tears to a minimum. And that’s as it should be. But what about attending local performances with your students and sitting down for a critique session afterward? As long as no one knows the choreographer or any of the performers, the stage is set for a safe, frank discussion of what worked and what didn’t. In that duet with unison dancing, why did the movement seem so much more evocative on Dancer A? What went wrong when Dancer B fell out of her fourth pirouette? If you got bored, was it because of the choreography, pacing, poor technique, or lack of stage presence? What changes would you make to improve the piece or the performances?

Though there might not be a single right answer, certain rules apply. It’s tough to reach creative heights in your chosen art form if you don’t have a strong foundation of technical skill and comprehension of concepts. As a writer I need to understand point of view, story structure, and characterization, and sometimes it’s easier to grasp those elements when they’re demonstrated well (or poorly, for that matter) in someone else’s work. It’s one thing to be told what to do; it’s another to get out the magnifying glass and make discoveries that you can then relate to your own work.

Kids as critics? Why not? There’s much to learn. —Cheryl Ossola, Editor in Chief

Time Machine’s Bumpy Ride
Most people have dreamed of traveling back in time. For Christmas, I did just that.

For an afternoon I was perched once again in a nosebleed seat in San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House on a miserably hot July 17, 1988, for an eye-opening performance of Le Sacre du Printemps. My much-younger self was a perfect match for Louis Armstrong’s recollection of his own boyhood—“I didn’t know nothing and didn’t even suspect much”—and I’d never seen anything like this before.

In those days, not many people had. The touring Joffrey Ballet was performing a then-new reconstruction by Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer of Le Sacre as seen at its Ballets Russes premiere in 1913, with Nicholas Roerich’s costumes and decor and Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography. The Paris premiere was one of the great scandals in dance history: a storm of booing, catcalls, and fisticuffs in the audience, with Nijinsky backstage screaming counts at his dancers, unable to make himself heard above the din. (If I had a real time machine, that evening would be one of my first stops.)

My afternoon of time travel—thanks to a gift DVD—had a kink. I wasn’t watching the Joffrey, with Beatriz Rodriguez incandescent as the Chosen One. But in a better world, I could have been. A 1989 documentary, The Search for Nijinsky’s Rite of Spring, included a Joffrey performance of the full ballet and interviews with Hodson and Archer. It “was broadcast throughout the U.S., Europe, and we think also Japan,” Hodson now says. “At any rate, as it was never released for purchase, it has been widely pirated.”

So instead, I was watching the Maryinsky (Kirov) Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia, in the reconstructed Le Sacre. It was fun, and Stravinsky’s score is one of conductor Valery Gergiev’s showpieces. But it wasn’t the Joffrey. And they were first. —David Favrot, Associate Editor

By Annie Ellis

Last summer I participated in the first Indiana University Bloomington Contemporary Dance Summer Intensive. Under the direction of Justin Zuschlag, it focused on ballet and modern dance with a goal of introducing high school students to dance at the collegiate level, as well as highlighting the contemporary dance department at Indiana University. For two weeks I lived on campus and took dance classes that resembled those I’d take in college. It was a very valuable experience because I increased my knowledge about dancing beyond the high school level.

Living on campus also taught me a few things. Having access to the dining halls for all of my meals was exciting and yet extremely challenging; I learned about how to eat nutritionally for my rigorous day of dancing while also enjoying the many options—healthy and unhealthy—that the dining hall provided. And I had to quickly learn my way around because I was expected to make it to class on time just like a real college student.

The dance classes included a wide variety of experiences, including technique, composition, repertoire, and lectures, which gave me a feel for what studying dance in college would be like. In the composition class we worked with other students and created pieces as a group. This experience was new to me and challenged my current skills in choreography. Each day we had four dance classes: ballet, modern, composition, and repertoire. In the evenings we usually had one lecture class. On Saturday we were allowed to participate in a master class with David Hochoy, artistic director of Dance Kaleidoscope, a contemporary dance company based in Indianapolis.

While I enjoy the structure of ballet and the explosiveness of jazz, I really took pleasure in the versatility and quality of the modern-dance movement.

Coming from a studio that does not do an extensive amount of modern, I loved learning about the origins and different forms of modern dance. We studied Martha Graham and Cunningham techniques, and I enjoyed doing combinations that derived from the style of modern choreographer Paul Taylor. My perspective on modern dance changed as I learned more about its different forms and theories. While I enjoy the structure of ballet and the explosiveness of jazz, I really took pleasure in the versatility and quality of the modern-dance movement. I liked its raw, organic feeling and almost pedestrian-like quality.  

The lecture classes on the types of dance degrees available at colleges were my favorite because they provided me with an immense amount of information about dancing in college and as a professional. I was impressed that the professors talked about all of these schools and degrees and did not simply promote Indiana University. The professors who lectured discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each type of school and degree and helped me identify my career goals, interests, and which type of program would be the best fit for me.

Through these lectures I also discovered that dancing in a college environment is very different from dancing at a studio. At a studio you may not take as many classes, but the classes you do take are longer and more in-depth. In college, in addition to time in the studio, students take classes in nutrition, dance theory, dance history, and kinesiology. 

I felt that this intensive helped me clarify what would be expected of me as a dance major in college and which college would best suit my desires as I pursue my career in dance. I learned about the intensive through my dad, who stumbled across it on the Internet. At first I was reluctant to participate, mostly because many students from my high school attend Indiana University. I didn’t want to interact regularly with so many familiar faces, and I savored the almost frightening idea of having to make friends while creating a new place for myself.  

But because I wasn’t aware of IU’s fantastic dance program, this intensive turned out to be one of the most valuable experiences of my life. By learning what the program offers, I found that it was the best fit for me—it’s exactly what I want at the college level for dancing. And because IU is strong academically in many areas, I have the option of a double major, which could help me find a job after graduation. Also, the IU campus is four hours from my home, which would let me feel close to home, but not too close. I am now thrilled to be attending IU in the fall as a contemporary dance major.

Words from our readers

I’m sure whoever wrote “Mary” that horrible note will be mortified to see it published [“On My Mind,” November 2009]. This is sad but typical. Wasting time with sour grapes is no good. Small businesses are closing their doors every day. If your doors are open and you’re paying your bills, celebrate. Nonprofits with their noses in the air are going to have a hard time when the handouts dry up. Instead of alienating neighboring studios, they need to mend burnt bridges.

I’ve given up reaching out to local studios. National dance teaching organizations offer a better support group. Maybe the distance between studios removes the threat.
Shelly Beech
Art of Motion Dance Studio
Bartlesville, OK

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I recently subscribed to your magazine. Thank you so much for the amazing articles and information that you can’t find in any other dance or dance teacher magazine. I love your attention to making things applicable to the classroom and for every age group and how you incorporate wonderful musical selections for all levels, as well as classroom ideas. Bravo!

I commend you for writing about creating bonds for dance teachers. I feel that a lot of dance teachers view each other as competition and do not treat each other respectfully. Two wonderful teachers in my city have become my mentors. Some people are scared about their students leaving them, but I’ve come to realize how amazed I feel when one of my students becomes so talented that she must go to the professional ballet company school. I’m just happy to be part of the journey.
Brettainy Sutherland
Instep School of Dance
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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I was very pleased to see the article on the Cecchetti method of ballet, which my studio teaches [“Class à la Cecchetti,” January 2010]. My highly qualified ballet teacher continues to study with a Cecchetti master several hours a week. Another dance teacher in our area has made derogatory comments about the method in an effort to encourage our students to study with him. Because he once performed with a professional ballet company, a few parents have been persuaded. I have posted your article on our studio bulletin board to enlighten the masses. Thank you for reminding me of what a quality program we are providing.
Doreen R. Freeman
Doreen’s Dance Center
Colchester, CT

We’d love to hear from you!

Send your comments to arisa@rheegold.com or mail them to Editor, Dance Studio Life, 10 South Washington St., Norton, MA 02766. Letters may be printed in the magazine and posted on dancestudiolife.com.

Owner and instructor, Kim’s School of Dance, Statham, GA

NOMINATED BY: Laura Wharton, student and assistant teacher: “I’ve been taking dance from Miss Kim since I was 4 years old. I don’t even want to imagine what my life would be like if my mom hadn’t signed me up for lessons. Knowing Miss Kim and taking dance from her have been among the biggest blessings in my life. Not only does she teach dance, but she gives me wisdom and guidance for life. Miss Kim is kind, patient, unselfish, hard-working, and loves all her students ‘as her own.’ She makes dance lessons fun, while teaching us lots and encouraging us to do our best. She’s filled me with such a love for dance. She lets us live our dreams.”

AGES TAUGHT: 3 to adult.

GENRES TAUGHT: Tap, ballet, jazz, lyrical, clogging.

TEACHING DANCE FOR: 35 years.

WHY SHE TEACHES: I love people and getting to know each one on a personal level and teaching them to express themselves in the movement of dance.

GREATEST INSPIRATION: As a child I always enjoyed seeing Shirley Temple in the movies. She was so cute and talented. I only wished I could do half of what she did. Then when I was a teen, Fame was a TV show and Debbie Allen became my hero. I wanted to teach dance just like her.

PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING: I want students to have self-confidence, to dance, and to not be afraid or ashamed to express their creativity. A student once gave me a tote bag that bore this message: “A dance teacher helps their students find the song in their heart, the beat in their feet, and a passion for life.” I like that, and I hope that I can give that to every student who walks through my door.

WHAT MAKES HER A GOOD TEACHER: I think it’s my faith—the fact that I look inside people to find their strength to believe in themselves. Every person is somebody, “because God don’t make junk!”

FONDEST TEACHING MEMORY: I have so many memories that I have often said I wish I had written them all down when I started teaching—I would have a nice little book. After 35 years of teaching, it’s great when former students bring their little ones in for me to teach, enjoy, and share. I call them my grandchildren.

BEST PIECE OF ADVICE FOR STUDENTS AND/OR TEACHERS: If you can believe it, you can become it. You have to believe in yourself because “I can’t” isn’t part of the dance vocabulary.

WHAT SHE WOULD DO IF SHE COULDN’T TEACH DANCE: In my late teens I worked for a nutritionist and chiropractor, so I would probably work in one or both of those fields.

MORE THOUGHTS ON DANCE AND TEACHING: I love the Lee Ann Womack song, “I Hope You Dance.” That would be my advice to everyone: “And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance!”

DO YOU KNOW A DANCE TEACHER WHO DESERVES TO BE IN THE SPOTLIGHT? Email your nominations to David@rheegold.com or mail them to David Favrot, Dance Studio Life, 10 South Washington St., Norton, MA 02766. Please include why you think this teacher should be featured, along with his or her contact information.

