Robert C. Levine, M.D.

■

"I was hysterical at first," she says. "I
wanted to keep it a secret. I mean a
dance teacher who couldn't dance!
Who'd want to take lessons from her?
"But one of the moms of a kid in my
class was a nurse, and she saw me when
I came in for treatment. So I told
myself why should it make a difference?
I still have my arms, my body, my
mouth. I still get around on my own.
"I told myself that I can still be a
strong teacher; only my assistants will
have to be my legs."
In the years since then, she has not
only come to terms with MS, she has
become an advocate for those who have
it.
"I never use the word handicap. I
want to talk to people after they are
first diagnosed. I want to show them
that the party isn't over for them. It
isn't the end of their life. If they want
to think of me as an inspiration, I'm
fine with that. I just want them to
know that if I can do it, they can still
go on and do something, too. It just
may take a little more time."
She's cut back a little. A few years
ago, there were 1,200 students
enrolled in her classes at two Miss
Barbara's Centres. Now only the
Birmingham studio is open.
But, over the years, she has taught
more than dance to the children of
this community. She taught them the
steps of life.
"The very best is when my kids
come back to me in later years and tell
me that I taught them discipline,
focus, confidence," she says. "When
they tell me, 'Because of you, I can get
up and talk in front of a group, and
I'm not afraid.'"

moved back to this area from Atlanta.
"I still remember the routine she
taught us when I was 3 years old. The
song was 'No Can Do.' Then, 20 years
later at one of my pre-wedding events,
she taught my bridesmaids the same
routine. I was so fortunate to have
been her student."
"What Shayna didn't tell you," says
Barbara, "is that in that first recital, the
girls were shaking their maracas, and the
ball shook loose from one of them and
started rolling across the stage.
Everybody just stopped, forgot the
routine and watched
the ball. But things
happen, and the
show goes on."
Rabbi Jennifer
Tisdale of Temple
Israel in West
Bloomfield took les-
sons from Miss
Barbara for 12 years.
She got the chance
Rabbi Tisdale
to display her skills
at a recent concert of Broadway hits,
doing a show-stopping tap dance rou-
tine with another member of the Temple
Israel clergy, Cantor Michael Smolash.
"I guess the lessons took because I had
to be sharp to keep up with Michael,"
she says. "He's danced professionally
onstage. But, after all these years, I can
still remember what she taught me."

•

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Dexter Days

Miss Barbara remembers dancing at
the old Dexter Theatre in talent
shows; with a USO troupe that enter-
tained wounded soldiers in Michigan
hospitals; on the Auntie Dee and
Poopdeck Paul television shows.
"My mom was the one who pushed
me, made me keep practicing," she
Everyone's A Star
says. "But it wasn't a stage mom kind
"The great thing about Barbara is that
of thing. She could see where my pas-
she makes every kid who dances with
sion was, and she wanted to make sure
her think they are a star," says Dr.
it was fulfilled. I'm sure she lived vic-
Larry Miller.
ariously through my dancing. Even
Three generations of his family have
when she was 85 and had Alzheimer's,
taken dance with her and, says the
West Bloomfield dentist, as soon as his she would come to the studio- to
watch, and she knew every step.
grandchildren can toddle, they will be
"The years I studied with Julie Adler
the fourth.
were
great training. Tap and jazz, she
"I still remember the first number I
was
a
wonderful teacher. I'd take the
learned with her — 'The Peppermint
bus
over
to her studio, run across the
Twist,"' he says. "It was a trio with my
street for a sandwich from Avalon
twin sisters. And what I'll never forget
Sam's for dinner. I studied ballet in
is -what it felt like to be up there on
New York for a while. And when Julie
that stage the first time. It makes no
difference to her if she has a kid with a moved to California, I thought it was
the right time to go out on my own."
lot of talent or one with very little. To
Her best-known student is probably
her, they're all the same, and she wants
Elizabeth Berkley, who starred in the
to make them feel like a star."
movie Show Girl. The film was rather
"She has an amazing ability to com-
municate her love of dance," says
DEDICATED TO DANCE on page 38
Shayna Levine, 27, who recently

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