T. Michelle Davy always knew she wanted to open a community-based dance academy. Michelle worked in dance education for over 20 years. Prior to opening Davy Dance Academy in 2011, she managed two different dance studios and worked as a Performing Arts Teacher at The Harbour School.
I spoke with her from her office here in Cape St. Claire.
I spoke with her from her office here in Cape St. Claire.
Transcript:
Michelle:
I would say that as a studio we focus on the whole child. It's not just about how high is your leg and how many turns can you do. We care about the individual student and we want to see them grow whether they're three or 15. See them grow individually at their own pace and at a pace that makes sense for.
I think that we have to remember that we're working with children and their emotional health as well as their physical health are all part of the process. I think that even if they don't become professional dancers that we've done our job if we've given them what they need to go out confidently into the world.
Hi, my name is T. Michelle Davy and I've worked in Cape St. Claire for 13 years. I am the owner of Davy Dance Academy, conveniently located in Cape St. Claire Shopping Center.
Kara: Michelle, where were you born and raised?
Michelle: I was born in Washington, D .C., but I grew up in Temple Hills, Maryland. I went to private school my whole life and graduated from a private all -girls school in Suitland, Maryland, Lorraine High
Kara: When did you start dancing? How old were you? Where were you? And what kind of dance was it?
Michelle: I started dancing when I was two years old at a dance studio called Lyndon and Tolley School of Dance. Doesn't exist anymore. But Miss Tolley is still a really close friend. She owned her studio for 50 years. And I started with ballet and tap.
Kara: So you just mentioned, so were there any other dance teachers who you would consider an influence or a mentor?
Michelle: I would say my college professors, Alvin Mays, I also had the opportunity to work with Alvin Ailey and Jose Lamone and Tony Powell and a host of other choreographers that I think really helped influence my favorite styles of dance would be modern and ballet. Contemporary wasn't really on the stage yet until kind of after I got out of college, but I do enjoy that style.
Kara: So where did you go to college and did you study dance in college? Was that your major?
Michelle: Yes, I went to University of Maryland College Park and I was a dance major.
Kara: Okay, those names that you just mentioned, wow. Okay, what is the difference between modern and contemporary dance?
Michelle: That is a fantastic question. Modern is rooted generally more in being grounded, kind of breaking all the rules from ballet of being pulled up and lifted with fully stretched legs, pointed feet, gorgeous extensions. Modern dancers like Jose Lomone, Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, they all wanted to kind of break from that and be more expressive and focus more on being grounded and using movement interpretation like contraction and release in order to tell a story. Versus ballet, which was really rooted in traditional stories and had traditional roles, traditional guidelines, and really followed a very set guideline. Modern wanted to kind of go beyond that.
Kara: So let's talk about your career. You've done so many things. You've managed dance studios. You're at the Harbor School. Why don't we start with basically how you transferred into like a professional career?
Michelle: So when I was in college, Miss Linda Natoli asked me if I would be her assistant director. And so I had the opportunity. I was in charge of staffing. I was in charge of rehearsal schedules. I also taught on the competition team and worked with some of the recreational dancers. And it showed me what it meant to have to do, have relationships with all of these types of people, with parents, with teachers, with vendors that we worked with and trying to kind of balance all that and then walk into a three -year -old classroom and be ready to engage with those kids, it was really eye -opening. That was a for -profit studio and then later on I had the opportunity to work for Central Maryland School of Ballet and I was their director and that was a non -profit studio. So we focused a lot on that's where I learned how to write grants and how to partner with different agencies and politicians in the community to do like fundraisers and different types of events that kind of helped us spread the word about what the organization did. So I learned a lot.
Kara: So did you go from there directly to the Harbor School? Is that what your next step was?
Michelle: No, from there I went to dance professionally for a number of years and some I was living in the Annapolis slash Laurel kind of area. So I danced with Ailey too and then I danced with Tony Powell and I danced with some other small contemporary companies in the Washington DC area. And then I got married and had a child and Then I decided that with a child, I would prefer to focus on teaching than performing, just a little bit more predictable schedule. So I started actually teaching at local dance studios, but finally it's got a position with Howard County Public Schools. And then after that ended up at the Harbor School.
Kara: Okay. I want to talk about your professional dance career now. How many years were you professional dancing in between?
Michelle: I danced professionally for about six years.
Kara: Okay, so you've got to have some great stories. All right, do you have any favorite moments, like any productions that really, you know, resonated with you or maybe a moment where you really learned something new or you worked with somebody you always wanted to work with before?
