Dance Studio 'Still Burning Strong' 35 years
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June 8, 2013 |
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For years, Barb Russell and The Dance Studio
have given Boundary County kids the joy of
dance, and at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June
14-15, Barb's latest class will present the 35th
annual Dance Studio Spring Dance Recital in the
Becker Auditorium at Bonners Ferry High School.
Barb has actually been teaching dance here
considerably longer ... she landed in Moyie
Springs in 1977, a fresh-faced 22-year-old with
a major in ballet from the University of Utah
and dreams of being one with nature.
For a girl who grew up dancing since the age of
five in the suburbs of Philadelphia it was a
grand and noble dream, and one that is still
burning strong. Thanks, in part, to a small and
appreciative community that shares her
conviction that working .
"I dreamed of starting my own dance company in a
solar-powered structure in the woods for
like-minded dancers who would travel from all
over to be a part of something unique," she
said. "We would train and dance and not worry
about how skinny we were! Well, that didn't
happen."
Instead, she began offering free classes at the
Curley Creek Community Hall. No one showed up.
With nothing to lose, she decided to change
locations and charge a fee, and people signed
up.
Her first classes began in 1978 at the Three
Mile Grange Hall, where she had to go in early
to sweep up the dead flies and stoke the fire.
She moved her classes to Valley View and then to
the high school gym, where the edge of the stage
served as a barre and there was room to move.
She took along her baby daughter, who has been
part of her teaching since that very humble
beginning.
 Her
adult modern dance class at the high school was
comprised mostly of "back to the land" hippies
seeking to retain a bit of culture while living
in the woods.
"Next to dancing, our greatest excitement was
being able to take a shower after class," she
said.
Then she began teaching kids ... tiny kids.
Preschoolers not too far advanced from having
taken their first steps walking.
"How I wished I had paid more attention to those
classes I took in university about teaching that
age," she said. "But I figured out that they
really weren't scary. They were just fine tiny
versions of great people."
She and her "tiny great people" put on a few
small shows, including one in which she
performed in a large, flowing dress in an
attempt to conceal her "condition," the imminent
birth of her second child.
"I was oblivious, happily doing what I love,"
she said, "but later learned that many people
were aghast."
In 1984, the Dance Studio came to be and grow.
She gave up her dream, but learned of another,
one deeper and more compelling. She's even seen
her dream realized in a few of her students, who
have grown to become dancers and teachers of
dance.
"I did not dream of teaching, my dream was to
dance," she said. "But as it turned out,
teaching has fulfilled a dream that I didn't
know I even had. My mother asked me for many
years when I was going to get a real job. What I
didn't make in income was made up for in doing
what I loved.
"I owe a lifetime of gratitude to my parents who
supported my love of dance while growing up and
as an adult even when they didn’t always agree."
Her two children, both there at the beginning,
now each have two children of their own. She's
seen many of her students, some of whom she
helped shape from age two through high school,
have come back years later to enroll their own
sons and daughters, to pass the love of dance
and performance to generations.
"It has been a lot of years, which only keep
getting better," she said. "Some things haven't
changed. From the beginning, I've never accepted
that 'this is only Bonners Ferry. That
has never made sense to me. We can all achieve
excellence and all deserve an opportunity. That
has been an ongoing motivation for me. That has
been an ongoing motivation for me. It takes
commitment, respect and a good attitude to
succeed in whatever we pursue wherever we are.
Those have been my expectations from the
beginning and I still believe those are the
tools to teach our children to succeed in their
dreams."
Those first recitals had neither posters nor
pictures to help promote them. Until now, none
has featured a birthday cake and the
inscription, "still burning strong."
Tickets for this historic recital are $7 and
available at Mountain Mike's, Bonners Books and
at the door.
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