ENTERTAINMENT
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They may be small, but they can out tango,
waltz and cha cha some of Broadway's best.
STEVE HARTZ
Staff Writer
Marci Lynn as a tapping 10 year
old.
68
FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1990
w hen she was 2,
Stefani Bindes was
,
fitted with her first
pair of dance shoes.
Since then, she has worn
out more than nine pairs of
ballet shoes, 12 pairs of tap
shoes and a score of jazz
shoes.
4 Now 13, Bindes lugs eight
sets of dance shoes with her
as she commutes from her
Livonia home to Annette
and Co. in Farmington Hills
where she studies tap, ballet
and jazz.
Bindes is one of several
local Jewish children ad-
dicted to dancing. They in-
clude everyone from 3-year-
olds wearing tutus to
youngsters wearing the gold
medals they've won at na-
tional dance competitions.
Bindes has donned more
than 40 dance recital
costumes over the years and
will sport seven more next
month as Annette and Co.
presents its recital, "Les
Follies Fantastique," at
Birmingham Seaholm High
School.
For the past year, Bindes,
one of Detroit's junior Gin-
ger Rogers, has been per-
forming with one of its ju-
nior Fred Astaires — 12-
year-old Marc Bleyer of
Bloomfield Township.
Bindes and Bleyer have
danced together in local pro-
ductions of West Side Story,
playing Anybodys and Baby
John, and Once Upon a Mat-
tress, appearing as a ballet-
dancing prince and princess.
Bleyer moved from
Marc Bleyer is reaching new heights as a dancer.
Chicago six years ago, where
he studied tap and ballet in
an all boys' class. Since corn-
ing to Detroit and joining
Annette and Co., he's added
jazz to his dancing resume.
After watching his older
sister, Jennifer, and younger
sister, Stephanie, progress
as dancers, Bleyer desired to
tap his way to the stars —
but he wasn't interested in
tap. He wanted to learn
break-dancing.
"I made a deal with my
mom that if I took ballet and
tap for a year then she'd let
me learn break-dancing," he
said. He enjoyed his dance
classes so much that he soon
forgot about the deal and
didn't collect on the bargain.
"I think more boys should
take dance," said Bleyer, a
7th grade student at Hillel
Day School. "Some of my
classmates now think that
it's really cool that I take
dance and even ask me to
teach them 'The Roger
Rabbit' and 'The Running
Man,' two new dance steps."
Both Bleyer and Bindes
were dancing successes at
the Dupree Dance Competi-
tion last March in Plymouth,
where more than 500
youngsters showed their
best dance moves.
Bleyer won a gold medal as
he and partner Mark
Bergasse, 12, performed a
jazzy routine, dancing to the
South Pacific song, "There's
Nothing Like a Dame."
Bleyer and the junior chorus
from Annette and Co., com-
prised of 16 8-12 year-old
students, then took a silver
medal for their jazz routine.
To top off the competition,
Bleyer received the Dupree
Dance Academy Scholarship
and will attend the academy
in Hollywood, Calif., this
summer.
One award Bindes receiv-
ed at this year's Dupree