Live An Artful Life Magazine Issue 4

Live An

Magazine

Artful Life4

TM

FuziÓn Dance ArtistsHungry For Your Soul

Lasley Centre for the Performing ArtsFostering Excellence in Dance

7 Reasons To DanceDr. Monica Neel

Kim Tapper:Life Lessons of Dance

Sarasota:Florida's Culture Capital

2 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved

My late Italian mother Vivian, loved to dance. She loved all kinds of music, but even more so she loved dancing to music and she instilled that behavior in my brother and I as kids. She came out of the crooner era and I can recall her telling us at 18 she took a bus by herself to Ohio just to see Frank Sinatra. A bold move for a young girl so many years ago.

I can also recall her talking about wanting to practice, but girls didn’t just go up to boys and ask them to dance back then. So she would dance with her cousin Jean and both would practice at home doing what my mother called, dancing with the door knob. She loved hand dancing and so she would open a door and swinging on its hinges, it would become her dance partner, with the door knob that potential boys hand. Growing up, it was fun to watch as she showed me and then lent me her hand.

It is with that childhood enthusiasm that I would describe the past few months leading up to this, our 4th issue of Live An Artful Life™ Magazine focusing on DANCE! Visiting just two amazing temples of dance, in two different states and feeling excited to tell you two energetic stories about the art of move-ment to rhythm and those dedicated to it. What could be more artful?

We visit FuziÓn Dance Artists of Sarasota Florida, which became the city’s first contemporary dance company over a decade ago and is going strong in a vibrant arts community. We then head to nearby Warrenton, Virginia, where Kalie Lasley has created Lasley Centre for the Performing Arts. A 9,000 square foot facility dedicated to excellence.

Along the way we also hear from contributing writers, Dr. Monica Neel and Life Coach Kim Tapper, a former professional dancer herself. Both offer valuable lessons of living an artful life. So come along as we dance!

Live An Artful Life,

Tom Neel

to our readers

features

43Mr. Bones

"He's dying to keep you from injury"

12Fuzión Dance Artists

"Hungry For Your Soul"

32Lasley Centre

For The Performing Arts"Fostering Excellence"

4


alsoinside

8Mindful Living

with Dr. Monica Neel" 7 Reasons To Dance"

28Life Coach

By Kim Tapper"Kim shares life lessons

learned as a dancer"

26 Sarasota, Sunshine

and Culture!

Dolphins dancing along Saratota's Bayfront

Live An

MagazineArtful Life

PUBLISHER, EDITORTom [email protected]

PUBLISHER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR ANDGRAPHIC DESIGNLinda [email protected]

ADVERTISING540-253-9797

CONTRIBUTORSDr. Monica L. Neel, Psy.DKim Tapper, Life Coach, ACC, CPCC

PHOTO CREDITSWe wish to thank the following people for thewonderful photos used in this issue.Tom NeelHenry OviedoKim Tapper

SUBMISSIONSLive An Artful Life Magazine welcomes ar-ticle submissions by email to [email protected]. Please include contact information.

COPYRIGHT 2014 Live An Artful Life Inc.All rights reserved. No portion of this pub-lication may be copied or reprinted without written permission from the Editor. Live An Artful Life is a registerd trademark of Live An Artful Life Inc.

Live An Artful Life IncP.O. Box 1636474 Main StreetThe Plains, VA 20198

ON THE COVER

FuziÓn Dance Artistsperforming at The Dalí Museum,

St. Petersburg, FL.

™


http://www.goblueridgetravel.com

Are you a teacher of the arts?Live An Artful Life™ Magazine has created an online nationwide listing source for the public to find

instructors, classes and schools. If you teach PAINTING, SCULPTING, DANCE, MUSIC, POT-

TERY, GLASS BLOWING, WOOD TURNING or any of the arts or art related genres we want to list

your contact information. The Creative Arts Source Guide will be advertised in each issue of Live

An Artful Life™ Magazine with a full page ad that will direct your prospective students to the online

guide. The guide will be sorted by genre, state, alphabetical listing. Get listed today!

Contact Linda at [email protected] for more details.

540-253-9797

http://www.liveanartfullifemagazine.com/creative-arts-source-guide

http://liveanartfullifemagazine.com/creative-arts-source-guide

Dance lives in my home. It has since I was lit-

tle. I come from a legacy of dancers…not trained

performers, but humans compelled to move to

music. I’ve always known it was a powerful form

of expression, but wanted to explore what the lit-

erature had to say on the topic. I was blown away

and had to share. If you’ve needed an excuse to

dance or have a curiosity about the whys and

hows…here you go!

It’s an evolutionary perk – Did you know that

chimpanzees, our closest genetic cousins, don’t

dance? Neither do cats or dogs. Do you know

who can dance? Snowball, a sulphur-crest-

ed cockatoo. When this video was spotted, it

sparked a wave of research into the evolution-

ary reason and value of dance. It is thought that

dance may be an evolutionary accident apparent

only in vocal learners (humans, dolphins, song-

birds) who need to tune into beat and rhythm in

order to mimic complex vocalizations and learn

to communicate with sound.

It may provide a protective buffer against Par-

kinson’s disease – The basal ganglia is a deep brain

structure involved in motor control. In humans,

it happens to be strongly integrated to the audi-

tory cortex which processes sound. Researchers

theorize that the basal ganglia becomes stronger

and more neurologically integrated with the au-

ditory cortex when people listen to rhythmic mu-

sic. Research on the use of dance as a therapeutic

intervention has demonstrated improvements to

balance and gait in individuals with Parkinson’s

Disease.