Michelle: Well, I had an opportunity to work with Mark Dendy on a piece and he's a modern dance choreographer, very avant -garde,
outside the box in terms of his choreography. His rehearsals were very intense. He often screamed at dancers, but I learned a lot from that experience. I would say that I learned that being in charge of your craft and being confident with what you were trying to present and being able to say that to the choreographer is important. Even if you don't end up agreeing, being able to stand in your truth as a dancer. It really helped me grow and recognize that even if he's upset, he's really more focused on the big picture of the performance. It's not so much about me as an individual dancer. It's more about the overall performance and the good of the company. Because if this performance does well, we can receive grants and funding for additional performances. So that's, I would say a similar type of stress level choreographer or company director experiences is similar to that of a studio owner. There's a lot of different things that you kind of have to think of all at one time. So I remember at the time thinking, gosh, this is really.
This is really challenging and I love to dance. Do I love it enough to deal with this? But in the end, I learned more than I felt hurt by the situation. I learned that it's part of the industry. It's part of the process. And the more you can kind of get a thick skin and stand in your truth, the longer career you can.
Kara: Maybe it's like even it's just all art, right? That everybody encounters somebody or some situation like that. So speaking of choreography, so you're a dancer. So in that professional six years, did you choreograph any performances? Did you choreograph anything that you performed yourself?
Michelle: I did choreograph for local studios. Like I would choreograph competition solos and group dances when I wasn't traveling. And I really enjoyed it. The part that I didn't enjoy the most was that I didn't get to see the dancers all the way through the process. I would kind of come in for a week or two when we were off and I get to teach classes and set some choreography, but then I didn't really see the dancers, you know, again after that, because after that I was going back on tour and we were heading to another city and...So I realized in the process of doing the guest teaching that I really want to see the dancers all the way through. And I want to also be able to celebrate with them when they compete it or perform it. And so that's kind of what kind of led me down a different path just in terms of transitioning from being a performer to being more of an educator and choreographer.
Kara: I mean, good for you for being able to figure that out, right? To try all of it.
And then like you're saying, your truth, okay, this is where my strengths are and this is where I find happiness and be able to land in that spot. Okay, so let's now move over to your time at the Harbor School, which is I guess, technically not in Cape St. Claire, right? But it's like right outside. Okay, so tell me, know, how you started there and what your responsibilities were.
Michelle: So when I started at the Harbor School, I was a performing arts assistant teacher. And so I had a...
teacher that I was supporting and the director, Linda Jacobs, really wanted the students to put on a musical. She loves musicals and she felt that the students at the school deserve the same experiences that kids at other local high schools get. They get the opportunity to try out and be in a musical like Annie or Guys and Dolls. And then later on in life, when you're talking, you're at a dinner party and someone starts talking about musicals, you can say,
When I was in high school, we did the Music Man and it's a good way for kids that, especially kids that have special needs that have trouble in social situations, it helps them connect with other people. And I thought that that was a really fascinating concept. I was obviously a dancer by training while I'd done some theater. Theater wasn't what I went to school for. So I did do some additional classes and I went back to school and did some additional training to help myself grow with teaching theater. Because being a theater student is very different than directing. So I spent some time and did courses to help me with that part of it, but I absolutely love musicals. They are the perfect blend, I think, of taking dance, music, theater, putting everything together, and you have to work as a unit in order for it to work.
At the Harbor, I mean, we did so many things with shows. We did Rogers and Hammer sign performances. We did state fair one year and I had the kids create our own Harbor school fair where everybody made their own ride or game. And then we had, invited the community and it raised money enough for us to take the kids to New York on and they got to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. They got to work with a dancer from the show. And it was really just a wonderful experience.
Kara: On your website, it says when you were a little girl, you always wanted to open a community -based dance studio. So tell me why. What was it about a community -based studio? And then eventually, why Cape St. Claire?