Mix fun, competition, and discipline to keep boys engaged and challenged

By Theodore Bale

Establishing an effective program for boys in ballet requires special considerations when it comes to motivation, progress, injury prevention, and social interaction. Three experts with demonstrated success in teaching classical technique to boys share their thoughts:

• Jefferson Baum, former director of dance at the National Dance Institute in New Mexico and current faculty member at The School of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet in Santa Fe, New Mexico;
• John Grensback, artistic director of Oregon Ballet Academy in Eugene;
• José Mateo, artistic director of José Mateo Ballet Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Was a boys-only ballet class part of your own early training?

John Grensback: My training was a bit unusual. My teacher was Ed Parish, who had studied with the great Nijinska. Ed pulled me from the streets onto the stage. He became my foster father and the one who raised me. He was known in Chicago for his well-trained boys, and his Nutcracker production was always filled with boys. There was a very athletic boys’ class. He

made it fun for us, and many boys were saved from a troubled environment by dance. At times it was over our head, but it kept us occupied, and some of us even went on to become professional dancers. Ed gave us little stretch boxes for our feet, if you can believe it. But he would make it fun for us and told us not to worry if we didn’t have the perfect body. My motto now is “Serious Dance, Serious Fun.”

José Mateo: I started training very late, and it was exclusively with young girls. When I started modern dance, however, there were a lot of boys. Princeton had just gone [fully] co-ed [in 1969], so lots of boys were already enrolled. When I started training seriously in ballet in New York, there were always a healthy number of men in those classes, but at the Princeton Ballet Society it was exclusively young women and all of the men were guest artists.

The modern dance training at Princeton was wonderful because of its proximity to New York, so we always had teachers who were in the companies of Alwin Nikolais, José Limón, and Anna Sokolow. We got a different look at different techniques. Erick Hawkins was a big influence for me.

When I went to Europe for the first time in the early 1970s, I realized that men could have extension. You didn’t see that in America very much at that time. A lot of what had been considered solely women’s technique in America was not only possible but required of men in European ballet.

Jefferson Baum: My mom, Nancy Baum, was a teacher at Chicago Ballet. She started a boys’ class, and we did pushups and calisthenics, and then we had to go to this barre thing and kick out our legs. At the end of the year, she asked us to be in a show. We were only 14, and she said, “You’re going to be in the show with girls.” The girls came in and they were basically wearing nothing, and we all said, “OK!”

John Prince did a master class, and after that he told me that I was talented and could really do something, but I would have to leave and go to a school. I didn’t want to leave my friends, though. My mom and sister had gone to Interlochen [Center for the Arts] in Michigan. I auditioned there and the director told me that I was talented but she wasn’t going to accept me. I was crushed. She said, “One other boy here is better than you are, and you need to be the best.” She told me to go where I could get proper training and I ended up at North Carolina School of the Arts. I found her years later when I was a dancer at Metropolitan Opera Ballet and I sent her a dozen roses and thanked her for not accepting me!

I studied at NCSA with Duncan Noble, and he had a special way of doing men’s class. I learned a lot from him, and he became the “Jedi master” of my ballet world. After that I was at the School of American Ballet with Stanley Williams and he took a real interest in me and helped me a lot.

When I was learning ballet I had a boys’ class, and Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev were household names. All of us aspired to be like them. Who are the heroes now?

John Grensback: I went to a party at the School of American Ballet when I was 14 and there was Peter Martins. He gave me great advice. I was in class with Fernando Bujones, Gelsey Kirkland, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Boys were treated a bit more special in those days because there weren’t so many of us. I never paid for class. Our American dancers are our stars now. Many of them are good at tricks, but the art form has declined slightly. Carlos Acosta and Ethan Stiefel are examples of how we have surpassed even the Russians. Today’s American male dancer is as strong as anybody.

José Mateo: I don’t know that we have those role models now. There are certainly a lot of dancers in the U.S. who have the technique of Baryshnikov or Nureyev, but their personalities have not been promoted in the same way. I remember doing a flyer with a picture of Baryshnikov in the center, surrounded by pictures of male athletes, when we first opened our school. Every time I return to that flyer, I think it’s the most effective tool for marketing ballet to boys. That was around 1987. Baryshnikov was in the movies then, and was still dancing and moving into his White Oak Dance Project. But Nureyev had moved to Paris and was a little out of the picture in terms of the minds of young boys.

On the recent Ballets Russes centennial, I was surprised by how much Nijinsky had fallen out of the public sphere. In the dance boom [of the 1960s to early 1990s], everybody knew who Nijinsky was. It’s shocking how little ballet history young dancers have. We take our students to the Harvard Theatre Collection whenever there is an exhibit on costumes and theater. There are still ballet students who don’t know about Diaghilev.

“Our culture is less homophobic today than it was 30 years ago, and I think for that reason we have more boys in ballet class now.” —José Mateo

People measure achievement in ballet by the companies they join, but there is less awareness of what we are trying to accomplish here and what makes a great male ballet dancer. I feel there is a great decline in the dance community itself in awareness of what constitutes a fine male dancer. Sometimes I catch my students watching a ballet variation on a cell phone, and I’ll ask them who is dancing. Often they don’t know.

Jefferson Baum: Role models? There are none. When I tell the boys that I took class alongside Baryshnikov at the School of American Ballet [taught by Stanley Williams], the boys know about him. They are clueless about Nureyev, though, who was also in that class. So, no, the boys don’t really have anybody at that level to aspire to—Fernando Bujones, Peter Schaufuss, or Peter Martins, for example. One of my best friends is [former New York City Ballet principal dancer] Jock Soto, and I had him do a workshop at National Dance Institute, and we’ve talked about him doing some classes at Aspen. There is someone who the boys can totally look up to. Another guy is Peter Boal, [artistic director of Pacific Northwest Ballet]. He brought part of his company down to Santa Fe about a year ago, and we brought the boys to see what Peter is doing.

What problems disappear or arise when the boys study separately from the girls?

John Grensback: I remember those tough boys’ classes. I think the healthy competition is good. I’ve seen, as a dancer, the ones who think they are better. I’d rather have a good student than one with a superior attitude. They have to enjoy what they are doing and you have to make it fun for them. I disagree with making it so tough on boys mentally that they don’t want to do it. They should feel really good about themselves after doing a class, just because they finished it.

José Mateo: The nature of male competition becomes immediately evident. I am reminded of those National Geographic or other nature programs about male domination and territorialism! A boys’ class becomes a competition almost in the measured sense that scorekeeping accounts for in sports—seeing who can jump the highest, be best at turning, and reign in batterie. These are the hallmarks of accomplishment for boys. It becomes difficult to draw their attention to such things as port de bras, phrasing, and musicality. Certainly Baryshnikov and all the great technicians since demonstrate prowess, but that’s not only what made them great. It’s the ability to integrate all those skills with nuance and subtlety that makes great artists. But it’s hard to get men to focus on those things when they are by themselves.

Jefferson Baum: A big thing in my class is discipline. As a teacher, if you are not in the driver’s seat in a class of boys, forget it! This is how we end class: We do a reverence, and then the boys come shake my hand and thank me, and I will thank them if they did a good job. If they’ve got a lot of energy on a certain day, we do push-ups, but on five counts up and down, and I do the counting. I tell them they need to finish every exercise strong.

Often the boys are beside themselves when the girls come in; they get chatty and start flirting and then they come across the floor to dance and they don’t know what they’re doing. Every so often I single a boy out and tell him, “I know it’s difficult to focus when there are so many beautiful girls in the room.” When he’s singled out, he will calm down.

I tell the boys that they have to focus ten times as much as the girls, because they are often ten times behind them in terms of technique.

Do boys need to begin training by a certain age if they want to pursue a professional career?

John Grensback: I knew a few dancers at Houston Ballet who started as late as 17 and became professional dancers, but they were swimmers or had a significant sports backgrounds. I usually see the boys around age 7 or 8, and I give them much encouragement and tell everyone to keep an eye on the new boy. The boys live for Nutcracker. When they see other boys dancing onstage, that helps, and I suppose that the fact that I am a male teacher also helps. I might tell the father of a female student who also has a boy, “In a couple of years I will have him here in class.” Half of them don’t succeed past six months, but the other half usually make enormous progress.

José Mateo: I look at this in two parts. My first argument is always to convince the parents that the benefit the boy draws from studying ballet outweighs the benefits of having a career in ballet. Answers about career are impossible to predict since the student could be injured the next day and be out of the running, or he could make incredibly fast progress. I always remind parents that it is all relative to the options they have. If the boy has a burning passion for something else, it’s more likely the other passion will result in a career. And that career might have better benefits and less stress. But if ballet is his primary passion, then I encourage him to pursue it.

Several years ago I read somewhere that dancers, on the average, end their careers seven years earlier than they expected to go. So “How long can I go?” is almost a moot question. Make your decisions based on your passion, not predictions that are impossible to make or to rely on.

Jefferson Baum: I started when I was 14. A couple of my great friends started at 18 or 19. But if you ask me the same question about a girl, I would say they should start at age 8 or 9. When the boys start late, they really put the nose to the grindstone because they know that they are behind. Those boys have to get really serious in order to catch up with the women.

What sorts of injuries and other problems need to be looked at from a preventive stance for boys?

John Grensback: We haven’t had many injuries, but I don’t usually have many things where they land on one leg, such as a saut de basque. I keep the boys on two feet. My boys are doing double pirouettes and double tours and they are doing fine. Their backs are fine because they do push-ups and pull-ups. I don’t really stress turnout, because I’ve been through that kind of pressure.

José Mateo: The young body has a certain amount of resiliency, and [the students] are also training their proprioceptive facilities. The most important thing is assessing the boy’s ability to manage turnout. Everyone looks at the range of turnout. But range is less critical than the way the boy manages that turnout, which could be detrimental to the development of the back. Boys generally don’t have the same range or ease of turnout as girls, and boys will force it more. Failing to manage it properly, combined with big jumps where you have the biggest impact on the spine, could result in serious injuries.

Maintaining the alignment of all those parts is critical, and I think is taken a lot less seriously by men. You can’t predict where the problems will turn up, but it’s likely in the ankles, knees, or spine. I always remind men of the level of virtuosity that exists out there. Are we working to exceed that? Because, let’s be realistic—let’s think instead about something that is theatrically engaging. I always encourage them to go to Cirque du Soleil, to see the extremes of what the human body can do. You’ll see those things that are at almost unimaginable levels. But those same people could not do even one phrase in classical ballet.

Jefferson Baum: A lot of boys get injured because they are not prepared to lift a girl, and they try to “brute force” it and injure their backs. I am trying to prevent that by doing heavy-duty physical conditioning in my classes. Lifting weights is injury prevention. The first half-hour of every class we lift weights and do push-ups.

In my case, I was thrown into advanced partnering without preparation. I was 6-foot-1 and weighed about 140 pounds. Of course, they put me with the tall girls. Within the first six months I had a major back injury. Probably knees are the second concern, and I think we can work with turnout not coming from the knees.