It helps us pick a mate – Dance is a universal

human experience. From cultural folk dances to

dancing in nightclubs, humans continue to use

cues from dance to select a sexual partner and

mate. Even when beauty and body type were

rendered “invisible” by research that transferred

human dance movements into stick figures, ob-

servers had a preferential attraction to good

dancers! Specifically, observers were attracted

to symmetry of dancers whose movements were

perceived as smooth and designed for efficiency

which, from an evolutionary perspective, would

be associated with survival.

It helps us keep a mate – Among swans, dance

is not only a courtship ritual, but also a typical

behavior among coupled pairs meant to keep in-

terlopers at bay. Among humans, dancing cou-

ples are perceived to be highly bonded by observ-

ers. As our “most intimate and involving form of

7 Reasons To Dance

MINDFUL LIVINGBy Monica Neel, Psy.D


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utkb1nOJnD4)

http://http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(09)00890-2?cc=y

http://nnr.sagepub.com/content/early/2009/12/14/1545968309353329.abstract

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7071/abs/nature04344.html

http://www.uwlax.edu/urc/JUR-online/PDF/2005/peick.pdf

communication”, dance allows couples to convey

messages about their level of intimacy not only to

observers, but also to each other.

It fosters a sense of group affiliation – Mov-

ing with others in unison is a concept known as

synchrony. It’s seen in varying manifestations in-

cluding army troops marching, monks engaged

in group Tai Chi, and folk dances of ancient civi-

lizations. It is a way to blur the boundary between

self and others. Dancing in sync with others, as

a form of synchrony, enhances one’s sense of be-

longing to that group. The evolutionary value of

cultural folk dances is theorized to demonstrate

and enhance capacity for community coopera-

tion.

It is an avenue through with others can reg-

ulate our emotions – This point really conveys

how powerfully our evolutionary ties have con-

nected us to others. When watching a dance per-

formance, we’ve all probably had the experience

of having an emotional response. Research has

demonstrated that humans have an innate capac-

ity to not only read, but also feel emotions con-

veyed in dance performances. The neurological

underpinning of this has its roots in mirror neu-

rons which allow neural circuits of a dance per-

former to be recreated or mimicked in the neural

circuitry of the observer.

Taking this a step further, synchronizing one’s

movements through dance with others can create

an opportunity for their positive feelings to rub

off on us. If you’ve ever participated in a group

movement activity (Zumba, group Tai Chi or

yoga, rowing), perhaps you’ve sensed this. There

is something powerful that happens when mov-

ing in unison with a larger group. According to

Siegel and Bryson, when one person is emotional-

ly dysregulated, the brain has the capacity to sync

in with the brain of another person to bring our

own brain into balance. This can occur with an

activity as simple as bouncing a ball in sync with

another or mirroring the dance moves of another.

It makes us happy – We feel good when we

dance. This knowledge is not only inherent, but

well-supported in psychological research. Even

when dancing alone, it is associated with positive

mood states and even decreases in depression

and anxiety. Research has even pinned down

neurochemical correlates to dance. According to

findings, dance improves psychological distress

and levels of depression by stabilizing the sym-

pathetic nervous system and modulating levels of

serotonin and dopamine.

So dance!


http://pss.sagepub.com/content/20/1/1.short


http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197455606000438

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197455606000438

http://wholebrainchild.com/

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207450590958574

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New book“Behind The Label”

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Available online at A Place to Beand Mascot Books


“We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by

practicing living, the principles are the same.” Martha Graham

DANCE ARTISTSBY TOM NEEL

Lonesome pack-like howls turn hungry. This live performance

feels visually and emotionally powerful as the artists of Fuzión

Dance, draped in edgy lighting, stalk menacingly low across the

stage-less floor invading the audience's space. I feel like prey. My

eyes seem focused on defining the alpha among them and then

in a wave of energy, Fuzión Dance takes us on a magical journey,

deeply tapping our senses with aboriginal sounds, creatively us-12 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved

ing raw simplistic props and delivering complex narrative cho-

reography.

Artists look for ways of cracking their audience's shell, but

Sarasota’s first contemporary dance company, Fuzión Dance Art-

ists, played us like a drum, bouncing earthy sounds off the skin,

vibrating the soul and inner senses with rhythmic interest, be-

fore serving up a visual cocktail of human form and movement.

"Hungry for your soul"

It was an intoxicating performance, drenching

our minds in primal, yet intelligent thought.

For me personally, this was a dance adaption of

the birth of civilization and it may well have been.

Regardless, it was the creation of Fuzión Dance

Artistic Director and Founder, Leymis Bolaños

Wilmott and her co-director and collaborator,

Eliza Ladd, inspired by the Dalí Museum’s “Pi-

casso/Dalí, Dalí/Picasso” exhibit and brilliant-

ly performed in the museum’s Raymond James

Community Room.

Between Picasso’s cubism, capable of folding his

subjects into human origami, and Dalí’s altered

state of reality, this duo and their fellow dancers

tapped into that mind twist and brought all of the

energy and creative expression of contemporary

dance movement to the floor and left nothing be-

hind in their wake of artistic athleticism. This is

the passionate goal of Fuzión Dance Artists and

my purpose for visiting the arts destination of

Sarasota, Florida.

The Alpha Among ThemLeymis Bolaños Wilmott founded Fuzión

Dance Artists with co-founder Rachael Inman in

2002. Sharing an Arabic heritage and collabora-

tive vision, the beginnings of Fuzión came from

their graduate school thesis concert and a blend-

ing of their dance backgrounds and styles. Later,


time was spent developing programming for the

Florida State University FSUdanceSARASOTA

initiative and Fuzión Dance Artists became the

first professional contemporary dance company

in Sarasota. By 2006 Fuzión Dance Artists be-

came a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation.