Michelle:
I think a community -based studio really meant a lot to me because I grew up in a community -based studio. We did a lot of things within the community, a lot of performances at nursing homes. We performed at local festivals and events. We performed at schools when we were doing our holiday performances. And it was just so much fun to go and perform and someone come up to you while you're performing and say, wow. I remember seeing you at the July 4th parade. You were fantastic. And the community just appreciated so much that we would, especially when we went to nursing homes, that we would come out and just see them, because they don't always get to see their families. We would make presents for them at Christmas and deliver them to them. We'd go dance for them at Halloween. And it was just lovely. And I always felt While certainly we focus on dance education and we want to grow dancers as performers and help them have confidence and grow technically, we are also growing young people. And I think it's really important that we teach them that we need to support and give back to our own community that supports us. this is Cape St. Clair is such a wonderful community. They do so much for the kids. Mary Lamb creates these amazing events, the Strawberry Festival, the July 4th Parade, the Halloween happenings, the trick -or -treating. And I just love that everybody's so supportive of those things. I think it's important for the kids because they all have not just connections in school, but truly connections within their neighborhood. And so I love that we can be a part of that. And the few of these that I've done so far that were community is what keeps coming
Kara: But it is really neat to hear other people articulate it through their lens. So I love that, that, yes, so you can continue that through here. All let's get sort of into the nitty gritty of this place. So tell me what kind of dance your studio offers, like what ages, that sort of thing.
Michelle: Okay, we offer a variety of different classes. We actually started 18 months with our mommy and me classes.
And we go all the way through adult classes. We offer ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary. We also offer acro. And it's a program that we started just before COVID. And my daughter, Jasmine, Ms. Jasmine, has been able to help us grow that program over the last few years.
And since then we have a few more teachers that we've been able to certify in ACRO as well so that we can further expand that program.
Kara: Super cool. So you mentioned COVID a couple of times. You were able to figure out a way to keep people dancing during COVID. Tell me how that worked.
Michelle: Well, that was quite a time for everyone. We took one week off. And we, myself and my administrator, Ms. Christy, at the time, we deep dived into how are we going to pivot the studio to help support the kids and help them feel connected. So we built out an online school. We then built out curriculum for the teachers so that they had games and engagement activities so that they could connect through doing online classes.
We also did once a month, we did our community outreach. So we couldn't be right around each other like face to face, but myself and my daughters, we put together gifts for all of the dancers. We did flowers for them to plant. We did postcards that everybody signed. We did a heart poster with all the dancers names on it and put it up in the window.
But we went around and actually delivered to every student's house a present for them just to let them know that we were thinking about them and that we missed them. And it actually was very therapeutic for us because it was kind of the only time we left the house. It was really, you know, everyone was struggling and trying to stay connected, trying to keep their business doors open.
And I had other studio owners that I know across the country asking, well, how are you, know, affording being able to do all of this? And I said, you know, I don't know how we can't. The kids thrive on connection and we have such close relationships with our dancers. We have to find a way to to help them stay connected for our preschool kids. My daughter, Sose, she made custom bean bags.
For each and every dancer, we made them dance kits and dropped them off to them. Some people we mailed them to. And then when their class happened, we would say, go get your shakers. And they'd shake them online. just the smiles that you would see from a three -year -old, would think it's going to be so hard for a three -year -old to be in a class online for 30 minutes. They were fantastic. I mean, they didn't need their parent in the room. They were totally focused, engaged dancing, the recital we did here at the studio, we recorded it. I will say the creativity from the staff and admin at that time to pivot and try to find new ways to offer that connection that we also missed was absolutely incredible.
Kara: Give people a rough idea, how many students were you supporting at that time?
Michelle: We had about right around 300 students.
Michelle: Yes. And honestly, we only lost 10 students during COVID. Yes. So that's that whole community, back to that community word again. Yes. It's super important. And we ran our camps that summer. And socially distanced, we updated our HVAC systems and put things in so that those actually we still have and run those every night to, you know, just to make sure everything is sanitized and prepared for the next day. It was truly, while it was very difficult as just in terms of dealing with COVID, it was an opportunity to see, okay, so how do we take this and find something in it that we can make positive for the kids?
I was really proud of our staff for working together through everything that they were dealing with personally, because everyone had their own things within their families that they were dealing with as well.
Kara: Okay, so one of the things I've been dying to ask somebody is, so when I was again little and doing ballet and tap, it was performative only. So you had like one recital at the end of the year, right?
There's a lot of dance competitions now, right? Okay, so is that, and now we're talking 70s. So has that always been around? Is that a new evolution with dance? Tell me more about the competitive dance.
Michelle: Competitive dance has changed a lot over the last 35 years. When I competed, there were three competitions total, and we went to all three of them because there were only three.
There were two conventions, if I'm remembering correctly, maybe three. And it was primarily just a weekend. They would start very early in the morning and you would have like maybe a seven o 'clock call time to do your solo. Your duet would be in the afternoon and your groups would be in the evening. One of the biggest differences is you would have first, second and third only.
