In the June Class Postings, I put up a note about Sara Stubbins and Diane Ellis Racano meeting as little girls in Sylvia Hamer’s ballet class at her studio next to the Michigan Theater. Since I had also taken her ballet classes, I decided to put a post in the Facebook group to see who else might have been there. Glad I asked!
Shirley Bauer Varney, Cindy Burke Elder, Pamela Conn Hyde (in white tap shoes!), Marianne Mayer Behler, Vicki Guenther Farrell, Bonnie Holzauer Bean, Cheryl Hartwig McConnell, Colleen McLean Calver (who still has her first ballet shoes), Mary Lou Leeman Rigg, and Lynn Ladd Salamin were among the petite ballerinas and tappers dancing at Sylvia’s studio. And it turns out that Sylvia Hamer was JoAnn King Okey’s grandmother. JoAnn started dancing at age two and continued until her first year as a public school teacher. She said that Sylvia designed the recital costumes Vicki every year and called that Penny Braun’s mother made some of hers. Even John Cooch chimed in, mentioning that his daughters, Tamara and Jocelyn, danced at Sylvia’s a generation later. (There was also some riffing on tutus by David Hardiman and Robert Berning, who couldn’t resist sticking their noses in on this one.) But apparently, ballet didn’t cut it for everyone. Bobbi Thayer Kirtland said,
“I hated it. I wanted to take tap dancing lessons (still feel the same way today!)”
There was no tap envy for Marie Grammatico Foreman, Pamela Purdy Stephens, and Dale Withers Peck—they got to do it without even going to Sylvia’s. I can relate to the envy; after ballet class, I used to love going over to Bonnie Bucholz Martin’s house to play. She had tap shoes! We shuffle-stepped and flap-stepped all over her rec room.
Comments