At the age of fifteen, I began teaching ballet through the local health club. I considered it a temporary job until I would go away to college or pursue a career as a professional dancer. After two years, I had about twenty students. Some were at the health club and other classes were taught in the homes of some of the students. I went to work under the Department of Parks and Recreation, which gave me access to school gyms and the community center, but within another two years, even that was not big enough to contain my growing classes. I needed my own studio. I was able to rent a studio apartment-type room in the upstairs of a building that had been built in 1906, and had once been condemmed. The room is probably the only room in town large enough to accommodate a dance studio. It needed a lot of work, and my family and friends helped me to remodel it, and I was able to borrow money to buy the dance floor, barre and mirrors I needed.
The Prosser School of Ballet is going into its third year, and we are bursting at the seams again. This fall, I will be teaching at least 17 classes per week, and I expect the number of students to reach 100 this year. I would love to expand more, but there are just not enough hours in the day to teach as many classes as I would like to teach. While the studio is doing quite well for itself financially, I have still not been able to pay off my loans. Last year, I was very ill, and my medical insurance did not come through for me, so I am still paying hospital and doctor bills.
My dream would be to build a school with multiple studio rooms, so that I could hire another teacher and run some classes simultaneously. I would also be able to offer other forms of dance. Unfortunately, with my current bills, I could not afford to do such a thing, and yet I cannot expand any further in my current studio.
We stay fairly busy throughout the year. We perform an annual production of The Nutcracker as well as a Spring Recital. I also direct a small worship dance performing group called "The Corps", which usually runs for a few months out of each year. The weekly class consists of a bible lesson and rehearsal for our original production, "Let There Be Light". During the summer months, I teach week-long day camps for the students, ranging from a two-hour fun and games ballet class for the little ones, to a six-hour intensive for the teens.
My relationship with my students is very important to me. Some of them spend two or three days out of the week in class, and as their teacher, I know I have great influence over them, whether I want to or not! It is my intention to set an example for them, and to teach them not only about ballet, but about confidence in themselves, and to encourage positive attitudes toward their classmates and their parents. Some of my teen students often talk with me about decisions they need to make about school and activities, or about struggles with their family. I am very humbled with the knowledge that this is much more than a job.
I am seeking a grant to enable me to build my dream ballet school, in order to create a wonderful environment for my students to learn, and to enable me to keep a sane schedule so that I do not burn out. I have seen too many dance instructors grow weary of the long hours and emotionally heavy work involved in their job, and they end up becoming more of a detriment than a help to their students. It is my hope that I will not allow that to happen in my school.
