Today I’d like to introduce our newest contributor–Risa Gary Kaplowitz. She’ll be doing a monthly column for 4dancers, and today we begin with a bit of her “back story” so you can get to know her a bit…
by Risa Gary Kaplowitz
It’s a wonderful thing to realize how lucky you are. I don’t mean the gratuitous “grateful” we all read on Facebook posts when a “friend” gloats about one thing or another and then says, “So blessed!” Nope. I mean how great it feels to acknowledge the really big decision or moment of good fortune without which your life would be completely different.
I had such a realization a few months ago when I attended the 90th birthday celebration for Tensia Fonseca, Artistic Director of Maryland Youth Ballet. It was she who started the now nationally recognized school and youth company almost 50 years ago in the barre-lined basement of her cozy suburban home.
I came to what at that time was called, Maryland School of the Ballet when I was three years old. My mom had taken me to my first ballet class at the local recreation center where Mrs. Fonseca’s business partner at the time, Roy Gean, was teaching pre-ballet. After class, he told my mom that I showed promise and asked if she would bring me to their newly built one room studio on St. Elmo Ave. in Bethesda.
The rest of my life can be traced back to the moment my mom said, “Yes.” [Read more…]