Dance Studio 'Still Burning Strong' 35 years on
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.