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Tov!
page 45
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Inspirationa
Teacher
Peva Usher's exercise classes have mixed
dance and motivation for decades.
BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News
dancing and teaching legend in the Detroit area has retired
after more than a half century of performing on local stages
and keeping people fit through exercise lessons.
Reva Usher, 84, of Southfield bowed to arthritis and hung up her
dancing shoes after an illustrious career on the dance circuit arlil at
every location in the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit's 75-year history. She was honored at a retirement party May
6 at the JCC Health Club in West Bloomfield.
Usher's departure a few months ago left a void for many local
dance-exercise srudents, who say they will miss her Yiddish inflections
as she gave instructions in the classes, the classical music they heard
and even her constant admonitions to "stand and walk straight."
When people finish exercising, their shoulders usually droop down,
she pointed out. "I always stressed standing straight to exercise, then
to keep standing and walking straight afterward,' she said.
Marni Stone, group fitness program coordinator at the JCC,
praised Usher as "an inspiration to all of us who have an interest in
fitness. Reva is an excellent role model for senior adults who really
want to stay fit."Usher attended Roosevelt Elementary School, Durfee Reva Usher, in the health club of the Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield.
Intermediate and Central High (Class of 1935). She went to Wayne
University for a brief period before getting married. Now divorced, she
has a son, Garry Geer, a photographer in Rochester, N.Y. Usher's father,
Love Of Dance
Charles, founded Usher Oil Co. in Detroit, now operated by her nephew,
But she switched to dancing at age 30, launching a career that would
Michael Usher.
stretch over five decades of dancing and teaching — always modern
Usher recalls being taken by her mother to join the first-ever Jewish
dance and always to women only. She starred in the center's first musical,
Center — a small house on Mulberry Street near downtown Detroit. She
called "Center Capers," and danced at venues around the Detroit area as
started art lessons there at age 8 and still has her first painting. She then
a principal dancer in many performances.
took two streetcars to get to the next Jewish Center building on
"I started teaching exercise at the Woodward and Holbrook center and
Woodward and Holbrook. She followed the center to its later locations
then combined dance routines with exercise, and I kept this up success-
— Dexter and Davison, Meyers and Curtis, Oak Park, and Maple and
fully throughout the rest of my teaching career," said Usher. "Dance rou-
Drake.
tines are more stimulating for the exercise classes and makes things liveli-
Usher took fencing lessons for a while in her 20s and even won gold
er.
and silver medals in the foil event in area competition. An avid fan of
In recent years, there were as many as 50 women in her exercise classes,
Jewish Center activities, she and seven other women were charter mem-
a few of whom had been with her for 40 years. "I would still be teaching
bers of the Daughters and Joy Club, organized at the Woodward and
today if it wasn't for my arthritis problem," she said. ❑
Holbrook location.
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