Everyone else, would say, go back in the studio and work harder. Today, we have placements sometimes that go up to 20th place. Most regional competitions go up to 10th place, so they'll do a top 10. At the end, everybody is eligible for their adjudicated award from the judges, so whatever feedback. they would get for their performance. I like that the dancers do get that individual feedback. Ours was handwritten, so, you know, good luck if you can get through that cursive writing. But now that it's recorded, you can hear and see the video while you're dancing and get direct feedback about what you need to work on and what you need to make better before the next competition. We really try to focus on it from an educational standpoint. The goal is for you to be better than your last performance. Is it great to win a first overall? Absolutely. Do we have dancers win first overall? Absolutely. But that's not the only goal. Overall, we want to see you be your best and beat yourself the next time. So out of 300 points, you got
285. Can you get 290 this time? What do you think you need to do to fix that five point difference? What could we get back in the studio and work on so that you can grow just even a little bit more? Right. And overall, the goal is progress. Practice makes progress, not perfection.
Kara: I love that so much. That is so fantastic. It makes complete sense.
Is dance, I mean, do you consider it performative and sport either or both?
Michelle: That's a fantastic question. My opinion, I think dancers are the ultimate athlete. You have to be a creative artist as well as extremely athletic and strong and flexible. But it's not just that. You have to bring the artistry. You have to connect with the audience and the judges.
You have to be expressive. You have to tell us why we should watch you. You know, whether you're in a group or in a solo, I need to be connected with you. And it's confidence that helps you push through and connect to that person all the way in the back. If you're performing on stage and the audience is completely silent, there's almost a hush across the audience. As a dancer, you've done your
The goal is you want to really dig in deep and try to figure out sometimes we tell dancers to write your own story So if you're doing a solo or a group dance write your own story about what this is about and that's what you want to tell on stage and try to express and try to get the audience to connect and relate to you with I love that question.
Kara: So that's the performative part, right? But it's also there is an athletic ability.
Michelle: Absolutely.
Kara: So when I think of a dance student, I think they're learning grace and poise and how to hold themselves and the coordination of the whole thing. And then there's the whole competition aspect that you were talking about. So what other kinds of life skills do dancers learn in addition to those sort of like physical?
Michelle: Sure. Dancers learn how to work as a team.
They learn how to support each other. They also learn that it takes more than say one rough draft before you get to that final copy or the final performance. We do something called start stop a lot of times when we're rehearsing. So we'll start rehearsing the dance. And as soon as there's one mistake, we stop, we talk about it and we go back. And the goal is to get 10 seconds passed the last time we stopped so that as we're building up to our performance or our competition, ultimately our goal is to get through it without any mistakes. And we do prizes like wow cards and other things like super exciting things to help the kids stay engaged and connected with that. But I think you learn how to be a leader. You learn how to express your ideas. Sometimes you come into rehearsal.
And maybe the last time you were in class, your teacher taught something and one person remembers it one way and the other person remembers it another way. You can't fight about it, but you do have to talk about how are we supposed to do this? What's the solution? Sometimes the teachers interject and say, okay, it's this. But other times it can be helpful to have the kids process through what should it be? I really think that it's important that kids understand that problems happen in life and they're going to happen to everybody. But learning that if we go through a process, we can find a way to get to a solution. It may not be the solution you want, but it may be the best solution out of the options available to you. And that's okay.
Kara: that is a fantastic life lesson. So tell me what's coming this summer with the studio, are there any opportunities for the public to see your dancers? And then if you can let me know how families can learn more about your dance studio.
Michelle: So this summer we have a large variety of summer camps and every Friday we have a showcase where the dancers show everything that they learned all week long. They create their own costumes, they make their own art projects, they design the set.
And sometimes they have a part in creating their dances as well. And they present that on Fridays, generally around 1230 to their family and friends. But certainly pop in and take a look. That'll be great. Our next public performance is going to be Elf on a Maryland Shelf. It's going to be in December. And we're hoping to host it at AACC, just up the road on College Parkway.
That's been our holiday show location for many years. So we're hoping that we'll be there again as well. And if you're looking for a dance class for your young child or yourself, certainly stop by and see us in the shopping center or you can pop by our website.