Despite many social advances, some people still think ballet is an unbecoming pursuit for a boy. What do you do to help boys and their parents overcome such stereotypes?

John Grensback: You can educate the uneducated very easily. Sometimes the fathers are nervous, and I explain that it just doesn’t make any sense. Ballet can be very supportive of sports and other things the boys like to do. Nutcracker can also change a dad’s attitude. When I was a student in Chicago, I told the boys who called me a sissy, “I am going to do something with my life.” They didn’t know what to say to that!

As a teacher, you get all kinds of boys, in different shapes, sizes, sexual preferences, and whatever else. I have never had any boys tease each other. When they come together, they forget everything else. I have had some feminine boys over the years and I have never had that problem of teasing. It’s a different world we live in now.

José Mateo: Our culture is less homophobic today than it was 30 years ago, and I think for that reason we have more boys in ballet class now. You can’t make generalizations about how appealing ballet is to either gay or straight kids.

However, if boys choose to go into ballet, there is a tradition that puts men into stereotypical roles that are hard to break. There are lifts and partnering that would be difficult to accomplish without those traditional roles. As unimportant as their own orientation may be in terms of pursuing a career or not, boys should know that they will have to be able to “do it all.”

In Europe they enlist boys in ballet before they have any real sexual awareness and just as many boys are brought in to class as girls. Our enrollment here in Cambridge is now 16 percent boys, and that is actually huge, and we have healthy boys’ classes. At a certain level, though, they still have to move in with the girls if they want to get on a serious level.

Jefferson Baum: Half my friends are gay, and I happen to be straight. When the boys see my girlfriend they say, “Wow!” Immediately that puts the fathers at ease, and I hate that! It just shouldn’t be that way. I quote a newspaper article I read some years ago, which stated that if ballet were considered a sport, it would be second only to football in degree of difficulty and injuries sustained.

For the first half hour of boys’ class I don’t play ballet music. I say, “Boys, today I am educating you about music,” and we listen to classic rock. I leave the door open, because you know those fathers are watching their boys!

Recently a father came up to me after one ballet performance and said, “You know every guy onstage is gay.” He said this in front of his son, who lives to dance and works constantly. His father doesn’t think his son can ever make a living doing dance. But then I told him that I have a 500-acre ranch in New Mexico, a condo I sublet in Michigan, an apartment in New York; I drive a Land Rover and a Chevy ’66 Bel Air, and I travel all over the world. I make my point loud and clear.

For more information:
Oregon Ballet Academy: oregonballetacademy.com/boys_program.php
José Mateo’s school: ballettheatre.org/school_ydp.
Jefferson Baum: aspensantafeballet.com/school/faculty_santafe.php; ndi-nm.org/teacherfeature.html
National Dance Institute: ndi-nm.org/our_programs.html

Part 3 of our serialized saga of dance-school drama and intrigue

By Julie Holt Lucia

The last time we saw Dolly Drummersing, she’d had a rough week. The rumor about a new rival dance studio opening mere blocks from her own school turned out to be true, not a rumor at all. The new school’s owner (and Dolly’s ex-customer), Winifred Beauregard, had joined forces with former ballerina Carlotta Aquilino, who might very well be using her husband, Salvatore, to spy on Dolly. After all, he was the night janitor at Dolly’s Dance Academy, and his daughter, Isabella, was enrolled there. With only weeks to go before the grand opening of Winifred’s Winning Dance Academy, Dolly knew time was running out. She had to approach Sal and save her business from potential harm.

“Dolly? Is that you?” Salvatore Aquilino’s voice thundered into the nearly empty parking lot as he unlocked the door to Dolly’s Dance Academy. He rubbed his beard and then smiled. “What are you doing here at this crazy hour?”

Dolly stopped riffling through her keys in the dark and flashed Sal a smile in return. “Oh, crazy is my middle name! You know that, Sal.” She stepped inside. “Actually, I forgot some really important reports that need to go out to my accountant in tomorrow’s mail. I was just getting ready for bed and then I remembered, and I forgot you were going to be here. Just one of those things; you know how accountants are. So precise!” Dolly told herself to shut up; she sounded like a wreck.

Sal didn’t seem to notice her nervousness. He laughed his booming laugh and picked up his mop. He was a big, burly guy, sometimes scary looking but a real softie at heart. Tonight he looked happy, almost serene. Maybe he really did dance with the brooms when no one was looking, like he always joked. Or maybe he was up to something.
Dolly headed toward her office. “So, um, anyway, don’t let me disturb you. I’ll just grab those files and zip! I’ll be right out of your way.” She inwardly cringed as the words flew out of her mouth. Did she really just say zip?

Sal resumed mopping, gliding with surprising ease over the slippery floor. “No problem-o, Dolly-o,” he laughed again. “You do what you need to do; I’ll just be here earning my keep.” He started whistling “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” as he sloshed around water and soap.

In her office, Dolly grabbed a stack of old reports. These will do, she thought. She sat down at her desk to catch her breath and consider her plan. This was much harder than she had anticipated. What made her think that she could waltz into the studio with a white lie, catch Sal in an act of betrayal, and move on? Here he was, cleaning as always. Her office was less dusty and certainly smelled better, but otherwise it looked exactly as it had when she left at 9 P.M. At least nothing seemed to be missing. If Sal’s wife, Carlotta, was involved with Winifred and her new dance studio, she didn’t seem to be taking advantage of Sal’s easy access to DDA.

Wait.

Dolly froze at the sight of a glint of metal on the floor, shining in the dim light. There was something amiss. Glancing at the door, she scurried over to the shiny speck and grabbed it. The key to her filing cabinet! The one, precious key! She glanced at the plastic cube on her desk where she stashed the key, along with paper clips, thumbtacks, and rubber bands. Obviously she hadn’t done a good job of hiding it. She kept the filing cabinet locked, and it wasn’t because of the measly petty cash in there; all of her customers’ registration forms were in there, accessible only to Dolly and Kim (and sometimes Nikki, in an emergency). The cabinet drawer, she now noticed, was open, just a chink. Definitely not locked. Wet patches on the floor proved that Sal had been mopping her office mere minutes before she arrived. If by “mopping” he meant “spying,” she thought glumly.

Dolly quickly scanned the tiny office. Nothing else seemed amiss: The computer was off, the printer cold to the touch. The phone was charging and the contents of the desk drawers appeared undisturbed. Flipping through the filing cabinet, she decided that the files seemed undisturbed too, but she didn’t have time to look through all 350 names. She would have to write Kim a note asking her to help her check everything tomorrow afternoon. And she had to find a new hiding place for the key.

Dolly locked the cabinet and shoved the key into her dance bag. She had to confront Sal, now or later, and with some proof. Sal was the only one who could get in here when the school was closed; he must have opened the files. How could he do something like that? She stamped her feet in frustration.

“Hey, Dolly? Are you OK?” Sal tapped on the office door and poked his head in. “Are you practicing for something? You sound like Isabella when she gets home from tap class.”

“Naw, don’t be silly. Just making sure I don’t forget anything else.” Dolly watched Sal closely. Did his eyes dart over to the filing cabinet, or was she imagining it? She collected her reports and rushed out with a hurried “Good night,” ignoring the voice in her head that said, “Now’s your chance—say something!”

She chided herself all the way home. That was not how this was supposed to go. She would have to get to Sal another way.

***

The crinkled pink flyer sat on the desk like an ugly, hairless cat that no one wanted to pet. Dolly had found it blowing down the sidewalk that afternoon; the neighborhood seemed to be covered in them. Its words screeched, even from its rumpled state:

Winifred’s Winning Dance Acadamy
Opening Soon!
Email to register and become one of our winning dancers!
We are the best and U Can B 2!

“Seriously?” April Hardin asked as she pinned her hair into a French twist in preparation for ballet class. She gave Dolly a knowing look. “You are letting that bother you?”
“I know, right?” Nikki agreed, pulling on her leg warmers. “They are going to be nothing like us. They won’t be good at all. People will just have to figure that out for themselves, though. Right, Kim?”
“Right!” Kim elbowed Marta Treneran, who was filling out her timesheet. Marta nodded and smiled.

Dolly stared at the flyer, willing it to burst into flames. She knew April and Nikki were right, but she couldn’t shake the sinking feeling in her gut. The flyer bothered her, all right, right down to her core. A winning studio! She snorted. Winning for what, being the least experienced? The most annoying? The worst speller?

But now wasn’t the time to complain, in front of her teachers and with afternoon classes about to start, recital music to edit, and a filing cabinet to double- and triple-check. Dolly wadded the offending pink paper into a ball and pitched it into the trashcan.

As customers began to trickle in, the noise level rose to its usual high. April, Marta, and Nikki headed off to teach and Kim stayed behind with Dolly, who was on customer service duty.
“I think maybe you should invite him out for a chat. Sal, I mean,” Kim said. “You know, keep it neutral and see where it goes.” Kim squinted at Dolly. “Sal likes you; Isabella’s happy here. He hasn’t mentioned the new studio at all, right? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“That’s true.” Dolly nodded. She couldn’t imagine Sal saying no. And now that she had evidence—“alleged evidence,” Kim had insisted—Dolly felt she couldn’t wait much longer to say something and pre-empt any further conflicts of interest. (That was how she planned to put it to Sal, anyway.) She wouldn’t see him again until that night, when Isabella had tap class.

Shup-shup-shup-shup-shup-shup-BOOM.
Shup-shup-shup-shup-shup-shup-BOOM.

If Dolly wasn’t mistaken, toy cars were smashing to a stop at the office door. And she knew who the likely candidate was: sandy-haired, restless, up-to-no-good Michael Garland, 9-year-old brother of dancers Mira and Mallory Garland.

Dolly wrinkled her nose and glanced at Kim. “Yet again, I’m going to deal with Michael and his mother, and yet again, neither of them will listen to me.”

Kim grinned. “Better you than me this time! Gotta love it.” She sat down by the filing cabinet and began pulling files. “We can talk again later about your plans, if you want.”
Shup-shup-shup-shup-shup-shup-BOOM.

Dolly peered out of the office. Several parents looked sideways at her, except for Kate Garland, of course, who was texting with both hands while her skinny-jeaned leg rocked the stroller holding 9-month-old Meredith. Confrontation time, thought Dolly.

And then it happened—a muted punching, crunching sound followed by a chorus of gasps. Instinctively Dolly knew it was bad news.

Too young to stay home alone and old enough to know better, Michael was always getting into trouble during his sisters’ dance classes. He didn’t talk or shout or call anyone names; he was just a busybody in a way that only little boys can be—hooking and unhooking the fire extinguisher hose, squirting dollops of hand sanitizer on every possible surface in the bathroom, treating the lobby benches like a balance beam. During all of these incidents (plus plenty more), Michael’s mom was preoccupied with her daughters, her phone, or her pristine manicure. Every now and then she would say in a feathery voice, “Michael, honey. Don’t do that, sweetie.”

