Today being Thanksgiving, and after thinking about how I really appreciated hearing other people’s memories of my mom after she had passed, I decided to write a little about my relationship with Nancy.
I came to Marguerite Duncan Studio of Dance Arts as teenage dance student with 6 years of bad ballet training. After taking an advanced class that made me completely aware of my shortcomings, I started taking Miss Nancy’s Saturday classes. Each Saturday during three classes in a row she helped me unlearn bad habbits.
As frustrated as I was, I could see Nancy’s classes were a place where you worked at the art of ballet in a very business-like way. No one was talked down to. You were expected to learn and be respectful. You received corrections and encouragement as you improved.
It was actually a wonderful lesson in combining your passion with hard work. I’ve told Nancy it was the example I’ve followed in my own approach to teaching ballet.
A few years later Nancy drew me into one of her other passions: The Holocaust. I’d learned about The Holocaust in high school, but Nancy had lived through World War II, and, for some reason, The Holocaust resonated deeply with her. Much more so than other adults of the same age I spoke with. She would speak of being obsessed with the subject.
I read Holcaust-oriented books Nancy suggested, and, over the years I bought her new ones on the subject. One time, probably in the mid-80s we even went together to hear Holocaust survivor, Nobel Prize winner, and writer Elie Wiesel speak at Beth Am Temple in Cleveland Hts.
I have lots of good memories of being with Nancy at the Marguerite Duncan Studio of Dance Arts. Of having her as a teacher, role model, and friend on into adulthood. Like my mom, Nancy was part of The Greatest Generation, to learn from and remember with love and gratitude.
Elaine Dowling