For more information about Michelle and the Davy Dance Academy, check us out at capestclairepodcast.com
The Cape St. Claire podcast is produced by me, Kara McGuirk- Allison. Theme song by me, Mike Lyxx and William Allison. Please like and share this episode with your friends because we all love living in Cape St. Claire!
I would say that as a studio we focus on the whole child. It's not just about how high is your leg and how many turns can you do. We care about the individual student and we want to see them grow whether they're three or 15. See them grow individually at their own pace and at a pace that makes sense for.
I think that we have to remember that we're working with children and their emotional health as well as their physical health are all part of the process. I think that even if they don't become professional dancers that we've done our job if we've given them what they need to go out confidently into the world.
Hi, my name is T. Michelle Davy and I've worked in Cape St. Claire for 13 years. I am the owner of Davy Dance Academy, conveniently located in Cape St. Claire Shopping Center.
Kara: Michelle, where were you born and raised?
Michelle: I was born in Washington, D .C., but I grew up in Temple Hills, Maryland. I went to private school my whole life and graduated from a private all -girls school in Suitland, Maryland, Lorraine High
Kara: When did you start dancing? How old were you? Where were you? And what kind of dance was it?
Michelle: I started dancing when I was two years old at a dance studio called Lyndon and Tolley School of Dance. Doesn't exist anymore. But Miss Tolley is still a really close friend. She owned her studio for 50 years. And I started with ballet and tap.
Kara: So you just mentioned, so were there any other dance teachers who you would consider an influence or a mentor?
Michelle: I would say my college professors, Alvin Mays, I also had the opportunity to work with Alvin Ailey and Jose Lamone and Tony Powell and a host of other choreographers that I think really helped influence my favorite styles of dance would be modern and ballet. Contemporary wasn't really on the stage yet until kind of after I got out of college, but I do enjoy that style.
Kara: So where did you go to college and did you study dance in college? Was that your major?
Michelle: Yes, I went to University of Maryland College Park and I was a dance major.
Kara: Okay, those names that you just mentioned, wow. Okay, what is the difference between modern and contemporary dance?
Michelle: That is a fantastic question. Modern is rooted generally more in being grounded, kind of breaking all the rules from ballet of being pulled up and lifted with fully stretched legs, pointed feet, gorgeous extensions. Modern dancers like Jose Lomone, Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, they all wanted to kind of break from that and be more expressive and focus more on being grounded and using movement interpretation like contraction and release in order to tell a story. Versus ballet, which was really rooted in traditional stories and had traditional roles, traditional guidelines, and really followed a very set guideline. Modern wanted to kind of go beyond that.
Kara: So let's talk about your career. You've done so many things. You've managed dance studios. You're at the Harbor School. Why don't we start with basically how you transferred into like a professional career?
Michelle: So when I was in college, Miss Linda Natoli asked me if I would be her assistant director. And so I had the opportunity. I was in charge of staffing. I was in charge of rehearsal schedules. I also taught on the competition team and worked with some of the recreational dancers. And it showed me what it meant to have to do, have relationships with all of these types of people, with parents, with teachers, with vendors that we worked with and trying to kind of balance all that and then walk into a three -year -old classroom and be ready to engage with those kids, it was really eye -opening. That was a for -profit studio and then later on I had the opportunity to work for Central Maryland School of Ballet and I was their director and that was a non -profit studio. So we focused a lot on that's where I learned how to write grants and how to partner with different agencies and politicians in the community to do like fundraisers and different types of events that kind of helped us spread the word about what the organization did. So I learned a lot.
Kara: So did you go from there directly to the Harbor School? Is that what your next step was?
Michelle: No, from there I went to dance professionally for a number of years and some I was living in the Annapolis slash Laurel kind of area. So I danced with Ailey too and then I danced with Tony Powell and I danced with some other small contemporary companies in the Washington DC area. And then I got married and had a child and Then I decided that with a child, I would prefer to focus on teaching than performing, just a little bit more predictable schedule. So I started actually teaching at local dance studios, but finally it's got a position with Howard County Public Schools. And then after that ended up at the Harbor School.
Kara: Okay. I want to talk about your professional dance career now. How many years were you professional dancing in between?
Michelle: I danced professionally for about six years.
Kara: Okay, so you've got to have some great stories. All right, do you have any favorite moments, like any productions that really, you know, resonated with you or maybe a moment where you really learned something new or you worked with somebody you always wanted to work with before?
