•

Two Time Tony Award ® Winner & Golden Globe Award Winner

Brian Dennehy

HONORING ANNETTE from page 49

displaced persons).
"When I flew into Hamburg, I had
mixed feelings — I sort of expected to
see Nazi storm troopers in the airport,"
she said. "Instead, it was gorgeous; the
people were friendly and the streets
were lined with flowers. To see both my
sons on the stage in West Side Story— it
was incredible."
As artistic director of the Farmington
Hills dance school, Annette Bergasse
still teaches full time. She has no plans
to retire. "What would I do?" she says.
"Mom has incredible energy," adds
her son Mark. "My jaw drops when I
see her actually dancing full out with
these kids."

dios.
Not everyone who walks through her
doors becomes a professional dancer.
"When you have students who do not
necessarily have the most talent, who
might be having some difficulty in class,
the great thing is when, suddenly, one
step is better," she says. "The light in
their eyes when they see that you recog-
nize what they've accomplished is
incredible."
"You can't do this job unless you love
kids," she adds.
Bergasse and her staff pride them-
selves on the comprehensive curricu-
lum, or syllabus, they've developed for
each dance style and level.
"Because of the syllabus, when
you're teaching a class, you can
be sure if someone else is teach-
ing the same class, the students
are learning the same thing," says
teacher Tony Lord, who recently
returned home to Annette and
Company after 12 years in New
York.
Susie Kellerman, who teaches
at New York's Broadway Dance
Center, uses the jazz and tap syl-
labus from Annette and
Company in her own classes.

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Tony Lorch who recently returned home to
Annette and Company after r2 years in
New York, works with the junior tap line.

Busy on Broadway, Josh
Bergasse returns several
times a year to Annette
and Company to work
with students and help
develop special projects,
such as the 25th
anniversary gala.

Building A School

At first, Bergasse began teaching in her
Oak Park home to support the family.
But the little basement business grew
bigger and bigger as she developed her
teaching methods and started gaining a
reputation.
Annette and Company began at 10
Mile Road and Coolidge in Oak Park.
The school has been at two other sites,
each larger than the last, before settling
at its present home on Orchard Lake
Road, south of 13 Mile Road, in
Farmington Hills.
About 1,200 dancers, ages 4 and up,
will take classes at Annette and
Company this season alone. Along with
Bergasse herself, seven full-time and one
part-time instructor teach in five stu-

Susie Kellerman, left, with her mentor
Annette Bergasse: Annette and
Company "completely shaped my life,"
says Kellerman.

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"Beginner to advanced, no matter what,
my classes are created from what she
gave me."
It may seem like cheating to use
someone else's method, Kellerman says.
However, "Annette's way is genius. She
is a genius. So I would be a fool to not
embrace it."
Along with teaching the art and disci-
pline of dance, Annette nurtures the

HONORING ANNETTE on page 54

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