ABOUT Renee Meyer
- President and Artistic Director, Ballet Mobile, Inc.
Ballet Mobile is all about healing. Since I was 15 years old and Sister Louise gave me a summer job to teach ballet to summer camp children with special needs, I have tried to share the healing powers I feel from ballet and the glorious music that makes ballet meaningful. Ballet Mobile lets me combine the movement, the music, and the mental imagery to reach and connect with others' spirits. My only goal is to leave people feeling better than when I first met them. I am so fortunate to have a small group of volunteers who feel the same way - and who are wonderful dancers!
Ballet restores my spirit. It offers me a safe and profound place inside my head and heart. It is always there. One port de bras can energize me for hours, and my ballet place sustains me during the most difficult of times. Ballet is so much more than the magnificence of a perfect stage performance and infinitely more than the correct prosecution of a particular step or dance. Ballet is the elevation and expansion of the soul. Ballet is the music of my life.
I put on my first pair of pink tights when I was three, and I took them off with great sadness at 18 when I was diagnosed with chondromalacia of the knee. By that time I had discovered the wonders of teaching and choreography, and I knew even through my grief that my ballet path could still be a fulfilling one. I never dreamed it would be as joyous and ever-liberating as it has proved to be.
Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I lived to dance. My ballet teachers were Roman Jasinski and Moscelyne Larkin of the Ballet Russe. They founded what is now Tulsa Ballet Theatre. The studio was like my home, and I loved being there. Some of my happiest times were assisting Mr. Jasinski when he taught the boys' class every week and having Mr. Jasinski try some choreography on me before a company rehearsal. The Benedictine sisters at Monte Cassino High School were wonderful to me. They let me wear slippers when my feet were a mess, allowed me to miss every Friday when we toured, and understood my passion - while gently ensuring that my soul and my intellect kept pace with my artistic development. My parents, sister, and grandparents were extraordinary people, and my friends loved and accepted me for who I was. I knew how lucky I was, and I learned early to savor and love my life.
Summers were spent at Jacob's Pillow and then New York City. At the Pillow, it was always so cold in the mornings, and we would shiver in Margaret Craske's ballet classes. Luckily she did not send me to practice on the lawn too often! What a wonderful memory I have of Papa Ted Shawn taking my hand and pulling me into a huge bear hug after a particularly inspiring mime class on the porch. And to this day I remember I am Climbing Jacob's Ladder as taught to us by Papa and Barton Mumaw. Norman Walker introduced me to the beauty and glory of modern dance, and I always loved practicing his lifts on the lawn in the afternoon when it was warmer! At the Joffrey School in New York City, it was so exciting when Mr. Joffrey would poke his head into pas de deux class or stand in the doorway and watch a technique class. He seemed to be everywhere all the time -so full of life and energy and with an encouraging smile for all of us.
Through college at Williams and graduate school at the George Washington University in D.C., I taught all kinds of formal and informal ballet programs at all sorts of places - from gymnasiums at residential schools for children with special needs to gorgeous studios in the city. No matter what the situation was, it always seemed possible to connect with the children and adult participants through the movement and the music. When I began my day job life - first as a teacher in Washington, D.C. and then for the Department of Defense as a language teacher, I always knew that I needed my ballet life to sustain me. And sustain me it has. In Monterey, California on frequent business trips, I came to know and love Kira Ivanovsky and her beautiful daughter, Milou, at their studio in Pacific Grove and through their Ballet Fantasque Company. Imagine the wonder of discovering that Kira had danced with my teacher, Roman Jasinski, in the Ballet Russe. The circles that are our lives grow ever closer.
Ballet is home. Ballet is strong. Ballet is forever. My ballet place always brings me serenity. The music I hear in my head and the movements I feel in my heart bring me great joy. It is that joy and that serenity that Ballet Mobile takes on the road. How proud I am to be making house calls, not curtain calls.
Renee Meyer