Today, while Rachael Inman is no longer with

the Fuzión on a daily basis, she is very much so

spiritually and for their summer programs. Ley-

mis continues to not only build on the dance

company’s over decade of growth and her own

eclectic choreography, but collaborative perfor-

mances as well. Her dance company is busy with

monthly performances around their home base

of Sarasota, a community rich in support of the

arts and likely most known for The Ringling Mu-

seum which is governed by (FSU) Florida State

University.

There is FSU College of Fine Arts and the

FSU School of Dance, where Leymis earned her

Master of Fine Arts in Performance/Choreog-

raphy and where Fuzión Dance often performs

in the The Jane B. Cook Theatre. FSU’s website

states; The Ringling cultural campus being home

to the Sarasota Ballet, Asolo Repertory Theatre,

and FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training,

makes it one of the largest college arts complexes in

the country. It is quite a place to visit.

In an effort not to confuse, the plot thickens, be-

cause laced to The Ringling campus is also New

College of Florida where Leymis is Adjunct In-

structor of Dance and also where Fuzión Dance

does their rehearsing. This is where we first meet.

Leymis Bolaños Wilmott and Eliza Ladd

She and two of the company’s dance artists are

rehearsing for their upcoming performance

of Larry Keigwin’s iconic “Mattress

Suite” in The Jane B. Cook Theatre,

March 12th - 15th.

As the dancers do their warm

up, Elisha Byerly, with her fiery

red hair, pushes a mattress against

the room’s mirrored wall and in a

choreographed passion of love to Etta

James’ “At Last”, she has me feeling

my own heartbeat. Her six and

a half foot dance partner Jahrel

Thompson, Fuzión’s Rehearsal

Director, prepares as well. With

his tall, lean physique, comes big

movement with limb extensions that

rise, reach and project. The vast scale

differences of these two dancer’s bod-

ies only adds to the artistic contrast also

found in their skin tones and gender. One

can only imagine seeing them beautifully lit

on stage as their only prop, a mattress, po-

etically brings them together and seemingly

rips them apart as well. My plan is not to

imagine, but to be there!

Leymis is a supportive director. You

can tell she likes artistically working

with dancers rather then have dancers

simply work for her. She seems to carry


no ego, just the kindness and passion to bring art

out of the body through dance. Dancers search-

ing for their creative path have moved along over

the years, but Fuzión has a solid core of founding

company members, company dancers, project

based dancers and apprentices. It’s a dozen or so

group, diverse in their gender, race and ethnicity

and equally diverse in their dance styles includ-

ing ballet, modern and contemporary, ballroom,

jazz, hip hop, along with Afro-modern and Mid-

dle Eastern dance techniques. These are profes-

sional, highly educated people, all with degrees

in their craft, if not multiple or master degrees.

Many are teachers or choreographers themselves

and several are worldly in their experience. As

important to their passion for dance is the drive

of several to take that passion to another purpose

by achieving or pursuing degrees in healing. Ley-

mis herself was the first to receive a certificate in

Dance and Healing from the University of Flor-

ida. Fuzión Dance is a family, and bigger than

their core, as many of the dancers also have a

family of their own with little dancers on the way!

MovementMovement for Leymis is about communication.

She makes the example of saying, “The best way

for me to communicate is through my body. My

background is cuban/arabic, so I use my hands…

I don’t think I can talk without moving [there's

laughter], it’s something I did in the womb and

I kept doing it when I came out so.” [her hands

still are moving] Dance was part of Leymis’

youth, her childhood, her play as a child and she

has never stopped.

After his rehearsal I ask Jahrel specifically about

movement and even more so about the amaz-

ing amount of moves to remember in just one

choreographed piece. He tells me, “When you

start training to be a professional dancer, you go

through years of learning certain types of tech-

nique and moves. So there’s this huge vocabu-

lary that gets put into your body that dancers

relate to.” Vocabulary is a great word, as I always

speak about finding your creative voice. Jahrel

indicates that once you have this dance vocab-

ulary, it becomes part of the language of dance

and just like any language there can be different

interpretations of it. Jahrel also says, “I’ve never

taught a person for a year and they didn’t get bet-

ter. Even when they don’t have the natural knack

for it, they learn the vocabulary.” He feels almost

everyone can learn dance enough to enjoy it.


Injury and Sacrifice Professional dance is pure artistic movement

and while often graceful, it requires athleticism

and strength of both body and mind. It seems

for professionals it is a life of give and take, with

dancers giving their all artistically and dance it-

self taking its toll physically. I ask Jahrel about in-

jury. He talks first about dancers hurting them-

selves trying to do moves to quickly without

Leymis, Elisha and Jahrel, are seen here from all sides of their rehersal.

first slowly building on learning technique. Like

anything else, you have to put in the hours. He

explains, “The longevity of a dancer’s life usually

depends how injured they’ve been through their

life and how much the pain outweighs the joy.”

He has dealt with pain. “Well, I went through two

or three years where I was just dealing with con-

stant pain, and in the beginning I was like, pain is

just a part of dancing, you just keep doing it. But

when you walk down the street after you rehearse

and you go home and [holding right his foot] it’s

throbbing and you wake up and you step on it

and it hurts day after day after day... like it eats at

your brain and just takes away from everything.”

Jahrel also suffered a freak performance relat-

ed injury aboard a cruise ship where after three

weeks of hard rehearsals to prepare for four one

hour shows, his solo at the end would have him

exiting the stage in the dark. What wasn’t prop-

erly communicated is during the end of his solo

an elevated movable stage would be dropping and

creating a 16 foot deep pit behind him. So, after

a bunch of split leaps and landing, he turned and

his dark exit was straight down! “I was happy I

finished it right and was leaving and suddenly

there was no ground underneath me, and I guess

somebody screamed pit!! and I was gone, that

was it, it was over. It hurt, a lot.”