Dolly approached the boy. “Michael,” she said gently, “please put away your toy cars. They are hitting the wall. I’m really sorry, but you can’t have toys like that here because someone—or something—could get hurt. Someone could have tripped over one of your cars just now.”

Finally Kate looked up from her phone. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, not sounding at all sorry. “I asked him to bring a toy to stay busy and that’s what he chose.”

Dolly forced a smile. “I want Michael to stay busy too, Kate, but without disrupting the other customers. Do you think next time he could bring a book?”

Kate flipped her hair over her shoulder. From her blown-out platinum locks to her “practical” Tory Burch flats, she was as put-together as a supermodel. Or a Stepford wife, thought Dolly.
“Michael doesn’t like books,” Kate said with a trace of impatience, glancing at her phone.

“Well, it doesn’t have to be a book,” Dolly bristled. “Just something quiet, without wheels and without climbing.” She turned back to Michael. “Do you want to look through a dance book? I have some in the office.”

To her surprise, Michael nodded. Kate raised her eyebrows and then shrugged. Minutes later Michael was absorbed in a children’s book with vibrant pictures of dancers jumping, kicking, and leaping through the air in fantastic costumes.

He just needed the right book, thought Dolly. She left him sitting on the bench by his mom, who had settled back into her texting-and-rocking-the-baby routine.

Approximately seven quiet minutes passed while Dolly and Kim checked off names from the registration forms in the filing cabinet. Then, near the end of the A folder, Kim paused, her face growing pale. “Oh, my gosh, Dolly. Isabella Aquilino’s form is missing.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Maybe it got misplaced. Let’s check all the surrounding names to be sure.” Dolly grabbed the stack of files from Kim’s hands.

And then it happened—a muted punching, crunching sound followed by a chorus of gasps. Instinctively Dolly knew it was bad news. She raced back into the lobby, Kim on her heels. The next gasp Dolly heard was her own, louder than anyone else’s.

A hole. In her wall. About the size of a little boy’s foot.

Even Michael seemed shocked by what had happened. The book lay forgotten on the floor.

“Michael, what in the world did you do?” Dolly’s eyes raced from the wall to Michael and back again.

“Uh,” Michael managed to say after a long pause.

Kate shook her head knowingly. “I told you he didn’t like books. And now look what happened.”

Dolly blinked hard a couple of times and swallowed. “Michael, did you kick the wall because you didn’t like the book?”

“No!” Michael replied. “I was just trying to . . . ” His voice trailed off.

“What, Michael?” Dolly folded her arms in the most authoritative way she could. “You were just trying to what?”

“I was just trying to do that move, the one with the, um, batement.” Michael stumbled on the unfamiliar word. “You know, that picture with the Russian dancers.”

Dolly nodded slowly. He meant battement. And she knew what he was talking about; that’s why she had given him that book. It was inspiring. What she hadn’t counted on was it turning into ammunition.
And ammunition it was. It turned out that Michael wanted to dance but was too embarrassed to ask his mom. Dolly couldn’t blame him. But she did offer to let him try a month’s worth of classes—for free—if Kate would split the cost of fixing the wall with her. Amazingly, Kate agreed and actually seemed glad to have Michael in dance. “Just like your sisters!” she exclaimed. Dolly hoped Kate wasn’t imagining tutus and sequins, because there was no way she would do that to Michael, even if he had kicked a hundred holes in her wall. And she was pretty sure Daniel Garland would not want his son in tights just yet. Probably he would need some time to warm up to the idea of having three of his four children in dance.

That evening, armed with an old pair of Mallory’s tap shoes, Dolly escorted Michael into his first dance class, Tap 1 with Ms. Nikki—and, coincidentally, with Isabella Aquilino. The hour was nearly over when Dolly peeked into the class again. She was stunned by what she saw.

The class had been learning the basics of rhythm, working on some of the phrases for weeks. But Michael was mastering the steps on his very first day. Dolly watched as Nikki went over the flap-flap-flap-ball-change exercise, correcting the students who appeared to think that ball-change was three sounds. Michael, meanwhile, nodded his head to the rhythm and then off he went, not a misstep to be heard.

“Wow,” mouthed Dolly to Nikki as she slipped back out of the classroom. She gave a thumbs-up that Nikki didn’t return, which was odd. Maybe she didn’t see me, Dolly thought as she hurried off to her next class, nearly bumping into Sal on the way.

“Hel-lo, Dolly!” Sal said, flashing his big smile and winking.

“Hey, Sal.” OK, this was her chance, Dolly thought. “I wanted to ask you, do you think we could get together sometime? To talk. Maybe for coffee?”
Sal frowned. “Is everything OK?”

“Oh, sure, just some business stuff. How about Friday morning?” That way she could nab him before he cleaned again.
Sal nodded.

“Karma Coffee at 10:00, then. Thanks, Sal.”

Later, as she was packing up to go home, Dolly wondered if Kim had discovered any other missing files. She hadn’t left a note, but after all, it was sensitive information; maybe Kim wanted to talk to her in person. Or maybe she had found Isabella’s registration form after all. Why would Sal have taken it anyway? It didn’t add up.

Nikki walked into the office, her bulging dance bag over her shoulder. She looked worried. “Are we the only ones left?” she asked, looking around.

Dolly nodded. “You have something to tell me, I’m going to guess,” she said, tossing her phone and water bottle into her bag. “I thought Michael did really well today.”

“Oh, he did,” Nikki said. “He’s good. So good that some of the kids don’t like having him in there.”

“What? Are you serious?” Dolly shook her head. “It was only his first day. And he didn’t seem to be bothering anyone.”

“I know. But it wasn’t just that. It was what I heard Isabella Aquilino say to him. And you know she’s a good kid, never causes trouble.”

Dolly closed her eyes. Whatever it was, she wasn’t ready for it.

“Michael told her she was a pretty good tapper, which I thought was really nice, ” Nikki said. “And then she said to him, ‘You’re good too. But it doesn’t really matter to me. Pretty soon I’ll be going to my important dance school and it won’t matter what I do here.’ ” Nikki winced at the look on Dolly’s face. “I’m sorry, but I knew you’d want to know.”

Dolly nodded. She didn’t want to know, not really. But she needed to know. Sal had presumably been through her office materials; Winifred and Carlotta were distributing flyers all over the neighborhood; and now even Isabella was getting an attitude. As painful as it might be, Dolly had to quit procrastinating, grow a backbone, and fight back. Winifred’s Winning Dance Academy was opening in a few weeks, but Dolly would beat them at their own game.

Dolly smiled at Nikki, who looked confused. Then Dolly spoke and a grin spread across Nikki’s face. “Who says you can’t have a grand re-opening when you’ve been in business for five years?”

Tune in for more fun in May as the story continues . . .

Empowering ’tweens and teens with the expressive potential of modern dance

By Bonner Odell         

“What exactly is modern dance?” It’s a question the teachers at studios that offer modern are likely used to hearing. And it can be a notoriously hard one to answer. In fact, it could be argued that there are as many definitions of modern dance as there are modern-dance makers, because at the heart of the form’s identity is self-expression.

The short history of modern dance is a wildly eclectic one, riddled with rule-breakers and revolutionaries. But since Isadora Duncan first took to the stage, barefoot, at the turn of the century, one theme continues to emerge in every generation: the celebration of the individual. Techniques established by seminal modern choreographers like Martha Graham, José Limón, Katherine Dunham, and Merce Cunningham continue to provide a framework for modern-dance training. But no explanation of modern—and no curriculum for it—is complete without the essential ingredients of exploration, creation, and self-discovery. So how does an instructor create a class environment specific to preteens and teenagers in which these goals can thrive?

Creative expression as priority
Top educators agree that young students develop a passion for modern when they begin to understand the motivation for movement. “I always start from an emotional level,” says Roger Turner about his work with students encountering the form for the first time. A dance artist and teacher at the Center for Modern Dance Education in Hackensack, New Jersey, he teaches teens in a variety of contexts, from the studio to public high schools to at-risk youth programs.

After explaining the ground rules (such as no making fun) and that there is no right or wrong way to move, Turner might ask students to “come up with one word that expresses how they are feeling today.” He then has them express that word through a single movement on the floor. “It’s important to connect to the expression they’re trying for, so I might mirror their movements or say, ‘When you squeezed yourself into a ball, I got a lonely feeling.’ Right away they realize they are communicating something, regardless of whether they have dance experience.”

Introducing improvisational exercises early in the lesson creates a sense of play and possibility that can carry over to the entire class. Students learn to approach even the more challenging aspects of technique with an attitude of curiosity rather than fear or mere determination.

Ellie Potts Barrett, a sought-after modern-dance instructor and creator of a modern-dance syllabus for the Florida Dance Masters Organization, warms up her students with a series of creative locomotor activities. “I try to grab them right off,” she says. “I don’t dive into technique right away. I’ll have them move around the room first: walk, skip, slide, hop, jump, leap, run­­—freeze! Then, ‘Walk with your head leading; write your name with your shoulder; melt like butter in a hot frying pan.’ When I’ve got them hooked, we’ll work on prances, drops, and other Humphrey/Limón-based exercises.”

 Getting students to interact early on also helps build an atmosphere of trust in which students can experiment and take risks. Roberta Wong, a modern-dance instructor at Jordan Dance Academy in Indianapolis, uses a variety of theater games and cooperative exercises to create a spirit of camaraderie. “I’ll have students mirror one another in pairs, or work in groups to create a short skit based on a theme of the day or prompt. ‘You just received a phone call with some important news.’ They act it out and the class guesses what it is. Or, based on workshop material I learned from Dance Kaleidoscope’s education program, ‘Act out a morning scene, like washing your hair, then abstract the movement.’ I’ll structure the groups so that shy students are placed with a more experienced one. It gives the more self-assured students a chance to take a leadership role.”

Dancers who feel self-conscious improvising may respond more confidently to manipulating movement they have already learned. Before introducing imagination-based activities, Wong leads her students through a set warm-up. She then has them take the first 32 counts and change the quality. “I might ask them to show me a heavy quality, or a silky one, or to do the movement in slow motion or fast forward,” she says. “Doing the improv through a structured phrase is really helpful if they’re timid or not used to creating, because it gives them something to work from.”

Through creative problem solving, students develop an approach to movement that goes beyond imitation to creation. “As pre-teens and teenagers, they’re trying to show everybody who they are, but they don’t yet fully understand who they are, so they tend to fall back on what they see in the media,” observes Katie Kruger, a dance artist and teacher at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley, California. While popular television shows like So You Think You Can Dance and America’s Best Dance Crew are sparking new interest in dance among young people, Kruger feels, modern can move them beyond a desire to replicate stylish moves to an exploration of where movement comes from.

