Cultural Council Agenda and Packet 2016 03 17

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...77 17lllihPIIII111lii !I, tpli:1lllnl i a�'ii�li� , nr�illlllpp1liD1 !I!ipP1117,i,lltlir� ' +I N y+" 1441.004° As tapper and teacher, Gene GeBauer makes his mark By Misty Lown As a young boy growing up in Salem, Oregon, Gene GeBauer was painfully shy. Describing himself as "neurotic and scared of other people;' he says his fear would leave him in pain. "When I had to talk to people, my body would contract and become stiff. It was awful —and it happened quite frequently," he recalls. But dance changed all that. This fearful boy became a dancer on Broadway, a school owner, and a university faculty member. The dance difference GeBauer discovered dance as a young teen when his doc- tor suggested it as a way to help him recover from rheumat- ic fever. GeBauer, however, saw it as a path to confidence. A lack of self - worth, combined with a deep desperation to be someone, left him craving attention. It was being in such a deep hole that motivated me. My motivation was desperation," he says. "Both my paternal grandfather and my father committed suicide. I didn't want to end up like that. They were simple, some- what rough men, with little education. I thought educating myself, becoming something, and being around different people would make me different (from theml." And dance did make him different. He was the only member of the basketball team whose practices conflicted with dance lessons. Finally he told his coach about his di- lemma. "Mr. Dimmit was a kind man," says GeBauer. "He said, 'If dance is what you want to do, then that is what you need to do.' " Soon GeBauer was spending every weeknight at Paul Armstrong's school. Saturdays found him at the movies watching Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, fueling his desire to improve. "I took every class I could and assisted in the back of the 3- year -old classes because I didn't have any skill yet," he says. "But before long I began to rapidly At age 77, Gene GeBauer still teaches and taps about 18 hours a week. Sixteen- year -old GcBauer and his first dance partner. Carol (Long) France. were billed as "The Sweethearts of Dance." improve and was moved to the intermediate room. Tap was the one thing I wanted to do." Then a single conversation changed his mind. A visiting teacher told GeBauer that tap was passe. "She told me that nobody tap danced anymore and that if I wanted to dance would have to have ballet," he says. He became fixated on ballet, eventually auditioning for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo when it came through Portland. Although not offered a position, he recalls the man in charge telling him to "look them up" if he ever came to New York. "I don't know if I was awful or not, but I took it as encouragement," he says. "I thought I might actually get into the Ballet Russe." Taking chances At age 24 GeBauer moved to New York with the goal of becoming a ballet dancer. The Ballet Russe was not in season when he arrived, however, and his money ran out March /April 2UI'r - :: ' .dancestudiulile.cum • DANCE `'1'r 'UFE .