Doing It All

Penny Tschirhart

Teacher is only one of the many roles dance educators juggle. At one time or another, they are also director, performer, choreographer, manager, mentor, music arranger, costume designer, judge—and sometimes all at once. DT spoke to 11 driven artists from around the country who seem to have especially large appetites for variety. Why do they take on so many projects and how do they manage to keep all the balls in the air? we asked. Not surprisingly, a common response was, I do it for love. Here’s what they said next.

Penny Tschirhart 
Fine arts chair at Lamar High School; former Hope Stone dancer; Texas Children’s Hospital volunteer (Houston)

I love the diversity that dancing outside of teaching has afforded me. It’s a cathartic behavior I cannot have with my students. I need to be moving in space and performing with my peers. It makes me happy as a human being. It also makes me a better teacher. Staying focused has never been a problem because my life is naturally compartmentalized. I tend to be very organized, which I attribute to being a Virgo and my Catholic upbringing. As for doing it all, I have never done very well with downtime. I joke about spending the summers on the couch eating Bon Bons, but really, it’s not going to happen. When I feel overwhelmed, I remind myself that I’m the only person who has control over my schedule. I cope by remembering to let go of the big picture and just do the very next thing that needs to get done. I don’t have a husband and children; I’ve dedicated my life to helping raise other people’s children through the art of dance. That’s why I volunteer at Children’s Hospital. I tell them about my busy day. It puts them right to sleep.

Daniel Gwirtzman
Producer, director, choreographer and dancer, Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company; teacher and guest choreographer at LaGuardia High School for Performing Arts (New York City)

My challenge is meeting the business demands, so that ultimately I’m not compromising my artistic work. One of my greatest joys is being in the studio. This time is sacred; I’m not answering e-mails; I’m not talking on the phone. I’ve had to prioritize and allow myself to let something go, which is necessary to keep a balance. I’ve learned to decline certain invitations if an opportunity (no matter how great) does not correlate to a specific goal. As the steward of my organization, I have to say, “This opportunity has great exposure, but it’s not good for my company’s bottom line.” Or conversely, “Although it’s not good for the bottom line, this opportunity has a specific element that will be worthwhile.” There is great dynamic excitement in living against the grain and not having that desk job only. Hardly any day is ever alike.

Luam Keflezgy
Teaches hip hop/street jazz at Broadway Dance Center;. international guest teacher and choreographer; co-founder and creative force behind Wildchild Nation clothing line (NYC)

When you do more things, each activity gives something to the other areas that you wouldn’t get from doing just one thing at a time. Keeping it all balanced is very difficult and something will always suffer at least a little bit. I take it a few months at a time and change and adapt to whatever is next on the horizon. It’s a constant reevaluation process. You need to know when to pull away from this or that to give to whatever is most important at that moment. When I was building my clothing line, Wildchild, my choreography career was put on hold. Then two years later I was able to redefine my role with the [clothing] company so that I could choreograph more, which feeds the dancing.

Fatima Robinson 
Commercial, film and television dancer, choreographer and director; recently named one of the “100 Most Creative People in Entertainment” by Entertainment Weekly (Los Angeles)

I have this motto: There’s a solution to every problem. If I don’t know right away how something’s going to work out, I put it on hold until I can figure it out. And sometimes you just have to let things work themselves out. I work super- hard and vacation a lot in the summer; it’s like emptying the hard drive, so I can start anew. There are times I wish I could split myself in half. But it’s all worth it. I feel like I’m supposed to be doing exactly what I’m doing.

Lorianne Hagan
Former member of MOVE dance company; teaches ballet, jazz, lyrical, tap, musical theater and heads acrobatic gymnastics team at Villa West Dance & Acrobatics; jazz at Webster University, St. Louis; ballet, jazz, modern and heads acrobatic gymnastics team at Wildwood Dance & Arts; teaches and choreographs for US Performing Arts Camps (Missouri)

Some people may say I’m compulsive, but it’s important that whatever I’m doing is done well. I write a list of things that are needed for each job—including my family! I conquer one list at a time to stay prioritized. (I probably have about five lists right now.) I also make sure I get things done in between classes or at night, so that when my weekend rolls around I can spend time with my family. But my students are my extended family. I’ve become more of a mother figure to them since my son was born, which really helps me juggle it all—I have a vested interest in them and their future. I feel part of something great. And if there were more hours in the day, I would fill them. I don’t know if I would even know how to slow down. When I’m caught up with everything on my lists, I think “What can I organize now?” or I’m looking for something to clean.

Luis Salgado
Performer in In the Heights; Latin, jazz and musical theater teacher; choreographer for Salsa Gorda; founder of R.Evolución Latina, a nonprofit arts organization committed to supporting Latino artists (NYC)

I used to say to myself, “I’m never going to work in anything that I don’t love.” I’ve been able to fulfill that commitment because I’m so active. On one hand there is the excitement of coming to the theater every night, but with that, how do I give back? I respond with teaching and by founding an organization that empowers the Latino arts world. It’s really necessary to do so many things to grow and stay out of my comfort zone.
     The only way to make it all work is to have it on the calendar going three years forward. But you have to find a way to stay in the now. You can go crazy and get so overwhelmed if you focus too much on the “macro.” Make the macro plan but in the now, look at the micro. If you get overwhelmed, you can’t enjoy all the wonderful things you are doing. I also have a beautiful support team from my organization. I’m learning to delegate and trust this team that I’ve built a relationship with. It’s hard to incorporate new people into my team, because often they don’t understand my process. If you can work with your team for a longer time, you develop a system that’s efficient.