I feel it’s important to tell this part of a dancer’s

story and life, because if you enjoy and celebrate

the arts, in this case dance, it’s good to also appre-

ciate the sacrifices artists go through away from

the lights of the stage. I think it brings a great-

er appreciation for the arts overall. It’s what you


don’t see in the price of admission that is often

the most valuable. The net result of any injury

is pain management and trying to balance it to

the joy of dance. But dancers want to dance and I

can tell Jahrel feels a form of retirement from the

performance side of things is underway. But it’s

not easy to give up something he’s so passionate

about and considered so very good at. “The Mat-

tress Suite” may very well be his swan song.

Creativity, Freedom and a Dancer’s LifeJarel’s partner in “The Mattress Suite” is Eli-

sha Byerly, who joins us. The topic of movement

comes up again. I mention it being like your voice

and Elisha agrees, “It is, especially when I feel that

I can fully express what I’m feeling through it.

Which there are two different... [sides], you know

there’s playing another character, there’s when

I’m expressing somebody else’s feelings through

a piece, and I get to speak somebody else's dia-

log through a piece like this one [“The Mattress

Suite”] and I get to tap into that character. But

when I get to truly speak my voice through my

movement, whether it’s improvisation or I cho-

reograph a lot... [she pauses a moment] It’s one of

the most opening and freeing feelings of expres-

sion that I can ever feel.”

The three of us touch on the freedom found in

art and the importance of not only the arts in so-

ciety and schools, but the importance of under-

standing and learning creativity. Elisha is both

a mother and a busy dance teacher. She says,“I

teach almost daily at a couple of different dance

schools and something I incorporate in my cur-

riculum with them is improvisation, because I feel

like you can teach kids steps and you can teach

them technique and how to learn, but to teach

them to be able to create and express themselves,

that’s lacking I feel in the education of dance.” El-

isha further voices what we often hear about art

in general, which is that young children have no

problem expressing themselves creatively, but by

middle school both she and Jahrel note that kids

freeze up. It’s almost as if we are born with com-

plete creative freedom and then we do a mental

turnabout and any level of maturity becomes one

of overwhelming self consciousness. Plenty of

people have a fear of dance much like a fear of

public speaking, but when I watch dancers like

Elisha and Jahrel, I see a greater freedom than

most of us will ever know.

In this light, I feel especially with modern and

contemporary dance, the viewer is best in not

over analyzing the dance itself, rather, it's best to

allow yourself the experience of feeling your in-

ner emotion or self interpretation of it. Easy for

some, almost impossible for others, but this is

the full artistic value in experiencing the perfor-

mance mastery of dance companies like Fuzión

Dance Artists.

Still, this duo speaks about the stereotypes of

dance and that way more girls pursue dance than

boys, which is frustrating. This also tips the table

for male dancers in earning a living or even get-

ting parts because there are so few male dancers

compared to the amount of women. They both

express that it is changing slowly, likely with TV

dance shows and I would guess even the amount

support dancers needed for music acts these

days, has helped. As Jahrel puts it, “Dance is a

cool thing today.”

For Fuzión Dance Artists, Leymis, like other

dancers, must balance life between being not only

a dancer and dance company founder, she is also

a wife, mother and teacher. She shares, “I’m still

dancing, I’m 38. That’s really exciting, you know_a

career in dance, but I actually did not think I

would still be dancing... I knew that I would be

Dancers from left to right: Toniann Rizzo, Aleah See-Alia, Wendy Rucci, Benjamin Howe,


doing something dance related right now” She

pauses, and it’s easy to tell she’s just very happy it

is still such a big part of her life. Leymis is fortu-

nate to have not only loved dance as a child, but

to have been part of the Magnet School System in

Florida, a public school program that allowed her

to learn dance where her parents might have not

otherwise been able to afford it. She also points

out her own personal body type hurtles, a little

thicker in the bottom as she puts it. She didn’t see

her body type on stage until she saw the dance

company Urban Bush Women and she shouts in

validation, “Yes!, I can be a dancer, there is a place

for me!”

Leymis still always thought she would be limited

in what her body could do, so she decided to be-

come a choreographer and she went to graduate

school still feeling like she was playing catch up

even though she started when she was twelve. I

mention this being the artist in her and she agrees

by saying, “Right, it is the artist’s thing of wanting

to grow and learn and continue to be inspired,

and that’s why I feel the way this [dance] com-

pany is set up, I’m really inspired by the people

I work with. They inspire me, they have a voice,

and I love dancers of different shapes and sizes,

… I love seeing an individual’s strength and en-

couraging that and challenging them.” …. “For

me, the whole idea with the [dance] company was

wanting a community where we could encourage,

nurture and empower.” I would say Leymis has

successfully accomplished this goal.

Rick Levine, Elisha Ladd, DeNaya Wilkerson, Leymis Bolaños Wilmott, Marisol Rosas, Kristin O'Neal

http://www.urbanbushwomen.org

The Future Sarasota has been good to Leymis and her com-

pany. It’s a city that has grown out of the arts as

much as any city you will find and it’s a city espe-

cially supportive of dance, with one of the coun-

try’s top ballet companies and multiple venues.

Leymis is “Really blessed”, as she puts it.

Her company has a system of working with its

dancers and apprentices which keeps it fresh and

an awareness about them. They reach for and try

new things. There is also the health and healing

aspects of dance and Fuzión Dance’s program of-

fers a variety of physically integrated dance and

movement modalities to people in different stag-

es of their lives and abilities, including an ongo-

ing twice weekly Dance for Parkinson class at the

Parkinson Place.