Technique as means to an end
If the ultimate objective of modern-dance education is self-expression, technique provides students with a vocabulary with which to articulate their ideas and experience. A Graham contraction, Limón triplet, or Cunningham upper-body curve opens up new movement possibilities while grounding students in a rich modern-dance legacy. “I try to communicate the historical heritage of the form,” says Barrett. “I want them to realize this is a great gift that’s being passed down to them.”

As in any dance form, students of modern need to learn to integrate and perform movement demonstrated by a teacher or choreographer. Teaching set phrases helps build muscle memory and performance-quality skills. But an emphasis on clear, authentic technique need not compete with the goal of cultivating creativity. By emphasizing the intent of a Horton flat back or Humphrey side tilt—the aesthetic or emotional quality it evokes—teachers help broaden the creative choices available to students in their own dance making.

“I try to grab them right off. I don’t dive into technique right away. I’ll have them move around the room first: walk, skip, slide, hop, jump, leap, run­­—freeze!” —Ellie Potts Barrett, modern dance instructor

“As a modern teacher,” Turner explains, “you have to be able to execute the movements so the students know what to strive for. But the ultimate goal should be to help them express what they want to express. My students get really excited when they learn that first piece of Graham technique that helps them get across what they’re trying to communicate. It’s important for them to know what Graham was trying to express, but that’s secondary. First they have to connect to the movement from their own emotional experience.”

An effective way to highlight how technique can serve creativity is to have students create their own choreography using vocabulary covered in class. Kruger develops a combination around a particular goal her students need to work on, such as getting into and out of the floor seamlessly or communicating intent through focus. She then teaches the phrase over four successive classes; two classes on the right side, and two on the left. During the fourth class, she condenses the lesson and has students manipulate the material to create their own short dances. “I might have them take eight movements or so from the phrase and rearrange the order,” she says. “Then I’ll ask them to change the orientation of the movements in space to create relationships between the dancers.” Assignments along these lines help students take ownership of their technical training as they use it to make creative decisions.

Choreographing the teenage experience
Beyond teaching them choreographic skills, creating their own dances can help students process their experiences as preteens and teenagers. The years between the ages of 12 and 18 can be tumultuous ones, and choreography can provide a critical outlet. “Their bodies and voices are changing, their limbs are growing, and there’s an influx of hormones,” says Nicole Zvarik, director of the dance program at Bayside STEM Academy in San Mateo, California. “Their peers exert a huge influence, and they can be extremely insecure. Making dances gives them the chance to work through all that intense stuff they’re going through.”

Zvarik describes one assignment that required her students to create a dance about a class they were taking in school. One group chose lunchtime. “I told them that was breaking the rule, but since rule-breaking was in keeping with the spirit of modern dance, they could do it anyway,” she laughs. “They came up with this intricate piece about friendship interactions in the cafeteria. They love to make dances about their peers. I think it helps them process the social activity in their lives, which can be so overwhelming at that age.”

Choreographing also helps students discover their personal strengths as emerging artists. “Not all students are performers,” says Zvarik. “Some are creators. Even if you only devote a small amount of time at the end of class to choreography, it gives those students a chance to shine.”

Music for emerging moderns
In the quest to open students to new ways of thinking and moving, there is no more powerful tool than music. While peers and popular media tend to dictate the everyday musical tastes of most pre-teens and teens, modern class provides a safe environment for exploring new genres. “I rarely use my students’ requests for music,” says Kruger. “I want to open their ears and help them find new motivations for movement.”

One way she does this is by having the class dance the same phrase to a variety of musical selections. The students then discuss how changing the music affected the way they viewed the dance. Wong uses a similar approach. A free-dance section to a collage of artists—Bach, Yanni, Arvo Pärt, Bela Fleck, Steve Reich­­—demonstrates how music affects movement choice and quality.

Modern class can also teach students how to choose music for their own choreography. “I try to help them understand that their intention should be the subject of the dance, not the music,” says Turner. “That’s not something we tend to teach younger students. Sometimes I’ll let them bring in their own music, but it has to accompany my choreography. Or I’ll have them come up with the choreography, and then perform it to my music. I want them to learn the difference between making a musical choice for a piece of choreography and choreographing to music.”

While many dancers don’t encounter such concepts until college, encouraging young dancers to think critically about their artistic choices can only forge better artists in the long run.

Modern beyond the studio
For students who want to pursue dance beyond their high school years, modern serves as preparation for the dance environments they are likely to encounter at the college, conservatory, and professional levels. Now more than ever, college recruiters and artistic directors look for technical versatility and a high comfort level with generating movement in prospective dancers.

“I think every dance school should offer modern,” says Barrett, “because the dance curriculum at most colleges is 80 percent modern and 20 percent ballet.” Because most of Barrett’s students audition for college dance departments, she makes it a point to talk regularly with recruiters from top programs. “I want them to be better prepared than I was,” she says.

She tells the story of auditioning in 1969 for Juilliard, where she performed for a panel of adjudicators that included Martha Graham. “The girl before me danced this stunning, abstract solo,” she recalls. “I’d never seen anything like it. Then I went on with my musical theater selection from West Side Story. Needless to say, they rejected me.”

Barrett laughs when she looks back on the experience but warns that dancers entering today’s pre-professional dance landscape without exposure to modern may face an even greater disadvantage than she did.

Despite the growing predominance of modern in the college dance world, online studio directories throughout the United States and Canada show that less than 50 percent of schools that serve 12- to 18-year-olds offer modern. While many studio owners recognize its value, they may not feel qualified to teach it. In these cases Barrett suggests connecting with dance departments at local universities or community colleges where students may be open to teaching opportunities.

Some studios find that the term “contemporary” generates less skepticism than does “modern” and therefore makes for an easier sell. In many urban dance communities, the terms are used interchangeably. Schools that use “contemporary,” however, should make sure their definition correlates to the term’s meaning in the wider dance world. Lyrical dance, popular among young dancers for its emphasis on creative interpretation, is rarely practiced outside competition and recital settings and should not be confused with contemporary dance.

Spreading the word
Once a studio does decide to launch a modern program, how can it convince parents and students that modern is worth the venture into the unknown? One way is to ensure that the desk staff is educated about the form and can articulate the instructor’s goals. Observation windows allow fellow dancers to see for themselves what goes on in class, and dynamic modern performances at recitals can kindle interest in younger dancers. Some schools encourage modern students to choreograph their own work for concerts or informal showings.

However, many schools find that the most effective means of generating new modern students is word of mouth. If students genuinely enjoy class, they are sure to tell their friends. Instructors can usually gauge the fun factor of their classes by their own engagement. “As a teacher, you always have to keep it alive for yourself,” says Wong. “There’s a phrase I try to live by: ‘Now replace ambition with curiosity.’ When I’m invested in the material, that curiosity becomes contagious.”

Perhaps the highest joy of teaching modern dance is witnessing students’ process of self-discovery as it unfolds. The long-term results may surprise. Who’s to say whether the self-conscious 15-year-old in the corner might emerge as the next Twyla Tharp or Paul Taylor? Except, of course, the dance she would bring to the world would be utterly her own.

70 years of teaching at Trudy’s School of Dance

By Jennifer Kaplan

This Father’s Day, in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, when Kander and Ebb’s sleepless-city anthem “New York, New York,” plays, current and former dance students will celebrate 70 years and three generations of teachers at Trudy’s School of Dance. The Gaillard Auditorium will fill with Trudy alums—mothers, kids, and grandkids, all of whom danced under the tutelage of Trudy Oltmann, her two daughters, Linda Walker and Judy Bennett, or her granddaughter, Tiffany DiPrima. Teaching dance isn’t merely in Oltmann’s blood, it lives in her bloodline.

As a toddler, Oltmann had a knack for acrobatics and tap. She recalls being the first to introduce the chest roll to Charleston. By the time she was 12, she was choreographing and teaching dances for Charleston’s Debutante Ball and performing in the popular Azalea Festival. Married at 17, she pushed aside the furniture in the living room and started teaching a handful of students. That was in 1939—the year Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz premiered, Lou Gehrig retired from baseball, Franklin Roosevelt was president, Germany invaded Poland and began its march through Europe, gas cost 10 cents a gallon, and nylon stockings made their first appearance.

“I decided to teach because I had babies,” Oltmann recalls. “I knew that the life of a professional dancer was not an easy one. In fact, when I wanted to get married, my dad offered to send me to New York to take more classes—I think he didn’t want me to marry so young—but that wasn’t what I wanted. I always had the desire to teach.” And teach she did, right up until she delivered twin boys the next summer. By that fall she was back to teaching and didn’t stop until 1983, logging more than 50 years of shuffle-stomp, shuffle-ball-change combinations, plus a million and one hugs for her youngest dancers.

Everybody, Oltmann says proudly, knew Mrs. Trudy. Eventually, her two grown daughters, who were raised in the studio, taught and managed alongside their mother. Ultimately, without paperwork or lawyers, just a warm, personal letter from their mom, the studio changed hands and Bennett and Walker, the Oltmann sisters, took the helm.

Growing up as a dance studio kid, Walker admits that taking over her mom’s school was the last thing she had in mind. “If we were very honest, we would have said: ‘Can’t wait to get out of here and go to college and not have to be here every day.’ ”

Her older sister agrees: “When I was young, 12 to 15, I swore I would never be a dance teacher because Mom worked on Saturday. I just hated that I couldn’t go out with friends and have fun.”

But, of course, both women discovered more to love than hate in teaching dance. First Walker found herself running the studio while she was a high school senior when her mother discovered a melanoma and underwent emergency surgery. “My plan was to go to college, but it changed,” Walker says. “I had to keep the family business going.” By then her sister was married and living out of the area, with young children to manage. Walker took charge, scheduled the annual recital, ran the classes, and did the paperwork while her mother recovered.

At the recital she had an epiphany: “Standing on the front corner of the stage, with all the students depending on me to get them on and off, and watching how proud they were—well, that was it. I stayed on.” She also learned to juggle, a lot. She took a day job in a bank, taught until 9:00 in the evening, wrote syllabuses, dealt with parents, and did the rest of the grunt work that keeps a studio afloat. Oltmann returned to a thriving independent business.

Once she had her own child, Walker says, “I had a senior assistant start the early classes and I’d work until 4:30 at the bank and come flying in to change and take the class over.” Daughter Tiffany napped and gurgled in her baby seat while her mom taught.

Asked for the secret to the studio’s longevity, Oltmann says, “Trudy’s was the only school on James Island and it kept growing and growing. Over the years other schools opened, but they didn’t give me any trouble. I’ve just been lucky and blessed.” She has very few complaints about her students and said that even the most recalcitrant teens never gave her any trouble. “They wouldn’t mess around. When I said something, I would say, ‘I mean now.’ I just never had any trouble or sassing.”