Michelle: Well, I had an opportunity to work with Mark Dendy on a piece and he's a modern dance choreographer, very avant -garde,
outside the box in terms of his choreography. His rehearsals were very intense. He often screamed at dancers, but I learned a lot from that experience. I would say that I learned that being in charge of your craft and being confident with what you were trying to present and being able to say that to the choreographer is important. Even if you don't end up agreeing, being able to stand in your truth as a dancer. It really helped me grow and recognize that even if he's upset, he's really more focused on the big picture of the performance. It's not so much about me as an individual dancer. It's more about the overall performance and the good of the company. Because if this performance does well, we can receive grants and funding for additional performances. So that's, I would say a similar type of stress level choreographer or company director experiences is similar to that of a studio owner. There's a lot of different things that you kind of have to think of all at one time. So I remember at the time thinking, gosh, this is really.
This is really challenging and I love to dance. Do I love it enough to deal with this? But in the end, I learned more than I felt hurt by the situation. I learned that it's part of the industry. It's part of the process. And the more you can kind of get a thick skin and stand in your truth, the longer career you can.
Kara: Maybe it's like even it's just all art, right? That everybody encounters somebody or some situation like that. So speaking of choreography, so you're a dancer. So in that professional six years, did you choreograph any performances? Did you choreograph anything that you performed yourself?
Michelle: I did choreograph for local studios. Like I would choreograph competition solos and group dances when I wasn't traveling. And I really enjoyed it. The part that I didn't enjoy the most was that I didn't get to see the dancers all the way through the process. I would kind of come in for a week or two when we were off and I get to teach classes and set some choreography, but then I didn't really see the dancers, you know, again after that, because after that I was going back on tour and we were heading to another city and...So I realized in the process of doing the guest teaching that I really want to see the dancers all the way through. And I want to also be able to celebrate with them when they compete it or perform it. And so that's kind of what kind of led me down a different path just in terms of transitioning from being a performer to being more of an educator and choreographer.
Kara: I mean, good for you for being able to figure that out, right? To try all of it.
And then like you're saying, your truth, okay, this is where my strengths are and this is where I find happiness and be able to land in that spot. Okay, so let's now move over to your time at the Harbor School, which is I guess, technically not in Cape St. Claire, right? But it's like right outside. Okay, so tell me, know, how you started there and what your responsibilities were.
Michelle: So when I started at the Harbor School, I was a performing arts assistant teacher. And so I had a...
teacher that I was supporting and the director, Linda Jacobs, really wanted the students to put on a musical. She loves musicals and she felt that the students at the school deserve the same experiences that kids at other local high schools get. They get the opportunity to try out and be in a musical like Annie or Guys and Dolls. And then later on in life, when you're talking, you're at a dinner party and someone starts talking about musicals, you can say,
When I was in high school, we did the Music Man and it's a good way for kids that, especially kids that have special needs that have trouble in social situations, it helps them connect with other people. And I thought that that was a really fascinating concept. I was obviously a dancer by training while I'd done some theater. Theater wasn't what I went to school for. So I did do some additional classes and I went back to school and did some additional training to help myself grow with teaching theater. Because being a theater student is very different than directing. So I spent some time and did courses to help me with that part of it, but I absolutely love musicals. They are the perfect blend, I think, of taking dance, music, theater, putting everything together, and you have to work as a unit in order for it to work.
At the Harbor, I mean, we did so many things with shows. We did Rogers and Hammer sign performances. We did state fair one year and I had the kids create our own Harbor school fair where everybody made their own ride or game. And then we had, invited the community and it raised money enough for us to take the kids to New York on and they got to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. They got to work with a dancer from the show. And it was really just a wonderful experience.
Kara: On your website, it says when you were a little girl, you always wanted to open a community -based dance studio. So tell me why. What was it about a community -based studio? And then eventually, why Cape St. Claire?