As their exhilarating performance at The Dalí

Museum comes to an end and the artists of Fuz-

ión Dance take their bows, creative co-directors

Leymis Bolaños Wilmott and collaborator for this

dance, Eliza Ladd, take questions and comments.

At first there is silence, as if one has swallowed a

full glass of water and needs a breath. But like a

therapy session, the questions and comments do

come. One can only be happy to see that they

continue until time runs out. And while there

are questions, there are easily as many comments

from an audience trying its best to explain how

the performance made them feel. This has to be

the best form of flattery a dance company could

get, past the enthusiastic applause! Validation of

years of hard work, creativity, collaboration, art-

istry and the love of dance. This is Fuzión Dance

Artists

For more information or if visiting Sarasota,

please visit FuzionDance.org

The Dalí Museum was a packed house during our visit of the Picasso/Dalí, Dalí/Picasso exhib-it. More info at TheDalí.org

Please tell them Live An Artful Life Magazine sent you!


http://TheDalí.org

A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF FUZIÓN DANCE ARTISTS

The first time I saw Fuzión Dance Artists I couldn't believe that this existed in our little city of Sara-sota -- I had to check to make sure I wasn't in New York or LA! The performance I saw was edgy, surprising, emotional, and wholly satisfying. I've always been obsessed with dance, and having just moved to Sarasota, both my wife Monique and I were excited about this discovery. The next thing I knew I was on the board, and now President of this really interesting dance company.

For many of you, seeing a Fuzión Dance performance will realign your thoughts about what mod-ern dance can be. We are fortunate to have Fuzión Dance Artists here in Sarasota, and hope you'll join us in nurturing and supporting this wonderful dance company.

Shane ChalkePresident FuzionDance.orgFuzion Dance Artists

Public art sculpture can be found along Sara-sota's Bayfront, surrounded by walking paths, it's marina and shoreline.


http://FuzionDance.org

Sarasota, Sunshine and Culture!Smack dab in the middle of Florida’s west coast, lies the historic circus town of Sarasota. A vibrant arts community, Sarasota might well be the culture capital of the sunshine state. Charles Ringing didn’t discover Sarasota, but he sure made it home to the greatest show on earth and is responsible for much of its early development and its culture cache today.

This is a town rich in art galleries, museums, universities, theatre, dance, public art, live mu-sic and hundreds of great restaurants to back it all up. There’s a day life, a night life and something to do every night and it seems to be booming with vitality.

Linda poses with the 25 foot tall sculpture, Un-conditional Surrender by Steward Johnson, which sits along Sarasota's Bay-front Drive.

The controversial sculpture was hit by an automobile on April 26, 2012 damag-ing the sculpture which had to be taken down, repaired and replaced.

Imagine my excitement when I found out that

the theme of this issue was dance. Why, you

might ask? What does a Life Coach know about

dance? Well…before I became a coach I had the

great opportunity to be a professional dancer.

Yes, professional. That means I made a career out

of it – got paid and all (paltry salary at that, but

a salary nonetheless). So as I pondered this arti-

cle and all the many things I

could share about dance, what

came up were all the lessons

– the life lessons – I learned

from life as a dancer.

My first mentor, Era Wohner,

was a former professional

ballerina who loved us like a

grandparent does. She taught

us to respect the people who

came before us and to honor that we were build-

ing on their achievements. “You must find your

own unique voice as a dancer, but you must first

listen to what others had to say.” In every dance

that is re-staged (meaning a previous person has

already danced the steps), you are literally danc-

ing in the footsteps of those who went before you.

The lesson? Pay close attention to what you can

learn from others and then dig deep inside to

discover your voice and the special qualities you

bring to the table.

Dancers are famous for their great posture –

long, elegant necks, upright torsos, and grace-

ful movements. Every time we slouched Mrs.

Wohner would shout, “Stop apologizing for your-

self!” Not only did she help us

find our postural muscles and

dancer’s poise, but also she

taught us the value of stand-

ing tall, being confidant and

believing in ourselves. To

this day, when I work with

teenage girls in particular, I

pass on these teachings, “do

not apologize for yourself,” by

trying to disappear. You are worthy of being here

and being seen, so stand up tall!

Mrs. Wohner often repeated a story about being

backstage as a young dancer in the corps de ballet

during a production of “Swan Lake.” The leading

ballerina was nearby and said, “I’m so nervous,”

to which Mrs. Wohner exclaimed, “You? But

Life CoachBy Kim Tapper


you’re the best! You get nervous?” “Stupid girl,”

the lead snapped, “the day you stop getting ner-

vous is the day you are done!” She used that sto-

ry to teach us that nerves indicate you are alive;

you care! Whether it’s a job interview, your 500th

performance, or an important conversation with

a loved one, be fully present in

that moment. Let nerves serve

as a reminder to you that this

moment matters. If you feel

nothing, then it’s time to make

a change.

As I got older and rehears-

als became more complex we

had to learn how to balance

our energy to get through

sometimes eight hours of dance a day. There’s a

term called “marking” used for when you are get-

ting the moves more into your brain than your

body. You also mark a piece when you are trying

to conserve your energy before going “full out.”

But sometimes you can get so used to the habit of

marking that you never really go full out and sud-

denly when you do, you find you cannot sustain

the endurance and energy needed to actually do

the steps. It’s like training for a marathon but only

ever doing the light day practice run and never

trying the full thing. Dance taught me to recog-

nize when it’s time to mark and when it’s time to

go full out. And we’ve all heard the phrase, “life

is not a rehearsal.” You are the lead in your own

life story – the performance is this life, now! You

need to make sure you are not just marking your

way through your life. Do not make motions

without real intentions. Find out what’s import-

ant to you and go for it fully!

