Everything I Learned About Life, I Learned in Dance Class (23 page)

Now, if this had been one of my students, and her parents had paid a fortune for her ticket and she wasn’t watching every pelvic thrust the living legend did, I would have made her do a hundred push-ups, write a report on the evening’s events, and stand up to sing “Burning Love” in front of the class.

The next night, my parents weren’t making the same mistake. They took me to see Debbie Reynolds’s nightclub act, and it was extra special because one of my mom’s former students, Albert Stephenson, was a dancer in the show. Seeing him perform is why we flew all that way; he was our excuse to go to Vegas in the first place. I remember how funny and fabulous Debbie was, and how dashing and debonair Albert was. He looked at my mom like she was
the bomb
. I saw the respect and admiration in his eyes, and I took note of the kind and gentle way he treated her.

My mom had lots of male students in Miami, and they all seemed to be extremely successful. Albert was one of those employable dancers. While he was dancing on Broadway in the show
Liza with a “Z
,” he was often photographed by the paparazzi coming out of Studio 54 with Liza on his arm. He went on to do many shows. One of my favorites was
A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine
. He also took on the job of choreographer. My mom was so proud of him when he was working on the TV special
Night of 100 Stars
.

My connection to Albert led to many starstruck moments in my life. The first one happened immediately after the Debbie Reynolds show was over. We were ushered backstage to meet the cast and hopefully to have a photo taken with Miss Debbie. Albert arranged for my mom and dad to go with some of the dancers over to another opulent hotel on the Strip to see the
Lido de Paris
show. This was a standard showgirl revue, which meant it was topless—no kids. What would they do with poor little Abby? No problem! She will stay here in the penthouse suite reserved for the hotel’s headliner and Debbie Reynolds will babysit!

The second thing that I’d prefer my students didn’t know would have to be the secret that I have held on to since it happened, until now. I hope this particular dance mom will be forgiving when she reads this. Here goes nothing.

A cool, crisp winter day had me driving to New York City with Sandy and a bunch of kids. The kids outnumbered the seat belts in my Cadillac. So one of the very generous moms (whom I will call Barb) lent me her minivan. It wasn’t exactly my style, but what the heck. We got to New York with no problem. The kids were all safely in dance class, and Sandy and I headed to the garment district to find fabric, appliques, and probably feathers too. While we were there, we got a parking ticket for not having a noncommercial vehicle parked on Thirty-Eighth Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. We didn’t want to get another ticket, so I had a brilliant idea. I called one of the young, unemployed dancers who happened to live with some of my employed professional dancers and asked her to come help us out. She was going to sit in the driver’s seat of the van, and if a cop came, she would just drive around the block. Well, our lookout never looked behind her, and sure enough, an officer walked right up to the back of the van and wrote us another ticket.

Risk taker that I am, I figured that we’d already been given two parking tickets in two hours, so it couldn’t get any worse. We’d leave the tickets on the windshield and if anybody else came along, they’d see that we’d already been fined. That’s not exactly what happened . . . They towed the minivan!

So we had to tromp all the way down to the impound lot where they had this woman’s vehicle captive until we paid the fines to get it out. Well, this is where the story really gets good. We didn’t have the registration card, and we didn’t know the license-plate number. We didn’t know the make or the model. For Pete’s sake, we couldn’t even remember what color the van was! At this point, we had two choices: laugh or cry. We took the high road and started to giggle uncontrollably. The kind of laughing fit you have in church. We tried to contain ourselves as we strolled through the massive garage filled with hundreds of cars, pressing the remote-control car keys. Simple plan: when we heard it beep and saw the lights flash, we would have found the correct vehicle. But the gig is up. When Barb reads this she might recall the odd phone calls she received from us, asking questions about her minivan.

Every ALDC trip is educational. What did we learn from this experience? In New York, it’s cheaper to have your car impounded than it is to pay for parking!

As an adult role model, I always want to appear in control. I want my students to feel safe in my presence. I hope they look to me with confidence and pride, and think, “That’s my dance teacher; she’s not taking any crap from anybody.” I want the boys I train to be perfect gentlemen and the girls to be empowered women who stand up for themselves.

That’s why the third thing that I don’t want anyone to know is that I am deathly afraid of heights. I guess it all started when I was a little kid at the swimming pool with my dad. That ladder to the high dive went straight up in the air, perpendicular to the ground. I had to climb that ladder rung by rung. My dad was a volunteer with the swim team at our country club from around 1973 to 1976. And he remained active in planning and executing the Memorial Day opening weekend and the Labor Day closing festivities for many years after that. He loved the watermelon war, the coin toss, and of course the relay races. So diving off the high dive was kind of a no-brainer . . . for him! I think this is where my fear first started.

