GLOBE NORTHWEST 1
The fact that the West Concord Dance Academy has endured for 30years is impressive enough. But when you consider that it hasmanaged to attract children and their parents since 1978 withnothing more than a plain brown shingle outside to draw attention,the question arises as to how director Robin Magee explains hersuccess.
After all, trends in children's activities change. What littlegirls in Concord did for recreation in the 1970s is different fromwhat they do today.
Yes, Magee concedes, it's true anecdotal evidence suggests thatsoccer and karate are surpassing dance and skating as the favoritesof young females in the Boston suburbs. According to Dr. JamesHumphrey, author of the 2003 handbook 'Child Development throughSports,' as well as several other sources, the most popularindividual sports for girls in the United States today aregymnastics, swimming, track and field, golf, and fencing, whilebasketball, softball, volleyball, and soccer top the list of teamsports. Few would dispute the regional popularity of soccer; the USYouth Soccer Association says that 3.2 million youngsters areenrolled in soccer programs.
Although there is no analogous professional organization toprovide numbers of young dancers, Magee and other dance studioproprietors said parents still want to see their children developmuscular strength and poise, and the wishes of young children to puton fancy costumes and appear on stage are eternal. Magee is one ofmany business people meeting that need: She is among 500 members ofthe Dance Teachers' Club of Boston, a 95-year-old organization thatmaintains professional standards for dance teachers.
Susan Brock, who was raised in Concord and now lives in Sudbury,is a second-generation customer. She studied dance with Magee as achild and now sends her two daughters, ages 6 and 11, to the WestConcord Dance Academy.
The studio, which has about 450 students, is 'home, it's myfamily - it's hard to imagine sending my children anywhere else forballet,' Brock said.
Magee's studio is not the only one in this area that has been inbusiness for decades. Among those that are older, the Acton Schoolof Ballet has been in business for 40 years, and the School ofBallet Arts, which runs classes both in Lexington and Concord, for45 years.
Jennifer Glaze has danced professionally with troupes all overthe country, but she said Magee's focus attracted her to join the 13-person faculty once she retired as ballet mistress with the BostonBallet Company.
'We have the same love for the art form and the same sense that,as a teacher, our job is to instill in each kid a love of dance anda passion for the art form regardless of where they go with it,'Glaze said. 'No matter whether they end up being professionaldancers, doctors, lawyers, or the president, we've instilled in thema good education in the art form as well as skills that hopefullytransfer to other aspects of their lives, such as discipline anddetermination.'
Certainly the attitude of young girls toward athletics haschanged over 30 years, Magee said. When she opened the studio in thelate 1970s - charging $20 a month per class, a third of what itcosts now - dance was often a girl's only athletic activity. Now,most of her students maintain a full schedule that might includefencing, soccer, softball, hockey, and martial arts.
Moreover, she said, her students have much busier schedules ingeneral than they did in past decades: academic tutoring, religiouseducation, music instruction, and other recreationalextracurriculars along with sports factor into a typical day forthem.
'As they grow older, my students have to choose which activitiesthey want to continue with,' said Magee. 'Having to make thosechoices improves their focus, their commitment, and their time-management skills.'
As director of the School of Ballet Arts in Concord andLexington, Jean D'Urbano has instructed students in classical balletfor more than four decades. She agrees with Magee that girls aremore athletically well-rounded than they once were, but she said thebiggest change in her business is the trend toward dance as therapy,which the American Dance Therapy Association defines as 'thepsychotherapeutic use of movement as a process which furthers theemotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of theindividual.'
Established in 1966, the association lists 1,200 certified dance/movement therapists in 43 states, and D'Urbano believes that anincreasing number of her dance program alumnae will be among them.She is about to offer her first class specifically addressing danceas therapy.
'Children with physical limitations gain so much from the musclecontrol and balance that dance instills in them,' she said.
In the past decade, D'Urbano said, she has also witnessed a trendthat she views less favorably: an interest in competition. Girls whostudy with her are often also involved in skating and gymnastics,sports where rankings and competitions are a regular part of theprogram. She said she has resisted pressure to train her studentsfor competition because she believes that the format of dancecompetition takes away from what she believes are the more importantskills to be learned: ballet technique, self-discipline, and anoverview of dance history.
Chip Morris, the third director/owner in the 40-year history ofthe Acton School of Ballet, said that the most positive changes toaffect young dancers today pertain to health concerns.
'In the 1970s and 1980s, most adult dancers were smokers, and itwasn't unusual to see a dance teacher smoking in class,' he said.'Now dancers are much more health-conscious.'
It's not just in terms of good nutrition and avoiding theindustry's pervasive eating disorders, it's orthopedic as well, saidMorris.
'Dancers, and in the case of young students their parents, paymuch more attention to injuries than they did when I began dancing,'he said. 'Once, if a girl turned her ankle in class, we'd tell herto stay off it for a few days. Now her parents are likely to takeher straight in for an X-ray.'
Magee said she hopes to see her business endure for another threedecades, or more.
'What we have more than anything else backing us up is word ofmouth,' she said, trying to explain her studio's longevity. 'In thevillage of West Concord, there's a very strong sense of communitythat unites the businesses, neighborhoods, and families thatpatronize the area. We are a tight network and extremely supportiveof each other. I feel very blessed by that.'
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Nancy Shohet West can be reached at nancyswest@msn.com.