Michelle:
I think a community -based studio really meant a lot to me because I grew up in a community -based studio. We did a lot of things within the community, a lot of performances at nursing homes. We performed at local festivals and events. We performed at schools when we were doing our holiday performances. And it was just so much fun to go and perform and someone come up to you while you're performing and say, wow. I remember seeing you at the July 4th parade. You were fantastic. And the community just appreciated so much that we would, especially when we went to nursing homes, that we would come out and just see them, because they don't always get to see their families. We would make presents for them at Christmas and deliver them to them. We'd go dance for them at Halloween. And it was just lovely. And I always felt While certainly we focus on dance education and we want to grow dancers as performers and help them have confidence and grow technically, we are also growing young people. And I think it's really important that we teach them that we need to support and give back to our own community that supports us. this is Cape St. Clair is such a wonderful community. They do so much for the kids. Mary Lamb creates these amazing events, the Strawberry Festival, the July 4th Parade, the Halloween happenings, the trick -or -treating. And I just love that everybody's so supportive of those things. I think it's important for the kids because they all have not just connections in school, but truly connections within their neighborhood. And so I love that we can be a part of that. And the few of these that I've done so far that were community is what keeps coming
Kara: But it is really neat to hear other people articulate it through their lens. So I love that, that, yes, so you can continue that through here. All let's get sort of into the nitty gritty of this place. So tell me what kind of dance your studio offers, like what ages, that sort of thing.
Michelle: Okay, we offer a variety of different classes. We actually started 18 months with our mommy and me classes.
And we go all the way through adult classes. We offer ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary. We also offer acro. And it's a program that we started just before COVID. And my daughter, Jasmine, Ms. Jasmine, has been able to help us grow that program over the last few years.
And since then we have a few more teachers that we've been able to certify in ACRO as well so that we can further expand that program.
Kara: Super cool. So you mentioned COVID a couple of times. You were able to figure out a way to keep people dancing during COVID. Tell me how that worked.
Michelle: Well, that was quite a time for everyone. We took one week off. And we, myself and my administrator, Ms. Christy, at the time, we deep dived into how are we going to pivot the studio to help support the kids and help them feel connected. So we built out an online school. We then built out curriculum for the teachers so that they had games and engagement activities so that they could connect through doing online classes.
We also did once a month, we did our community outreach. So we couldn't be right around each other like face to face, but myself and my daughters, we put together gifts for all of the dancers. We did flowers for them to plant. We did postcards that everybody signed. We did a heart poster with all the dancers names on it and put it up in the window.
But we went around and actually delivered to every student's house a present for them just to let them know that we were thinking about them and that we missed them. And it actually was very therapeutic for us because it was kind of the only time we left the house. It was really, you know, everyone was struggling and trying to stay connected, trying to keep their business doors open.
And I had other studio owners that I know across the country asking, well, how are you, know, affording being able to do all of this? And I said, you know, I don't know how we can't. The kids thrive on connection and we have such close relationships with our dancers. We have to find a way to to help them stay connected for our preschool kids. My daughter, Sose, she made custom bean bags.
For each and every dancer, we made them dance kits and dropped them off to them. Some people we mailed them to. And then when their class happened, we would say, go get your shakers. And they'd shake them online. just the smiles that you would see from a three -year -old, would think it's going to be so hard for a three -year -old to be in a class online for 30 minutes. They were fantastic. I mean, they didn't need their parent in the room. They were totally focused, engaged dancing, the recital we did here at the studio, we recorded it. I will say the creativity from the staff and admin at that time to pivot and try to find new ways to offer that connection that we also missed was absolutely incredible.
Kara: Give people a rough idea, how many students were you supporting at that time?
Michelle: We had about right around 300 students.
Michelle: Yes. And honestly, we only lost 10 students during COVID. Yes. So that's that whole community, back to that community word again. Yes. It's super important. And we ran our camps that summer. And socially distanced, we updated our HVAC systems and put things in so that those actually we still have and run those every night to, you know, just to make sure everything is sanitized and prepared for the next day. It was truly, while it was very difficult as just in terms of dealing with COVID, it was an opportunity to see, okay, so how do we take this and find something in it that we can make positive for the kids?
I was really proud of our staff for working together through everything that they were dealing with personally, because everyone had their own things within their families that they were dealing with as well.
Kara: Okay, so one of the things I've been dying to ask somebody is, so when I was again little and doing ballet and tap, it was performative only. So you had like one recital at the end of the year, right?
There's a lot of dance competitions now, right? Okay, so is that, and now we're talking 70s. So has that always been around? Is that a new evolution with dance? Tell me more about the competitive dance.
Michelle: Competitive dance has changed a lot over the last 35 years. When I competed, there were three competitions total, and we went to all three of them because there were only three.
There were two conventions, if I'm remembering correctly, maybe three. And it was primarily just a weekend. They would start very early in the morning and you would have like maybe a seven o 'clock call time to do your solo. Your duet would be in the afternoon and your groups would be in the evening. One of the biggest differences is you would have first, second and third only.
