At the age of 25 I set out to become a dancer. It was the mid 1980’s in New York City and the only option available to me was open class. Although I was primarily drawn to and interested in ballet, it seemed ridiculous to me to start ballet training as an adult. A friend had mentioned that there was a jazz teacher named Luigi who was good with adult beginners (I had no idea about who he was or the legendary reputation that he had) and I simply opened the yellow pages, dialed the number, and so began my journey to become a dancer.

I have been told many times, by many colleagues, that “open class” is not TRAINING. And on this point I beg to differ. Open class isn’t ORGANIZED training. But, at least at Luigi’s Jazz Centre in the 1980’s, there existed a system where one could train in open classes, progress through various levels, and receive a dance education. And so, on a Monday evening in October, nearly 40 years ago, I walked into Luigi’s Jazz Centre and took my first “Intro” class. It didn’t take me long to realize that this training needed to be daily, and I figured out a way to arrange my life and finances to allow for daily classes. And under Luigi’s brilliant tutelage I progressed gradually through the levels (Intro, Style, Advanced Beginner, Technique, Intermediate and Advanced).

After about a year, I started supplementing my jazz training with classes given by another jazz teacher named David Storey. David was teaching two classes every day (advanced beginner and intermediate), Monday through Saturday. It was David who explained that in order to achieve my goals, I would need to add ballet training to my regimen and suggested that I study under Debby Cruz (aka Diane Bryan) who was, in his opinion, the best adult beginner ballet teacher in New York. Debby taught two levels: Basic Ballet and Advanced Beginner Ballet; each level was offered multiple times per week. I started in the basic class and at her suggestion, when the time was right, I moved on to the advanced beginner class. After two years, Debby left New York and it was suggested that I study with Gabriela Darvash. Madame Darvash, like Luigi, was a fixture in the New York City open class system. She taught Monday through Saturday, and taught two Advanced Beginner, one Intermediate and one Advanced class every day. I started to study under Madame Darvash and like my training with Luigi, I was able over time, to progress through the levels.

Throughout my career I had many other teachers. Time and schedule constraints would often necessitate that I study with other teachers and these other teachers certainly enriched my training and added to my versatility. It is, in my opinion, nearly impossible to get everything from one teacher. But for the most part I was able to get consistent daily training from four outstanding teachers; guiding me from my first plié into my career.

What one must do, when one trains in open classes, is figure out how all of this disjointed and unorganized information that one receives, fits together. There will also be conflicting information as different teachers and different methods have different opinions; and such conflicts require deep examination and intense experimentation to resolve. But what results, if the student has the wherewithal and tenacity to put these pieces together and to resolve these conflicts, is in some ways a deeper level of understanding. A graded and proven curriculum and syllabus will obviously achieve a result, and probably achieve that result more quickly and easily. But the student who is forced to figure out how the “parts” make up the “whole” can come away with a deeper and more intuitive understanding of the process.

I am still taking open classes. There are many reasons why I’m taking class and I’ve discussed them in another article ( https://classicalballetandallthatjazz.com/2018/01/04/why-i-still-take-class-2/ ). But I’ve noticed changes in how the open class system now works. There are now many more teachers teaching much fewer classes. As I scan the schedules of the various open class programs in New York I can find only one teacher who teaches five to six days a week and I can find no teachers who are teaching multiple classes at various levels on a daily basis. There is an incredibly large number of “Guest Teachers”, “Master Classes” and “Workshops” being offered by famous dancers and choreographers taking over more and more of these schools’ programming. These offerings are fun, engaging and exciting. They create opportunities for dancers to get video footage for their social media feeds (a topic for another article). But they are typically not taught by seasoned TEACHERS and they don’t really constitute training. This shift has made it impossible for a student to STUDY with a teacher. What happens, instead, is an emphasis on “taking class” rather than in-depth study. And what the result of this shift seems to be is the production of extremely technically secure, very versatile dancers. But this versatility comes at a price: a steady decline in depth, nuance, personal style and that sense of “passing on the work” from generation to generation that was at the center of my training.

Studios are struggling to stay a float. They are trying to offer students what they want, in order to get them in the door. And what the students seem to want is this variety rather than consistency. And consequently the open class programs in which I teach are currently not able to offer me daily classes at multiple levels in which I can train dancers as I was trained. My beloved Joffrey Ballet School is currently working to expand its open class program, providing more classes to the teachers who are at the heart of its open class program. As the program grows, so will my ability to really train, nurture and mentor open class dancers and the future of the Joffrey open class program seems bright. But for now, what I CAN offer my students is that sense of “passing on the work” as I bring to them my “link” in an unbroken chain of tradition that goes back through the generations.