Walker echoes her mother’s experience, saying, “It’s about mutual respect: We teach them with respect and love them with respect and they return that.” DiPrima paraphrases those words in a subsequent conversation. And Bennett emphasizes that Trudy’s is a non-competition studio attracting families who want their children to dance for its own sake, not a medal.

Each of the Oltmanns has a specialty that has been a boon for the studio. Trudy Oltmann, a tap demon, invented a now-coveted signature step that she calls the “nerve roll.” “One day I was at the studio and the music talked to me. All of a sudden I started this nerve roll. It was just a shaking of the foot. My ankle was so loose I could make my taps just vibrate on the floor. None of my students could do it. I called Linda and Judy and showed them. They couldn’t do it, either. Linda’s still trying!”

DiPrima adds, “Soon after she retired, I was in the studio and found Aunt Judy doing that signature step. I shouted, ‘You know it?’ She laughed and said it had taken her all her life to finally get it out of Mrs. Trudy. Aunt Judy showed me. Now it’s a staple at Trudy’s.”

Bennett, too, has always loved tap, but she has an entrepreneurial spirit—she’s the sister who started a dancewear boutique in the studio. In the 1970s a growing interest in belly dance caught Bennett’s attention. She decided to learn more and took enough classes to begin a belly dance program at the studio. She also started an adult tap program called Prime Time Tappers, but her first and deepest love has always been for what she calls “her babies”—the littlest ballerinas-in-waiting.

Walker, 61, always loved jazz and passed that love on to her daughter, DiPrima, who also favors lyrical. Recently, DiPrima added a new class to the curriculum, Rap Tap, which combines elements of tap with hip-hop stylings, attracting advanced-level teens especially.

Growing up in the studio never bothered DiPrima, who took to the all-dance, all-week atmosphere, as long as she spent Saturdays with her mother away from the studio. (After those early years, Trudy’s didn’t run Saturday classes, but now the schedule includes shagging, a popular South Carolina couples dance that Walker teaches, and various short-term exercise classes like Zumba and yoga, taught by contractors.) “My very first recital, I was 3. I went through all the same classes as the other kids, and, if anything, I was on the opposite side of getting special treatment. I had to work harder and be the example because I was the teacher’s daughter,” DiPrima says.

But DiPrima also appreciates her family’s flexibility: “If I ever got frustrated or tired or overwhelmed with school, there was no pressure on me to have to be in dance. My mom let me do what I wanted to do.” She studied psychology, sociology, and physiology in college. “I got really interested in human behavior and thought, ‘If I’m going to be a teacher, what better subjects to learn?’ ” After spending a few years in California, working and not dancing much, DiPrima returned to Charleston. “I missed my family. Everything that took me away ended up bringing me back. I just missed Southern hospitality. And I missed dance.”

Hesitant at first, she soon asked her mom (whom she calls Linda when discussing studio business) if she could teach. “Linda’s reaction was, ‘For goodness’ sakes, of course you can.’ ” Slowly taking on more responsibilities at the studio, ultimately DiPrima became a full business partner, and now she and her mother collaborate and share responsibilities at the two-studio, 4,000-square-foot space on James Island. Bennett, 67, retired last year, but still comes in to help out in emergencies.

“I caught on to the administrative part pretty easily,” DiPrima says, noting that the most challenges come with setting boundaries between personal and business relationships, not so much with her mother as with many of the teachers, students, and parents who, in the tight-knit James Island community, are often her friends, too.

“When I was growing up, this was what I was supposed to be doing,” says DiPrima, 35 and recently married. “When I moved away and then came back, it shifted to, ‘This is what I was meant to do.’ I choose to [be a dance teacher and studio owner] as an adult. I’m not following my mom. She gave me the option to quit any time. When it’s a passion, it’s something you just have to do.”

DiPrima’s words echo those of her grandmother, matriarch of Trudy’s, who says simply: “Dancing has been a big part of my life. Some of my best hours have been in my dance studio.”

Dance studios help fight the battle against cancer

By Steve Sucato

When Ali Dietz came up with the idea for “Dancers Give Back” in 2008, she wasn’t thinking about how the event would help sustain a charitable foundation or how it would lead to the founding of a special research project. The 21-year-old student and dance instructor only knew that her friend Jacquie had cancer and she needed to do something to help.

“We fund-raise to go to competitions all the time,” Dietz told her mother, Mary Alice Dietz, owner of Mary Alice’s Dance Studio in Orchard Park, New York. “Why can’t we fund-raise for Jacquie?”

So in October 2008, after months of preparations that included mass mailings to area businesses soliciting donations, organizing publicity, and sending out invitations to Western New York’s dance community, the inaugural “Dancers Give Back” event took place. Fifteen dance studios participated in the one-day event, which raised $17,000.

Unfortunately, Jacqueline Elisabeth Hirsch never got to witness this outpouring of support. The 23-year-old blond beauty with a luminous smile passed away just weeks before the benefit, on September 6, 2008, after complications from a second bone marrow transplant in her battle with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).

“Jacquie danced from the time she could walk,” said her father, Torey Hirsch, who owns Greater Buffalo Gymnastics and Fitness Center in Getsville, New York (a Buffalo suburb). As a child Jacquie trained in dance at Spezio’s Dance Dynamics, a business that shares a building with her father’s fitness center.

After high school Jacquie attended the State University of New York at Geneseo, where she pursued a degree in early childhood education. There she met Ali Dietz, who belonged to the same sorority (Sigma Delta Tau); both were on the swimming and diving team. At Geneseo the pair formed the bond that is at the heart of “Dancers Give Back.”

Now an annual event, last year’s “Dancers Give Back” was held October 10 at Orchard Park’s Ellicott Elementary School. Thirty area dance studios came out to remember Jacquie and to raise money for The Jacquie Hirsch for A.L.L. Foundation, a charity run by the Hirsch family that helps other families touched by the disease, and for a research project to study it at Buffalo’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute, started by one of Jacquie’s doctors, Eunice Wang.

Upwards of 800 people attended the 2009 event, which included a six-hour dance-a-thon at which many of the participating dance studios performed. Other attractions included a baked goods and pizza sale; a cake walk to win any of 50 specialty cakes, including doll-themed and guitar-shaped ones; and a raffle of 240 gift baskets packed with donated items from area merchants. A silent auction featured items such as an autographed football and jersey from Buffalo Bills receiver Terrell Owens.

“I am touched and moved by this event. It is for Jacquie and others like her that I do what I do. When I meet a patient like her, I work harder and harder to find a cure.” —Eunice Wang, MD

Along with the Dietzes, more than 50 volunteers helped put together the event, which raised $19,340. Most of the profits came from the event’s $10 admission fee and the raffles. To get donated raffle items, says Mary Alice Dietz, “it is people putting their heads together and figuring out, ‘Hey, I know this person and I can get this or that.’ You would be surprised how generous people can be in support of a good cause.”

The event’s many dance performances featured dancers of all ages and skill levels in a mix of competition-style routines ranging from contemporary and hip-hop to tap and lyrical. A highlight was a “We Are the World”–type group dance number choreographed by Mary Alice Dietz and performed by all the participating dancers several times throughout the afternoon. Spezio’s Dance Dynamics and Mary Alice’s Dance Studio choreographed and performed several dance works in Jacquie’s honor, set to some of her favorite songs.

The dancers also participated in a costume relay in which teams put on silly costumes and raced each other to win prizes. In addition, they were treated to a hip-hop master class taught by So You Think You Can Dance top-20 contestant Tony Bellissimo.

“It such a great thing to know that so many dancers in our community can get together to have an impact on helping to further cancer research,” says 19-year-old Alexia Buono, a dancer and teacher at Celebrity Dance Emporium in Amherst, New York.

Jill Jaros, owner of Rock Steady Dance Center in Cheektowaga, New York, echoes Buono’s sentiments: “I think it is important for my students to be a part of ‘Dancers Give Back’ and to support the community and the cause. It is something they can feel really good about.”

At an event where virtually everyone who attended had a relative, friend, or acquaintance with cancer, a sense of goodwill and pride in everyone was palpable.

Perhaps no one outside those closest to Jacquie understood the event’s emotional impact more than Holly Humphreys, owner and director of Eugenia’s Dance Studio (Studio E) in West Seneca, New York, and her students. They lost their longtime studio director and mentor, Eugenia Smith (Humphreys’ mother) to pancreatic cancer in July 2009 at age 67 (see “FYI,” Dance Studio Life, December 2009). “I think a lot of my students took this event quite personally because of the death of my mother,” says Humphreys. “We were happy to be part of such a great event where so many studios came together for such a great cause.”

Mary Alice Dietz credits the closeness of the Western New York dance community with making “Dancers Give Back” a success and she hopes to involve even more studios this year. “I think this event has brought our dance community even closer together,” says Dietz. “It has not only made the dancers here more aware of ALL, it has also shown them that their dancing can be put to use for a larger purpose.”

Asked if she saw “Dancers Give Back” branching out to help other causes, Mary Alice Dietz says, “It would be really cool if people around the country started doing something like [it] for whatever their charity is. I don’t see why someone couldn’t do like Ali did for another good cause.”

Of the many tributes to Jacquie and reminders of the purpose behind “Dancers Give Back,” perhaps none was more touching and sobering than Dr. Wang’s, who said a few words to those in attendance: “I am touched and moved by this event. It is for Jacquie and others like her that I do what I do. When I meet a patient like her, I work harder and harder to find a cure. Unfortunately, cancer is all too common.”

Hopefully, through the efforts of people like the Dietzs, Jacquie’s journey will be a road less traveled by others in the future.

For more information on “Dancers Give Back,” visit dancersgiveback.com. To find about more about Jacquie Hirsch and The Jacquie Hirsch for A.L.L. Foundation, visit jacquieforall.com.

Finis Jhung coaches the newest crop of boys to play Billy Elliot

By Darrah Carr

Billy Elliot, the Broadway musical sensation that garnered an astonishing 10 Tony Awards last year, will launch its Chicago production on March 18 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, before embarking on a multi-city tour. Four boys share the musical’s demanding title role, depicting a British miner’s son who pursues his passion for ballet. I met three of the new Billys (the fourth is Tommy Batchelor) and observed a ballet lesson with master teacher Finis Jhung during the early stages of rehearsals at New York City’s Ripley-Grier Studios in December. Jhung was scheduled to work with the boys three times a week over a six-week period.

The long, narrow studio was lined with bulging costume racks, spare folding chairs, and tables for members of the production team, who sat focused on their laptops. Water bottles, rosin trays, and dance bags dotted the floor. In the midst of the hubbub, Giuseppe Bausilio, 12; Cesar Corrales, 13; and John Peter (J.P.) Viernes, 13, stretched, joked with each other, and waited for class to begin.