I also freak out at the mall when little ones stick their heads through the railing to look over the balcony. I would never ride a Ferris wheel. I’m okay in an elevator, unless it’s made of glass so that you can look out and see the ground—that’s where I imagine plummeting to my death. I’m not one to easily step right onto a moving escalator either. When I was a little girl, I tumbled from the top of one all the way to the bottom. I spent years after that searching for the elevator tucked back in the corner of department stores. Even to this day, I have to give it two or three tries before I muster up the courage to take that step onto the escalator. I fear falling all the time. I know what it feels like to dislocate a kneecap. It feels like your knee flies across the room ripping every muscle and tendon in its path and you crumble to the ground screaming in agony. That was my experience anyway. Inside an airplane, I’m perfectly comfortable. Outside on the wing, I would panic. No aerial acrobatics for this choreographer. My head make be in the clouds, but my feet are planted firmly on the ground.

NATIONAL TITLE HOLDERS

Dance Educators of America—National Title Holders

National Mr. Dance—Mark Myars

National Miss Dance—Asmeret Ghebremichael

National Junior Miss Dance—Allie Meixner

National Junior Miss Dance—Jennine Wedge

National Teen Miss Dance—Allie Meixner

National Young Sr. Miss Dance—Ashley Kacvinsky

National Young Sr. Miss Dance—Allie Meixner

National Miss Dance—Ashley Kacvinsky

National Young Sr. Miss Dance—Jennine Wedge

National Miss Dance—Amanda Stelluto

National Small Fry Mr. Dance—Izumi Presberry

National Teen Miss Dance—Chelsea Shott

National Mr. Dance—Jesse Johnson

National Sr. Miss Dance—Jessica Ice

National Small Fry Dance—Chloe Lukasiak

National Teen Miss Dance—Brittany Pent

National Miss Dance—Stephanie Pittman

National Miss Pre-Teen Dance—Brooke Hyland

National Small Fry Dance—Maddie Ziegler

National Miss Dance—Brittany Pent

National Teen Miss Dance—Payton Ackerman

National Mr. Dance—John Fiumara

And Over 40 Regional Title Winners

Dance Masters of America—National Title Holders

1992 Petite Miss Dance of America—Katie Hackett

1993 Teen Mr. Dance of America—Mark Myars

1994 National Capezio Excellence Scholarship Recipient—Mark Myars

1995 Junior Miss Dance of America—Katie Hackett

1996 National Capezio Excellence Scholarship Recipient—Mark Myars

1998 Teen Miss Dance of America—Katie Hackett

2000 Petite Miss Dance of America—Brittany Markle

2002 Junior Miss Dance of America—Brittany Markle

2002 National Algy. Excellence Scholarship Recipient—Brittany Markle

2008 National Excellence Overall Scholarship Recipient—John Fiumara

2009 Teen Mr. Dance of America—John Fiumara

2010 National Excellence Overall Scholarship Recipient—John Fiumara

2011 Mr. Dance of America—John Fiumara

West Coast Dance Explosion National Finals

2000 National Sr. Miss West Coast—Katie Hackett

2000 National Teen Miss West Coast—Semhar Ghebremichael

2006 National Jr. Mr. West Coast—John Fiumara

2008 National Teen Elite Dancer of the Year—Miranda Maleski

2010 National Sr. Elite Dancer of the Year—Miranda Maleski

Sheer Talent—National Title Holders

2013 Miss Dance—Nina Linhart

2013 Miss Small Wonder—Brooke Kosinski

Hollywood Vibe—National Dancers of the Year

2013 Junior Dancer of the Year—Brooke Kosinski

Starbound National Championship

2012 Teen Miss Starbound—Katherine Narasimhan

New York City Dance Alliance National Finale

1995 Outstanding Dancer of the Year—Mark Myars

Petite Miss Dance of Pennsylvania

1991—Stefi Schlarman

1993—Katie Hackett

1995—Semhar Ghebremichael

1998—Allie Meixner

1999—Brittany Markle

2008—Haley Greico

2009—Maddie Ziegler

Junior Miss/Mr. Dance of Pennsylvania

1983—J. T. Shontz

1991—Mark Myars

1992—Erin Murphy

1993—Stefi Schlarman

1995—Katie Hackett

1997—Rachel Kreiling

1999—Koree Kurkowski

2000—Allie Meixner

2001—Brittany Markle

2004—Kaitlyn Reiser

2007—Nina Linhart

2009—Brooke Hyland

2009—Nick Dobbs

2011—Chloe Lukasiak

Teen Miss/Mr. Dance of Pennsylvania

1994—Michelle Pampena

1995—Stefi Schlarman

1997—Katie Hackett

1998—Semhar Ghebremichael

1999—Rachel Kreiling

2000—Ashley Kacvinsky

2001—Koree Kurkowski

2002—Allie Meixner

2003—Brittany Markle

2004—Crystal Jennings

2007—John Fiumara

2008—Jesse Johnson

2009—Brittany Pent

2011—Brandon Pent

Miss/Mr. Dance of Pennsylvania

1988—J. T. Shontz

1992—Jennifer Snyder

1995—Heather Snyder

1996—Mark Myars

1998—Asmeret Ghebremichael

2000—Katie Hackett

2001—Semhar Ghebremichael

2002—Ira Cambric

2004—Allie Meixner

2006—Jennine Wedge

2007—Crystal Jennings

2008—Amanda Stelluto

2009—Kaitlyn Reiser

2011—Nina Linhart

2011—John Fiumara

ARE YOU MOM ENOUGH?