While recently planning for my business’s 25th year, I’ve spent quite a bit of time reflecting on all of the experiences that brought me to this point. Most distinctly, I recall my arrival in Moscow; a long way from home for a twenty-year-old woman from Shreveport. But, surprisingly, that is where I found myself very early in my dance career. As a youth leader for a small group of dancers, I had the opportunity to study and perform with Russia’s famed Bolshoi Ballet, which was both exciting and terrifying. We all arrived in Moscow exhausted and hungry after a very long flight. Admittedly, McDonald’s was the first stop for my group of young dancers as we grasped for something familiar. A couple of bites into my cheeseburger and fries, I worried that I was already making very poor nutritional choices and threw my meal away. Hours later we found ourselves boarding a boat in Kiev with the Bolshoi Ballet Tour. As the ballet company and I cruised down the Dneiper River through the Ukraine, we stopped in each city and performed – a typical summer travel season for the Bolshoi, but an eye-opening experience for a young American ballerina. Most meals along the way consisted of a curds-and-whey style porridge and hot dogs (I traded my porridge for a hot dog as often as possible). The combination of seasickness, Russian food, and bacteria contracted from a spontaneous dip in the river made the experience quite unpleasant for many of us, but performing with one of the world’s oldest and most reputable ballet companies quickly made those issues fade into the background.
At the end of our four week tour, I was offered a position as a ballerina to continue dancing with the Bolshoi Ballet. I was overwhelmed by this opportunity, but family obligations and homesickness spurred my eagerness to return to America. Before boarding my flight out of Moscow, I stopped at that same McDonald’s for two cheeseburgers, fries, and a Coke – one of the best meals of my life. Later, I discovered that I was only the second American dancer to be invited into the Bolshoi Ballet. In hindsight, should I have made a different choice? Perhaps, but the Russian experience generated a series of events that would eventually lead me to open my own dance studio and realize a love of teaching that surpassed my wildest expectations.
I first discovered ballet while watching television at five years old and announcing to my family my future plans to be a ballerina. Growing up on a small farm in Amarillo, Texas, provided limited opportunities for exposure to and participation in the arts. It did, however, provide a strong work ethic and perseverance that have proven to be two of my most valuable and cherished assets throughout my life. After much prodding from me, my mother was willing to find a dance school that nourished my efforts and recognized my potential. Walking out of that first ballet class, I knew I had found my dream and I never missed another class.
After several years of intensive ballet training in Texas, I returned with my family to our hometown of Shreveport. As an uprooted teenager, I found it difficult to find a dance studio to suit my needs, but as all dancers know, it was something I could not live without. I finally found a school that was willing to allow me to become an assistant teacher in exchange for dance training, and I continued that path throughout high school. I later worked in a local photography studio each morning and continued to teach dance classes each afternoon and evening. The combined income from both jobs allowed me to pay my rent and also dance in the studio on Saturdays and Sundays, a perfect combination. It eventually led to that opportunity to travel to Russia and study with the Bolshoi.
Suffering a personal loss at age twenty-two forced me to take some time off from dancing and begin considering my future. In 1992, an opportunity arose to begin my own dance school, and I decided to take that leap. Being responsible for working with so many little bodies every day, I quickly realized the need for more education on my part. There is tremendous potential for harming a growing child’s body with improper teaching techniques and a lack of knowledge of anatomy. I sought a personal coach who suggested I train and teach the Cecchetti method of ballet. My first serious dance school in Amarillo was a Cecchetti school, an Italian ballet method known for meticulous, rigorous training with consideration of human anatomy. The Cecchetti method teaches ballet students to become self-reliant in their movements and, therefore, more adaptable to different styles of classical ballet. For the next four years, I spent my summers and Christmas holidays in New York, Connecticut, and California gaining as much knowledge and training as I could, and finally I was examined by the board of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance and certified as a Cecchetti instructor. I began teaching the Cecchetti method and eventually incorporated some of the Vaganova (Russian) ballet method into my curriculum. There is no regulatory organization to oversee dance schools or studios, making it difficult for parents to recognize a difference among studios within their city. It has always been very important to me that I provide the best quality of training and safest environment that I could for my students.
During my pursuit of instructor certification, I was asked to audition for City Ballet of Houston and perform as a professional ballerina. I was eager for this opportunity, but also responsible for my own dance school by now. After teaching dance classes in Shreveport during the week and on Saturdays, I drove to Houston on most weekends to rehearse and perform, then drove back to Shreveport on Sunday nights or Monday mornings to begin teaching again. My association with the City Ballet of Houston brought about opportunities to meet many of the great ballet dancers and master teachers of our time, ironically including the first American ballerina offered a position with the Bolshoi Ballet. I was unbelievably fortunate to be able to dance with them, learn from them, and observe their teaching methods. Many of these teachers and dancers from all over the world now visit Power & Grace each summer and work with my own students. They continue to be my mentors and friends, as well as incredible influences and connections for my students.
After twenty years of dancing professionally, I retired from performing to focus on my teaching. Watching a shy three-year-old slowly blossom into a confident young person brings me immeasurable joy. I have watched my students become doctors, lawyers, accountants, businesswomen, and mommies. Many have attended college through dance scholarship opportunities and some have danced and performed professionally over the years. All of them have gained self-confidence, self-discipline, and an appreciation for the arts, particularly dance, which will remain a part of their lives forever. As we celebrate Power & Grace’s 25th year, I look forward to seeing many of those former students and their families again while I now enjoy teaching a new generation of “grand-students.”
Dance changed my life. It provided goals, passion, successes, failures, confidence, humility, lifelong friendships and, in my case, a beloved career. In hindsight, would I have made different choices along the way? Maybe, but I have loved every hour of every day that I’ve spent inside the dance studio, and my mission for the past twenty-five years has been to share that love with my students.