Jhung, well known for his instructional videos and CDs, was an attentive but soft-spoken presence as he gently corrected the boys’ placement and gave words of encouragement. Each of the young Billys displayed technique that seemed beyond their years. (Cesar, a trained gymnast who is relatively new to dance, routinely pulled off six pirouettes.) At the same time, they were irrepressibly youthful as they cheered each other on and made hand puppets in the long shadows of the fading afternoon sunlight.

After the hour-long class, I spoke with Jhung about his experience training the boys. Nora Brennan, children’s casting director for Billy Elliot and a former Jhung student, had recommended him for the job. Following a positive meeting with choreographer Peter Darling, Jhung has been involved with the production since June 2008 and coached David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish from the original Broadway cast. Jhung has also been involved with the Billys camp, a training ground for dozens of young Billy hopefuls. Given that he has taught everyone from Ethan Stiefel to cast members of Cats over the last 38 years, I wanted to find out what made his work with these young dynamos unique.

DC: What is your main focus when working with the Billys?

FJ: To solidify what they are really going to be doing onstage. That is what the directors are depending on me to do. Most of the turns that you saw the boys doing today, they have to do in the show—chaînés, piqués, attitude turns inside and outside, coupé jetés, and at least 16 turns in second. So I drill them on those turns and, at the same time, I try to strengthen their feet, legs, and body. It is different from a general ballet class because it is so specific.

DC: Does the Billy Elliot team give you feedback or specific instructions?

FJ: They rehearse very strictly. It’s a British code of ethics. Nothing is left to chance. They are very specific in preparing everyone for the part they are doing. That is why the show stays at such a high level, because it has been beautifully directed. They expect a lot from the boys, because they are investing in them. The boys are going to carry the show, so it is very serious. I often tell the boys, “You’ve got a $136 step and you can’t mess up. You’ve got to put it in your muscles and get the feeling of it correctly right now so that you can do it onstage. No one wants excuses.”

DC: What other kinds of training are the Billys receiving?

FJ: Throughout the day they are being bombarded with so much new information—another number, another song, more dialect coaching, more dialogue to remember, another tap dance, another acrobatic trick . . . Their heads are so full! Plus they have tutoring in the morning and then their schoolwork. And that is their schedule six days a week! But they are really open to learning everything. Because they are still so young, they don’t have all of the prejudices and fears that older dancers often have.

DC: I noticed that you began class in the center rather than at the barre. Why did you structure the class that way?

JF: We only have one hour and I thought, “Gosh, I’ve got to get them moving. They need to be doing more.” So, I just took them off the barre and made them start to become aware of their whole body from the very first exercise. When you are at the barre, there is a tendency to use only half of your body. I’m trying to have them use the mirror to teach themselves. Do you see what you are doing? What does it look like? What does it feel like? When I took them off the barre, we got a lot more done. And, as a result of that, I actually made a video called The Center Floor Ballet Warm-up.

DC: I also observed that you stood behind the Billys for the duration of the class. Why did you choose that stance?

FJ: I never sit in the front the way that many teachers do. How can you see from there? If you stand in back, then you can see everything. You’re looking at the back of the body and, through the mirror, you can see the front of the body, too.

DC: What other teaching methods are you using with the Billys?

FJ: I’ve brought in videos of [Mikhail] Baryshnikov and I show them in slow motion exactly what he does as he prepares for a turn. The trap in studying ballet is that there are books and books full of exercises and steps, but very few that actually break down the technique. They just tell you to prepare from fourth position and then Vaganova tells you to bring your arms in. But nobody tells you what parts of the body are really moving and in what sequence. When you study great dancers in slow motion, then you can see that when they prepare for a turn, they actually spiral. They are turning their bodies around, but you don’t read that in a book. I also try to get to the essence of the movement. If you’re doing a pirouette, what is the most important idea? Throughout the years, I’ve become much more explicit in commands like, “Put your shoulder here; put your toe there.”

“The boys are going to carry the show, so it is very serious. I often tell the boys, ‘You’ve got a $136 step and you can’t mess up.’ ” —Finis Jhung

DC: How do you prepare three different individuals, each with his own strengths and weaknesses, for the same role?

FJ: Well, it’s the same thing as when you teach a group class, in a way. You try to hit the middle and hope that it splatters on both ends! I try to find a balance between what is challenging for one and not impossible for another. I’m trying to be as specific with my corrections as I can be for each of them, because they are at different levels and they have such different personalities. I also try not to show favoritism. I try to correct everybody equally or compliment everybody equally.

DC: What other challenges do you face in this process?

Usually, a 12-year old boy is just doing tendus and maybe a simple pirouette. But, in this show, they have to dance like men; they can’t dance like boys. As a male dancer, you need to really present yourself, with your chest and your shoulders open. You shouldn’t be looking soft. You should be big and should push off with energy.

Throughout these classes, I tell them to feel the lights on their chest and on their cheekbones. You also have to be very patient. They have so much enthusiasm and energy and they love to dance. You don’t want to destroy any of that. You want to let them feel free but, at the same time, you have to make the corrections that they need for the show.

DC: Has this experience changed your perspective about teaching?

FJ: I think technically it has not changed my teaching, as much as it has verified that I’m on the right track and that I’m seeing the things that matter most. It’s like teaching with X-ray eyes all of the time. Looking inside the body. Seeing the bones moving. It goes back to the idea of finding the essence of the movement and trying to focus on correct preparation, not on position. Many of the ideas in my last video have evolved from working with the boys—how to get them on their leg and how to get them in the air. I would say that it has been a workshop for me, too, because I’ve been learning. How do I keep that fire lit, but also give them new ideas? Down the road, they’re going to perform the show two or three times a week for the next few years. I’m trying to make sure that they are working correctly and that they are not heading toward injury. I’m trying to get them to be able to give their maximum performance, which will, of course, make the show happy and make the audience happy.

DC: How else has working with the Billys affected you?

FJ: Well, when I was growing up in Hawaii, we were very poor and New York City was just a dream. I used to dance around the house for hours to Swan Lake. This show has such deep resonance for me because the dream ballet scene is to Swan Lake! For me, it’s the story of my life. I was the same [as Billy]. Even though my parents let me study, I had no friends to share it with. You couldn’t be an Oriental boy in Hawaii in the ’40s and talk about ballet. I know what [Billy’s] passion feels like because all I had going for me was my love of dance. Working with these boys is kind of like coming full circle. I feel very privileged to work with them.

Modern dance technique concepts, for anything and anywhere you teach

By Bill Evans

I started teaching in 1953 and began developing my own method in 1968, drawing from many influences, including various styles of modern dance, rhythm tap, ballet, Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals, anatomy, kinesiology, and learning theories. In sharing my work with teachers, I’ve discovered an exponential impact; they pass on to their students what they find meaningful in my work. I am thrilled to know that dancers whom I will never meet are experiencing the ideas and practices to which I have devoted much of my life.

I was invited to share my work at the DanceLife Teacher Conference for the first time in August 2009 in Orlando, Florida, where I was delighted by the positive responses to my classes. In this article, I share some of the basic concepts and practices that define the Bill Evans Method of Teaching Modern Dance Technique, with the hope that readers will find them applicable to their work.

How it all began
I became motivated to find my own way of working after experiencing chronic injuries that had made me consider giving up dancing. Even though my early teachers were dedicated, generous, and nurturing, I had been exposed to many of the “myths” popular in the teaching of dance at that time. I had learned to grip my butt, turn out my feet, press my shoulders down, suck my “stomach” in, lift my insteps, resist going down in a plié, “bevel” my feet. I always wanted to please my teachers, so I followed those instructions willingly.

But because none of those practices are congruent with the organic needs of the human body, I evolved from the naturally gifted mover I was at age 8 to a stiff and over-muscled 28-year-old whose movement habits permitted almost no shock absorption. I had learned to ignore the bodily wisdom that could have informed me that I was working against my own best interests, and I was in almost constant low-back and neck pain, so severe that often it could be alleviated only by cortisone injections.

As I developed a new method of teaching, I felt myself changing as well. I will be 70 years old in April, and at my last physical exam my doctor told me that I have the body of a 55-year-old. I have not had chronic pain in any part of my body in decades. I dance vigorously every day and perform solo concerts several times a year. Because the concepts that guide me and the methods I have developed are so useful to me, I am eager to share them with others. I’ll focus on a few that have been very meaningful.

Replace myths about the body with reliable anatomical information.
In the 1940s and ’50s, when I was receiving my foundational training, most teachers did not have access to scientific body knowledge. I started to integrate such information into my technique teaching in the late ’70s, when Karen Clippinger (who was at that time making the transition from dancer to dance kinesiologist) and I co-taught a series of classes at the Evans Dance Company School in Seattle. Since 1980, Kitty Daniels has taught Karen’s work in my summer programs and has developed her own images based on the body’s organic functioning. Kitty’s teaching has helped generations of students develop a healthy balance of stability and mobility throughout their bodies.

Some of my workshop participants, such as teacher Joanna Cashman (Wild Grace Arts/Center for Yoga and Dance, Olympia, Washington), have noted the value of a dance-science–based dance practice. “I found the technique to be based on sound kinesiological concepts that were rejuvenating,” Cashman says. “The Evans Method allowed me to resuscitate my love of dance and reclaim a vital part of myself without reactivating an injury that had caused me to stop dancing.”

Create a safe and positive environment.
Students are free to give themselves fully to the learning process when they feel safe and know that they will not be judged. I let students know immediately that they will be compared only to themselves. I learn every person’s name on the first day, try to call each of them by name at least once in every class, and end classes with a circle hug and a thank-you. Referring to the atmosphere in my workshops, Sara Keys (Dance Davidson, Davidson, North Carolina) says, “I think about how much it meant to me that [Bill] cared about me as an individual, and it reminds me of how important it is for me to do so with my own students, to build a trusting and meaningful relationship.”

Melissa Hauschild-Mork (Expanding Harmony Dance Studio, Brookings, South Dakota) also brought some of my practices into her school. “Our studio is a place where young people come to learn about themselves and the person they can become,” she says. “No one fails; everyone comes for a different purpose. All are loved for who they are and what they bring to the space.”

As a student, I was often asked to leave my emotions outside the studio. But since it is from our emotions that we create personal artistry, why would anyone want us to leave them outside?

In my method I ask students to write letters about themselves—their backgrounds, goals, fears, successes, and anything else I should know in order to help them grow. I don’t give criticism; instead, I offer guidance and affectionate support. When speaking to one student, I have all the others gather around to watch, listen, and contribute perceptions and affirmations. I try to avoid generic praise, instead pointing out what is good and why, so that students receive clear and specific acknowledgement of their attempts and achievements.

