At DANCE4LIFE School of the Arts and Training Institute in Claymont, pointe class begins with students sitting on the floor and reading from the book “Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy.”
Owner Chauntee Andrews began teaching from this book—written by the trailblazing ballerina Misty Copeland—because she believes a dance education should encompass more than performance. Most students at DANCE4LIFE are Black, and Andrews honors their history, as well as her own, by prompting discussions about dancers of color who came before them.
“When you know the history, you can respect the craft more,” she points out. “The girls are excited because they’re seeing people that look like [them] who are doing ballet and pointe work.”
Copeland made history in 2015 as the first Black female principal dancer with the elite American Ballet Theatre. Her book features more than 20 dancers of color, including three of Andrews’ former instructors: Joan Myers Brown, the founder and executive artistic adviser at The Philadelphia Dance Company; the late Delores Browne, an instructor at The Philadelphia School of Dance Arts; and the late Marion Cuyjet, also an instructor at The Philadelphia School of Dance Arts.
This past February, Copeland spoke at Wilmington Public Library about the challenges she faced as a Black artist and how mentors contributed to her success. Andrews attended with many of her students, who were captivated by Copeland’s story.
“There are teachers who have no idea how to even see someone who comes from a completely different experience than them,” Copeland shared with her audience. “They don’t know how to talk to them about how they should take care of their hair, how they need to put it up. They don’t know how to support them. …Once you have people who represent you in those spaces and are there, they can help advocate for you.”
Before opening DANCE4LIFE more than 17 years ago, Andrews had asked local dancewear shops if they offered brown tights and shoes. Their answers disappointed her.
“I said, ‘Well, would you carry them? I’m going to open a studio. …They were really hesitant,” Andrews recalls. “They weren’t sure how many they should have, and would they be stuck with a lot of inventory? That told me right then and there that there was a lot of work that I had to do to educate this area.”
While brown tights and shoes are easier to find now—partly due to the rise of online shopping—many dance shops still don’t carry them on the floor—a disservice to customers who want to just walk in and try them on.
Since the 1970s, dancers have painted their shoes to match their skin tone, often sponging foundation makeup into the fabric and ribbons—a costly process known as “pancaking.” Andrews taught her students how to pancake their shoes to maintain a visually continuous leg line.
“To know that my children are getting that kind of education and exposure to the people that have paved the way for them [makes me] more than happy,” says Kyla Freeman, whose daughter takes Andrews’ class.
For 23-year-old Leanna Lyles, a dancer and instructor who commutes from Philadelphia to the Claymont studio at least five days a week, pancaking her shoes is a rite of passage. “I don’t take it for granted,” she says. “I appreciate everyone who has come before me and went through different struggles just to be able to dance. Now I’m able to dance today.”
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