I've always told people that I started dancing at the age of 5, but I don't think that's altogether true..
What IS true is that at age 5 my mother enrolled me in a class which consisted of a combination of ballet, tap, tumbling, baton twirling and eventually (I think) the hula if there was time to spare... And I did this all in an hour, one night a week, and probably just so my mom could have time to run back to school and finish planning her teaching curriculum for the next day.
I remember playing on the jungle gym outside of the dance studio afterwards, waiting for her to pick me up. I think that was my favorite part. Anyway, I really hated that "dance" class.
Recitals were a different story...
BTW... the boy who is walking away in the background is Michael Gutenplan, who threatened to "beat me up" every single day of my young life. I hear he is now an attorney out in LA or something...
But back on topic... I think I eventually quit. Either that, or my mom quit needing me to go, or whatever.
But then, when I was in 5th grade, a girl from school told me she was taking ballet lessons and I stood right there on the north side of the cross walk while we waited for the crossing guard to tell us we could cross, and showed her my perfect pique turns and pas de bouree's. As not to be "topped" or anything...
So I guess you could say that my real dancing interests began more when I was... like 10.
Except that it was STILL really just an after-school program funded by the LaPuente School District. And we held our classes in elementary school cafeterias with the fold out cafeteria tables being used as our barres. Being tallish, I usually hung onto the wall instead. But at least I went twice a week, and ALL we studied was ballet. Our teacher was Miss Joyce and I will love her to this day, even though it would take several years before she'd ever put me on pointe.
With good reason!...
Yet despite our somewhat amateurish circumstances, she really WAS an excellent teacher. I don't think I ever really got that "good" in her care, but she gave me a really, really great start. At least I think she knew what she was doing... and made the very best out of the resources available. Elementary school cafeteria stages or high school gymnasiums for recitals, etc...
Mary Lou and Me... my best friend and carpool buddy.
Finally on pointe!
A solo (?)
Snow White's Dove
And then, at some point during all this, I joined the Covina Valley Junior Ballet Company. Which was sort of a big deal, because we actually had to audition! And it was a huge time committment... All day Saturday, plus my regular weekday classes. (my daughters will probably get a smile out of that... along with the fact that the "ballet moms" were still exactly the same as we would encounter some thirty years later. Because some things never change!)
But it was my first brush with semi-professionalism and a Russian artistic director. Marilia Walsh was a force to be reckond with! And we performed at the (waitforit...) Mission Playhouse in Pasadena!..
Jeux de Cartes
The Pirates' Treasure
The Precious Gems
...and even once at the old LA Pilgrimage Theatre in LA, where we did "Cinderella" and "La Mer." (There's gotta be pictures of that somewhere!)
And then, it was sometime soon after this time that I just sort of stopped dancing, because I decided that I wanted to be an ACTRESS instead. Obviously this was way before the time of understanding the need to be a "triple threat."
So to be completely honest, I don't really know exactly just how it came to be that I would eventually end up dancing on B'way. Except for the fact that I'm a little competetive maybe.
Because see, there was this girl, Sandra, in Home Ec one day who I overheard talking about the dance garb that Juliet Prowse had been wearing in class last night. And when I asked her how she'd come to know that exactly she just rolled her eyes at me and said, "Because I was there."
Well, it had never dawned on me before that anyone would actually go into LA to take dance classes... but anyway, even due to our apparent like-interests, we never did become friends.
Years later, upon my first move to New York, I would find, not only did she live in my VERY same apartment on 72nd street, but was also a corps member of the New York City Ballet! She never recognized me at all... and I never said hello.
But I did do "standing room" a LOT that year at the NYCB, which is when I think I forever fell in love and became addicted to ballet and dancing! So thankyou Sandra (even though you'll probably never know it was you who unwittingly inspired my obsession.)
I do have to mention here, though, that a couple of years later we were both auditioning for the same Broadway show. We bumped into each other in the elevator going up to the 3rd floor of the Minskoff Studios and I finally had the nerve to introduce myself and express to her that I thought we'd gone to High School together. And what did she say to me? She said "Wow, you must have a really good memory." And that was about it.
Long story short, we had to do fouettes at that audition so talk about pressure! But as it turned out, I got called back and she didn't.
And that is an absolutely true story...
When I stop to think about it, it was more likely Saybher, Dennon, Jackie & Bill, Joe Bennett, Kathryn Lowe, Ron Forella, David Howard and Doug Wassell * who ultimately made me wanna keep on dancing.
So I just kept on dancing...
And then eventually... somehow things worked out.
*So many others to remember and acknowledge... but it's been a REALLY long time, so I'll have to do some googling first.