Sometimes when you go

for it fully, you wind up being

the star! But remember, the

star only shines if the crew

around them helps. Over

the years I learned to make

friends with the “techies” be-

cause they’re the ones who

could turn the lights out on

you while dancing (or make a lot of other things

go wrong)! They also knew a whole lot about

many things I knew nothing of. They helped me

gain other perspectives while I was striving to-

wards my goal. Being kind to the people around

you will get you to your goals. The people in

the wings of your life are often the unsung he-

roes. Make sure they know how much you appre-

ciate them. And remember that you also stand

in someone else’s wings - look for people in your

life that could use a boost from you. What can

you do to make them shine? The true dance of

life is a balance between the times we give and

the times we receive; the times we lead and the

times we follow; the times we lean and the times

we support.

Throughout it all you take risks! Whether it’s

going up on your toes in pointe shoes (not exactly

natural!), or getting lifted by a partner 6 feet in the

air…with just one hand!…each step involves risk.

The key? Prepare as much as you can, and then

take the leap! In life sometimes we need to throw

ourselves forward. Practice every day making

smaller decisions, conquering manageable chal-

lenges in order to strengthen your ‘muscles’ that

help you take the bigger risks. Remember, some-

times you might feel like you’re going backwards

but maybe you’re just getting a running start to

become airborne!

There are so many lessons I derived from my

dance career but I’ll leave you with this last one:

the magic. Whether it’s in “Swan Lake” or on

“So You Think You Can Dance,” one thing that

all dancers have in common is that they make it

look easy, magical. Done well an audience should

leave the theater in awe and wonder. But behind

all that magic is a lot of hard work. My dance ca-

reer showed me real tangible evidence that prac-

tice does indeed make perfect (or as close to it as

possible). And that for something to be magi-

cal, you have to show up and do the work – bring

yourself fully and passionately to the moment

and give it all you got. What happens after that –

whether you fall and get back up, whether you get

a standing ovation, or whether you simply leave

the moment exhilarated from your own efforts,

knowing that you gave it your all…that’s where

real magic lies.

“We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn

to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live

by practicing living, the principles are the same.” –

Martha Graham


Fostering ExcellenceBy Tom Neel


Dancer, Harmony PattonPhoto by Henry Oviedo

They say timing is everything and no sooner

than I enter the Lasley Centre for the Performing

Arts, the school’s Executive Director and own-

er, Kalie Lasley, is sharing great news with Ballet

Master, Mark Rubin. Three of their students have

been accepted to the summer intensive with the

American Ballet Theater (ABT), who by the way, is

celebrating their 75th anni-

versary. I can tell this is not

only a pinch me moment

for Kalie and Mark, but an

amazing accomplishment

for a relatively new school.

Six students tried out, three

have been chosen.

The Lasley School itself

may be new, but this cer-

tainly doesn’t mean their

wealth of dance experience

is. In fact, anything but. Af-

ter all, the 9,000 square foot

facility located in the Vint

Hill complex of Warrenton,

Virginia, just an hour west of our nation’s capital,

has not even celebrated its second birthday. Yet

Lasley herself, a past ballet dancer and perform-

er, knew for her school to provide excellence, ex-

cellent instruction was a must. Not just teachers,

but those with performance based experience.

Not just those teaching while learning to dance

themselves, but instructors who have themselves

performed at a professional level, know solid

technique and as importantly, know how to teach

what they know.

Take the school’s Ballet Master, Mark Rubin, his

professional dance credits alone include Ailey II,

the Joffery Ballet, the Ber-

tram Dance Company and

the Batsheva Dance compa-

ny. Add to this over 30 years

of instruction in Ballet, Jazz,

Modern and Floor-Barre©,

and though soft spoken and

small in stature, Rubin is a

powerhouse of dance ex-

perience. He’s one of pas-

sion towards his craft and

those who chose to dedicate

themselves to dance and

you feel his artistry.

In one word Kalie Lasley

would be described as poised.

She is not just confident, Kalie moves deliberately,

with a perfect sense of her own rhythm. Things

do not move around Kalie, she moves perfectly

through them. She began dance at age five, lived

it and breathed it, became a successful profession-

al ballet dancer in her home state of California

Lasley Centre's 9,000 square foot facility features 3 dance studios and lobby with chandelier.


http://www.abt.org/default.aspx

and then the unthinkable, an injury that brought

her professional dance career to an end. Today’s

sports medicine would have likely given her a dif-

ferent outcome, but that was not to be. It seems

though, you can take the dancer off of the stage,

but you cannot take the dancer out of the danc-

er and you see the dancer in each step she takes.

This alone seems a valid

reason to have a child learn

dance, especially ballet.

As I sit down with Mark

and Kalie, her phone vi-

brates indicating a text. She

looks down, and says, “This

is ABT”, gives a beaming

smile and says, “Molly_New

York City, now makes 4”

It’s now four of the six stu-

dents who have now been

accepted to the ABT pro-

gram. I have determined

that just one student being accepted would have

been cause for great joy, but four brings elation

and an overwhelming proudness. Kalie reflects,

“We talk about our program and whether we are

doing the right things for our kids and we’re al-

ways trying to obey a new program and tweak it,

and [now] to have such affirmation so early on,

I just … [she looses words to completely express

the happiness she feels].

So I begin by asking the duo what I feel is the

root or foundation of dance. What does the word

movement [pertaining to dance] mean to them?

Kalie begins, “For those who are passionate about

dance, movement is not just a function of the

body, but of the soul, of the spirit, of the heart, it

incorporates every possible

emotion. It’s an expression

thereof, it’s [even] therapy.