As Kimberly Cisek (Commack High School, Commack, New York) observes, “often, students misconstrue criticism for dislike. Their damaged feelings morph into protective walls that barricade learning.” She says that the kind of positive reinforcement she experienced in my workshops “motivates students to persevere through challenges, accept constructive feedback, and still feel like a valued member of a community of learners in which growth is possible.”

Replace externally focused dancing with movement based on internal awareness.
When students learn primarily by copying a teacher or demonstrator and focus extensively on their reflections in mirrors, they have access to only a superficial understanding. I remind them to pay attention to and learn from the living body and to honor the bodily wisdom that each of us has inherited. I guide students into internal awareness of their bones, muscles, and other bodily systems to fully activate the kinesthetic sense. I encourage them to bring their own feelings into each movement experience, to develop personal expressivity along with technical skill.

Since 1977, when Peggy Hackney began teaching in my Seattle school, I have incorporated concepts and language drawn from Bartenieff Fundamentals into my teaching. This system of movement exploration and re-education, developed by dancer and physical therapist Irmgard Bartenieff, enables us to become aware of subconscious movement habits and determine whether they are serving our best interests. If students wish to replace inefficient habits with patterns that will serve them better, I offer conceptual tools and movement practices that can lead to positive change.

Some of the Bartenieff concepts that have guided me toward transformation are: “Movement rides on breath,” “A change in the part creates a change in the whole,” and “Life is movement and movement is change; constant change is here to stay.”

Marlene Leber (Hathaway Brown School, Shaker Heights, Ohio) affirms the value of such ideas in her work with teenage students. By explaining movement concepts to her students in Bartenieff-centered language, she says, “I have witnessed remarkable growth in my students’ ability to grasp and implement movement concepts quickly, because they are assimilating information on a mind–body level instead of by rote imitation.”

Peggy Hackney’s book, Making Connections: Total Body Integration Through Bartenieff Fundamentals, is a guide to investigating developmental movement stages that allow us to sense and feel more deeply and become more connected, efficient, and expressive. By investigating movement via the developmental patterns through which the body/mind evolves, we discover, for example, that in order to move efficiently one must yield to the earth and push from each point of contact before reaching away from the earth and then pulling oneself to a new point in space.

KLee Moore (Pioneer Dance Arts, Sequim, Washington) has put this concept into practice in her own teaching. “All of my students, children to seniors, pre-ballet, tumbling, ballet/pointe, jazz, tap, hip-hop, and modern, are constantly reminded to yield and push to reach and pull,” she says. “This concept is especially important for the geriatric generation. My retired adult students regularly give me feedback on how they have changed: standing taller and with more ease, improved muscle tone, and better total health due to breath support.”

Thought creates action.
Thoughts become words. Words become actions. Actions become habits. I choose words carefully, because dance teachers can exert a major influence on the body–mind habits of students throughout the rest of their lives. My study of Laban Movement Analysis has given me clear and nonjudgmental language to use in describing any movement event. I can choose to describe it in terms of what is happening in the body, of how the body is relating to its spatial environment, of the body’s process of changing its form, or of how the body is revealing inner attitudes.

When dancers have clarity of intent (in terms of body, space, shape, or effort) they move with enhanced mind–body integration and expressivity. Julie Anderson (Parker Dance Academy, Denver, Colorado) shares one of her experiences: “I have a group of 11- to 13-year-olds who had been fixated on seeing movement in the mirror rather than feeling qualities and changes in their bodies. I taught them choreography built around Evans movement with clear spatial intent, using Laban words like ‘strong,’ ‘bound,’ ‘free,’ and ‘sustained,’ and the dancers made up some descriptive words of their own. The result was a stunning piece of work that the students could not have been more proud of. They were discovering themselves inside the movement, perhaps for the first time in their lives.”

Not every teacher can become a Certified Laban Movement Analyst, but everyone can learn some basic Laban terms and theory by seeking out workshops that include LMA and through reading. Melissa Hauschild-Mork stresses the value of Laban’s theories to her students: “The more tools we have to express our feelings and emotions through movement, the more articulate we can be as choreographers and dancers.” 

Teach the whole person.
I don’t teach technique; I teach people. By this, I mean that I am doing much more than sharing movement knowledge and patterns. In the words of Deborah Birrane (Creative Dance Center, Seattle, Washington), “students experiencing an Evans-based class will soon discover that there are many choices to explore, and that the exploration doesn’t stop when they leave the studio. If they choose to continue to pursue dance, they will do so from an ego-less perspective because they will have been taught to perceive, sense, and feel from a truer, more honest level of self.”

I consider it my responsibility to perceive all people as unique individuals and invite them to bring their thinking, sensing, feeling, and intuiting selves to each class. As a student, I was often asked to leave my emotions outside the studio. But since it is from our emotions that we create personal artistry, why would anyone want us to leave them outside?

I have learned that each student has an individual learning style; the language and teaching strategies that work for one may not be appropriate for another. Therefore, I try to offer multiple inroads to each movement experience. I must go beyond my preferred way of learning and try to serve the needs of all the people in the room. By embracing Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, I have learned to address the various ways in which students might process information.

Learning is active.
Too many students adopt passive attitudes when studying technique. They might be physically involved, but often they are not fully engaged. Effective learning requires that students be present in body, mind, and spirit. I consider myself to be in dialogue with each student, no matter how large the class.

Effective teachers are not authorities who bestow knowledge on their students. Rather, they are guides and facilitators who lead students into a process of exploration and discovery through which they generate their own knowledge. I remind myself frequently that it is my job to help students become so empowered that they no longer need me. They become self-reliant when given opportunities to reflect on and make personal meaning of our shared experiences and to use their developing knowledge to solve problems.

In every course I teach, students work with partners to observe and offer and receive feedback. Through this “pair-and-share” process, they learn to analyze what their partners are doing, and they learn that their perceptions can be meaningful and relevant.

Another practice that helps keep the class fresh and alive is changing the location of “front.” Sarah Joyce-Dyer (Holland Hall School, Tulsa, Oklahoma) has adopted this practice in her teaching: “I spend less time conducting classes facing mirrors, and ‘front’ has become an internal consciousness, not an external obligation. I find that students learn combinations faster, make corrections more quickly, and internalize sensation more readily. Students are more observant of my demonstrations, ask pertinent questions about pathways instead of destinations, and swiftly commit choreography to memory. They are able to concentrate on movement, not poses.”

I include structured improvisation in every technique class. It is one thing for students to investigate concepts through choreography, and it is something else for them to continue to investigate those concepts in their own spontaneously created dances. When they can apply ideas to their own movement, they have begun to take ownership of them and to understand how they can apply them in other areas of their lives.

Pass knowledge on.
As a teacher, it is my responsibility to help students recognize their personal strengths and how they can draw on them to solve problems in this world of accelerating change. It is my job to help them learn, as I had to learn, that they can continue to change and grow throughout their lives. I must try to prepare them for their future, not my past.

For more information on Evans, his work, and his workshops for dance teachers, visit billevansdance.org and see Dance Studio Life: “Summertime Teacher Training,” February 2010 and “FYI,” November 2008.

Suggested Reading

• Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology by Karen Clippinger.   Every studio should have this book as a reference for its teachers. It covers common alignment and technique errors and includes exercises and cues that can be used to improve strength and flexibility.
• Laban for All by Jean Newlove and John Dalby.  A reader-friendly introduction to some basic Laban concepts that are readily applicable to the dance classroom.
• Making Connections: Total Body Integration Through Bartenieff Fundamentals by Peggy Hackney
• By Howard Gardner: Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
  Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century

Mignon Furman’s summer teacher intensive

Regular readers of Dance Studio Life have come to look for Mignon Furman’s “2 Tips for Teachers” department in every issue. Teachers who want more of Furman’s hard-won wisdom on ballet education have an option this summer: the Teachers Intensive 2010 at Purchase College SUNY.

The program at the Purchase campus, in New York City’s northern suburbs, runs from July 28 to August 2 and is presented by the American Academy of Ballet, which Furman founded and directs. Attendees must be older than 18 and involved in teaching ballet. There’s no registration deadline.

The program’s emphasis is nuts-and-bolts classroom work rather than theory. “I believe that teaching is a practical art that needs a practical approach—whether to a new class of 5-year-olds or to teenagers with stars in their eyes who have other options for their energy,” Furman explains in the program’s brochure.

The classes focus on such topics as classical variation as adapted for young students; postural alignment, turnout, and placement, including transfer of weight; the art and anatomy of port de bras and use of the upper body; and combinations suitable for various ages.

Attendees also will be able to familiarize themselves with the Performance Awards, Furman’s program for student development. “The basic concept is that all students—not only ‘stars’—need acknowledgement for their endeavors, an opportunity to perform a solo dance, and a stimulus to progress,” the program’s brochure explains. Awards ceremonies—at which every child gets a medal and certificate—are held as students, who start at age 5 or 6, advance through the program’s 12 levels.

In addition to getting special instruction in the Performance Awards program, teachers attending the intensive will be able to observe coaching classes for students and a Performance Awards session in which the students dance for an audience.
The faculty, in addition to Furman, includes:

• John Byrne, former artistic director of the Royal Academy of Dance in London.
• Olga Dvorovenko, who teaches the Studio Company of American Ballet Theatre.
• Rhee Gold, publisher of Dance Studio Life and motivational speaker.
• Brian Loftus, former director of dance for the Arts Educational School in London.
• Pamela McCray, a teacher in Virginia and a judge for the American Academy of Ballet Performance Awards.
• Merle Sepel, director of the Academy of Dance in Santa Ana, California, and artistic director of American Pacific Ballet Company.
• Violette Verdy, a former principal dancer with New York City Ballet and now a teacher at Indiana University in Bloomington. She joins Furman, Sepel, and Loftus on a panel for a Q&A session on August 1.

Attendance for one or two days involves a fee of $130 per day for affiliates of the Academy of American Ballet—which costs $40 a year—and $150 for non-affiliates. For those attending for three or more days, the fee is $110 for affiliates and $130 for non-affiliates. Teachers’ fees are reduced by 50 percent if five or more of their students attend the American Academy of Ballet’s Summer School of Excellence from June 27 to August 8. Observation of Summer School of Excellence classes costs $60 per day for affiliates and $70 for non-affiliates. The cost of materials—such as CDs, DVDS, and notes—is not included, though these also are cheaper for affiliates.

A limited number of rooms at a reduced rate of $155 per night, including breakfast, have been reserved at the Hilton Rye Town, a 10-minute drive from campus. Also, some double-occupancy dorm rooms are available for $50 per night (for those sharing a room) or $60 otherwise.

For more information, contact Mignon Furman at the American Academy of Ballet, 250 West 90th Street #3A, New York, NY 10024; 212.787.9500; office@american-academy-of-ballet; or american-academy-of-ballet.com.