Tammy Johns-Brown
Owner/director of Dance Station Inc.; performer and choreographer for Carolina Freestyle dance team; guest choreographer, emcee, performer and director; clogging and hip-hop teacher; current Mrs. United States; freelance marketing assistant; commercial and fashion model; radio and TV co-host (Chapin, South Carolina)

Staying focused when you love something isn’t hard. I do it for my dancers and family; they are the most important. We never dance on Sundays, and we do team days where we all get together and do something fun. Plus, everything I do goes hand-in-hand; when I speak at events for Mrs. United States, my dancers will entertain. I laugh to stay grounded and don’t let things bother me. And there have been times when things have gone utterly wrong! While dancing in a routine once, my foot got caught in the costume and ripped it. But I kept going, even though I could hear people saying “awww.” In between numbers I ran over to the hotel lobby, grabbed a stapler, stapled my costume back together and came right back onstage. A common expression in our studio is, “Don’t panic. Things happen. Just make it work.”

Rodney Williams
Co-directs City Dance Theatre; directs the Longwood Company of Dancers at Longwood University; co-founder and director of choreography for Charisma Dance Company; Miss America pageant judge; master teacher; composer and Gospel recording artist;
motivational speaker (Richmond, Virginia)

When stressed, I find the best place to let it work out is in the studio. My hour-long commute in the car is my solitude time. I’m preparing and creating in my car, my sleep, my bathroom—everywhere. People think I’m the weirdest thing on campus, I’m sure. If I’m in the grocery store and a move hits, I just have to experience it. My life is a dance and a song that starts at 7:30 am and ends at 11:30 pm. No hour is too late for me to be working—we have to get it right. I go home exhausted, but the end product—seeing something I envisioned come to the stage—makes it worth it for me. (It’s not the money. Trust me. If you don’t enjoy this sound [clapping], you need to go to another business.) To see students go out into the world and become dancers is a gift. I know I’m doing what I was placed on this earth to do.

Rachelle Rak
Broadway veteran; performer, teacher and choreographer (NYC)

After being in the business for 20 years, I’m a big believer that there’s always more to learn. Watching performers and giving them notes has really helped with my own performances. Recently, I did inner-city presentations where I danced, sang and talked to students about writing musicals. In that moment I realized how fortunate Iwas to be there—it reminded me why I got into the business. I loved seeing the kids being inspired and even some of them saying they want to audition for musicals.
      As a choreographer I’m big on pre-production work. I try tocome in prepared but then be open to adjustment when I get the bodies in the room. It’s about having the option to have a plan. I also use index cards for everything. Each day I write down what I need to do just for that day. I have a master schedule, but the cards keep me focused and help me not get overwhelmed.

Nakul Dev Mahajan
Choreographer, director, performer and teacher; founded the nation’s first Indian dance school, NDM Bollywood Dance Productions and Studios (Artesia, California)

In order to keep up my day-to-day schedule, I have had to sacrifice my social life. I do believe, however, that if I work really hard now, there will be a point in my future when I can relax and have a love life. In the meantime, the colleagues and family members who I work with have become the key players in my social network. I’m not really complaining—I feel extremely lucky to have my family involved with running the four locations of my studio. My mom and dad are the backbone of the company. They help manage finances, and my mom handles enrollment of all students. I have a personal assistant and don’t stress (as much as I did in previous years) because I have people who keep me on track. And thank God for my BlackBerry! If I lost it, I wouldn’t know what to do. But, I wouldn’t trade this schedule for the world. I’m so fortunate to wake up every morning and say, “OK. I have 10 hours of rehearsals scheduled for the day. Great. Let’s do it.”

Tanya Wideman-Davis
Co-artistic director of Wideman-Davis Dance with husband Thaddeus Davis; guest choreographer and adjunct teacher at University of South Carolina (NYC and Columbia, SC)

During the first three years of our marriage, Thaddeus and I were apart, dancing and touring in different states. We decided it was too much, so we created a company together. Now we’re together 24/7, always working. We’ve created some great work together just sitting in the car collaborating on a road trip, because we don’t always have time to put aside. And because we still dance, we take class on a daily basis, after teaching.
     It’s a team effort with Thaddeus and I: He does most of the choreography, I create phrases and do the costuming, but the research and actual conception is the two ofus. The most grueling process is when we’re in the studio creating a duet on ourselves.We get the married energy, the choreographer/dancer energy going. There are certain things I don’t want him to tell me to do, so I start being a wife and he starts being a husband. We’ve had knock-down arguments, but it’s a game of give-and-take and the work that comes out of it has been some of our best.
     I think our past as company dancers helped us gain tools for our new responsibilities [as company directors]: When you’re a dancer, you do a lot of community outreach,working with other companies and building knowledge. Teaching is the easiest for usbecause you can see right in front of you what needs to be worked on. Either they graspit or they don’t. And I don’t get frustrated when students just don’t get it—something elsewill segue in and make it click. It’s like a drug to see somebody blossom into a dancer.

Interviews by Courtney Rae Allen, Jenny Dalzell, Lauren Kay, Nancy Wozny and Rachel Zar.

Photo by Simon Gentry, courtesy of Jane Weiner