Mark offers an even deeper

grasp, “It is the universal in-

clination of the body to im-

itate the natural movement

of the universe.” He then

expands his thought by ex-

plaining, “So every-

thing in the universe

goes through move-

ment, everything

moves. They even say that the universe is created

from sound moving through space. So move-

ment to me is the natural inclination of the body,

which of course [as with dance] we connect to

Students going to ABT from left to right: Molly Rose, Abby Kane-Haspel, Mark Rubin, Teresa Carlson and to the right...

Julia Carlson

music_which is sound. So it’s almost like move-

ment is imitating creation.”

This wonderful foundation means that even

though you are learning technique and/or the

steps of dance, the drive and desire to do so must

be more deeply rooted. To achieve the highest

level, one can not just move in a 1 and 2 and 3 and

4 beat like fashion. You must

feel a connection to yourself,

the music, and in the case of

ballet, Mark told his pupils

during class, “Ballet this is

a performance art.”, so you

must even feel a connection

to the audience.

As dance is a form of cre-

ative expression, we have

choices and it seems for Mark

the choice was in his DNA.

His mother was a profession-

al dancer and his father an ac-

robat and gymnast who became a ballroom danc-

er and teacher for forty years. For Kalie, at five

years old, when she walked she threw one foot

improperly and her mother took her to an or-

thopedic doctor who said it was a muscle control

thing and recommended dance lessons. Kalie, “I

fell in love with it. I fell in love with the costum-

ing, the dance, the music, work ethic, the rising

to the challenge and mastering it, and I loved it.”

Creative expression is a wonderful thing and

finding not only your creative voice, but creative

language is imperative when your goal is master-

ing a high level of artistry. You see, there’s not

only the choices of to dance [or to paint, sculpt or

sing], but within dance, there is ballet, ballroom,

contemporary and much

more, each with it’s own artis-

tic expression. Ballet possibly

requires a higher level of tech-

nical ability, skill, discipline,

even strength, but as with all

dance though, true musicali-

ty is a must. Kalie brings this

to point with a good example,

“You have one student who is

a beautiful ballerina and the

other one is a very excellent

dancer. You can teach some-

one to be an excellent dancer

with some basic rudimentary talent. You cannot

teach them to be an artist or a ballerina. That is

something that comes from your soul, it’s a part

of your being and that cannot be taught.”

Mark further expresses, “I will say though, there

are certain situations where you have someone

who is very expressive and you can bring them

to the point where they can build enough skill to

Mark Rubin with student


facilitate the expression that’s already there, rath-

er than just being musical. Sometimes you have

to open up the expression. But they can’t really

do it until they fundamentally build the skill un-

derneath them. Once they’ve got that foundation,

then they feel more comfortable in the expres-

sion. That can happen. Everybody has feeling

and expression, you just have

to be able to facilitate it.” I

mention it helps to be a bit of

a ham too and he says, “You

have to like the lights, let’s put

it that way!”

Above all else, Lasley Centre

For The Performing Arts is a

school and teaching is at the

core of what they do, but they

do so while striving for excel-

lence. With children, within

their parents expectations,

there is the balancing of what

is fun and work. With a little humor Kalie says,

“The fun part and the work part can be a blurry

and jagged line.”, but adds, “Parents come with a

whole plethora of reasons. They want their child

to have exercise, they want their child to be co-

ordinated and poised. Some want their child to

be ballerinas, some want them to learn attention

span. We take whatever motivation that parent

comes with. The important thing is that they are

here and we can work with them and we are go-

ing to teach them excellent technique.”

Parents must balance expectations though and

keep in mind why they chose a school for their

child. This is not all about dance. There’s a core

value thing going on here that is truly valuable

to the nurturing and fostering

of children. Kalie is proud in

saying, “I think we’ve created

a happy environment for a lot

of families and children. Our

Artistic Director, Belén Rodas

has begun an adaptive dance

club and some of those kids

were in our Nutcracker per-

formance, and those families

are extraordinary. Mom’s will

come to you in tears and tell

you how long they’ve looked

for a place for their children

and they’ve finally found a place where they’re

accepted and loved. All the other kids just love

on these students and accept them and embrace

them and they’re part of our little family here.”

Mark tells me, while he has been a part of oth-

er schools he has decided to put his energy into

Lasley Centre, “We want to create something dif-

ferent here, we really want to create a place where

Kalie Lasley with student

someone who comes into the door will feel em-

braced by kindness and love and care, as well as

the skill, the hard work, determination and per-

severance. It’s really challenging, ballet, it’s very

pure, it’s very mathematical, scientific and it’s ar-

tistic. So it’s really challenging, but you can also

make it fun, especially at the lower levels.” This of

course while young students are not only learning

dance, but a work ethic and commitment as well.

There’s little question of Lasley’s affection for her

students and parents. During my visit, serendip-

itously Kalie celebrated her birthday and proof of

Back row: Katherine Henkel, Kalie Lasley, Mark RubinFront row: Hannah Cosby, Molly Rose, Chloe VanCamp, Annabelle Grimsby, Abby Kane-Haspel.


the magic was very apparent.

It turns out she was not the only birthday girl in

the room, as in her style she swooped a child up

from the group and they blew birthday candles

out together. The crowd of students and parents

cheered.

The Lasley Centre starts children as young

as 3 years old in a pre-ballet class taught by her

daughter Lauren. Kalie, “They learn musicality,

they develop their attention span and they really

do come out with some basic technique.” It is at

this age where improper instruction can set hab-

Dancer, Harmony PattonPhoto by Henry Oviedo

its which can be difficult to break. To this point,

they address bad habits with new students right

away, on a case by case basis, to not only instill

excellent technique, but to prevent long term in-

jury.