Everyone else, would say, go back in the studio and work harder. Today, we have placements sometimes that go up to 20th place. Most regional competitions go up to 10th place, so they'll do a top 10. At the end, everybody is eligible for their adjudicated award from the judges, so whatever feedback. they would get for their performance. I like that the dancers do get that individual feedback. Ours was handwritten, so, you know, good luck if you can get through that cursive writing. But now that it's recorded, you can hear and see the video while you're dancing and get direct feedback about what you need to work on and what you need to make better before the next competition. We really try to focus on it from an educational standpoint. The goal is for you to be better than your last performance. Is it great to win a first overall? Absolutely. Do we have dancers win first overall? Absolutely. But that's not the only goal. Overall, we want to see you be your best and beat yourself the next time. So out of 300 points, you got
285. Can you get 290 this time? What do you think you need to do to fix that five point difference? What could we get back in the studio and work on so that you can grow just even a little bit more? Right. And overall, the goal is progress. Practice makes progress, not perfection.
Kara: I love that so much. That is so fantastic. It makes complete sense.
Is dance, I mean, do you consider it performative and sport either or both?
Michelle: That's a fantastic question. My opinion, I think dancers are the ultimate athlete. You have to be a creative artist as well as extremely athletic and strong and flexible. But it's not just that. You have to bring the artistry. You have to connect with the audience and the judges.
You have to be expressive. You have to tell us why we should watch you. You know, whether you're in a group or in a solo, I need to be connected with you. And it's confidence that helps you push through and connect to that person all the way in the back. If you're performing on stage and the audience is completely silent, there's almost a hush across the audience. As a dancer, you've done your
The goal is you want to really dig in deep and try to figure out sometimes we tell dancers to write your own story So if you're doing a solo or a group dance write your own story about what this is about and that's what you want to tell on stage and try to express and try to get the audience to connect and relate to you with I love that question.
Kara: So that's the performative part, right? But it's also there is an athletic ability.
Michelle: Absolutely.
Kara: So when I think of a dance student, I think they're learning grace and poise and how to hold themselves and the coordination of the whole thing. And then there's the whole competition aspect that you were talking about. So what other kinds of life skills do dancers learn in addition to those sort of like physical?
Michelle: Sure. Dancers learn how to work as a team.
They learn how to support each other. They also learn that it takes more than say one rough draft before you get to that final copy or the final performance. We do something called start stop a lot of times when we're rehearsing. So we'll start rehearsing the dance. And as soon as there's one mistake, we stop, we talk about it and we go back. And the goal is to get 10 seconds passed the last time we stopped so that as we're building up to our performance or our competition, ultimately our goal is to get through it without any mistakes. And we do prizes like wow cards and other things like super exciting things to help the kids stay engaged and connected with that. But I think you learn how to be a leader. You learn how to express your ideas. Sometimes you come into rehearsal.
And maybe the last time you were in class, your teacher taught something and one person remembers it one way and the other person remembers it another way. You can't fight about it, but you do have to talk about how are we supposed to do this? What's the solution? Sometimes the teachers interject and say, okay, it's this. But other times it can be helpful to have the kids process through what should it be? I really think that it's important that kids understand that problems happen in life and they're going to happen to everybody. But learning that if we go through a process, we can find a way to get to a solution. It may not be the solution you want, but it may be the best solution out of the options available to you. And that's okay.
Kara: that is a fantastic life lesson. So tell me what's coming this summer with the studio, are there any opportunities for the public to see your dancers? And then if you can let me know how families can learn more about your dance studio.
Michelle: So this summer we have a large variety of summer camps and every Friday we have a showcase where the dancers show everything that they learned all week long. They create their own costumes, they make their own art projects, they design the set.
And sometimes they have a part in creating their dances as well. And they present that on Fridays, generally around 1230 to their family and friends. But certainly pop in and take a look. That'll be great. Our next public performance is going to be Elf on a Maryland Shelf. It's going to be in December. And we're hoping to host it at AACC, just up the road on College Parkway.
That's been our holiday show location for many years. So we're hoping that we'll be there again as well. And if you're looking for a dance class for your young child or yourself, certainly stop by and see us in the shopping center or you can pop by our website.
For more information about Michelle and the Davy Dance Academy, check us out at capestclairepodcast.com
The Cape St. Claire podcast is produced by me, Kara McGuirk- Allison. Theme song by me, Mike Lyxx and William Allison. Please like and share this episode with your friends because we all love living in Cape St. Claire!