The Lasley Centre has not been a competi-

tion school, but this will soon change, as they

will start doing

the Youth Amer-

ica Grand Prix,

an international

ballet competi-

tion which is not

trophy driven,

but rather the

student’s success

is attached to

scholarships and

contracts at major

schools like the American Ballet Theater, Royal

Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet.

Advancing in dance, especially ballet, requires

strength. Mark compares it to training for the

Olympics. It takes years rising through beginner,

intermediate and advanced levels, but the Lasley

Centre’s philosophy is not to advance based on

age, rather solely on ability. Students advance

when it is time and as soon as it’s time, never

holding them back. This even goes as far as ex-

amples such as Lasley adding a third lesson a

week at a higher level for a student that needed

advancing, but not charging the parent who may

not have budgeted for more than two classes per

week. Mark tells me, “I don’t know of another

school that does that, it’s unique.” It also shows

the school’s effectiveness is the whole being great-

er than the sum

of its parts and

likely why four

out of six stu-

dents were ac-

cepted by ABT.

The financial

side of things

for parents is

real, and as Las-

lie Centre as a

school grows and

their students excel, Kalie’s goal is to find ways

to make sure students who have worked so hard

and are accepted by ABT, can actually afford to

go. For this they have the future goal of creating

a non profit arm of Lasley Centre to assist in this

area.

When choosing instructors, Kalie has a three

step process. This begins with the qualifications

of her instructors having to include the real expe-

rience of working as a dancer with a major dance

Kalie Lasley's affection for her students is very apparent and vice versa.


company. Next is their personality, as she avoids

those with a drill sergeant approach. “All of our

teachers are stellar individuals, they’re very kind,

they’re very warm, they have a very altruistic

approach to what they are doing.”, says Kalie. I

mention that they all feel part of a team and am

corrected by Kalie and Mark, “They feel like part

of a family.” You

can tell hostility

is not accepted at

Laslie Centre, pe-

riod. Thirdly, they

need to know how

to teach what they

know. Lasley’s in-

structors all have

different method

experience, Cec-

chetti, Royal Bal-

let, Vaganova, but they all have the same tech-

nical standard. This instruction standard is very

obviously a big part of the Lasley Centre’s suc-

cess and not just with ballet, with all of the styles

of dance they teach.

Artistic Director and instructor Belén Ro-

das joins us. Rodas’ deep dance experience in

Modern Dance and Ballet, as well as her multi-

ple degrees in psychology and masters in both

Social Work and in Public Policy, bring the Las-

ley Centre an even greater separation from the

schools one could choose. Rodas, while creating

the school’s adaptive dance program, will soon

be offering this as adaptive therapy through the

school, which is covered by insurance.

On the performance side of things there is al-

ways an audience to consider. The school does

perform The Nut-

cracker and Mark

says, “First of all it’s

a massive project,

I mean massive.

It takes months of

preparation. Sec-

ond, it’s the cul-

mination of every-

thing that came

before it, maybe

even months or

years of training up to that point. Because you

know, as an artist there is never an end point.

There’s always a reaching for higher, better,

broader, wider, more beautiful … that’s the beau-

ty of an artistic life, that’s why we trade it for no

other life. So, performance is a stepping stone.”

Belén makes the point though, “At the end of

the day, we are still a dance_school, and so the

performances for me are in the service of train-

ing our dancers. Performing is its own skill and

Belén Rodas instructing her young students

you only learn it by doing it, and rehearsing, and

perfecting it is its own skill, which only happens

by having to do it. So you can be in class all day,

everyday, but if you don’t have that performance

side of it, you are missing a whole critical piece of

the training. Casting, rehearsing, performing, all

of that is looking at our students and seeing what

is going to help them get to where they want to

go and where we want to get them.”

As an artist myself, my time with everyone at

the Lasley Centre For The Performing Arts is

comfortable and stimulating at the same time.

There’s a good feeling being surround by artistic

and caring people, enthusiastic for the arts being

an important part of their community. It’s great

to see young people dedicated to something so

positive as dance and with their parents there

in their support. The grand chandelier which

hangs in the two story foyer of the Laslie Cen-

tre is like a beacon of hope for a grander stage,

but one which for now gives students that feeling

that they have already found their stage.

For more information about the Lasley Centre

For The Performing Arts, please visit them at -

lasleycentre.com

Dancers: Kelly Rush, Allan Rush, Harmony Patton, Photo by Henry Oviedo

As this story closed we also found out thatChloe Van Camp will be going to the Boston Ballet - congratulations to all!


http://lasleycentre.com

For those parents concerned about injury, dance, like other athletic activi-ties, has its share and there are no guar-antees of avoiding it. That said, Mark shared this with me, “Whenever we teach, because we are skilled at what we are doing, we will always teach in a way as to prevent injury. There are safe ways of working and there are un-safe ways of working.” Mark, having worked with some of the top profes-sionals in the world, admits that he himself has never had an injury or even a pulled muscle and he instills proper warm up and technique in his students to avoid injury. Ballet itself, as explained by Mark, is unnatural in this sense, that the feet turn out and done incorrectly, even more impor-tantly_taught incorrectly, injuries go up. Sometimes it seems the effects of doing something wrong can take years to do damage. I hate to use smoking as a good example of this, but I guess I just have. In any case, the many ben-efits of dance seem to easily out weigh the risks.

“Mr. Bones” is an instructor too! One who is used for explaining kinesiology [the science of human movement] and the skeletal aspects of dance, all in the avoidance of injury.

Mr Bones!

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