mrrr, r1r1.
Family Focus
ON THE COVER
Left: Joe Cornell
dances with instructor
Sandy Little Richards
in the mid-1970s.
Right: Steve Jasqur and
Rebecca Schlussel take
a break from teaching
at a Monday night Joe
Cornell dance class at
Congregation B'nai Moshe
in West Bloomfield.
Joe Cornell from page 27
A part of Joe Cornell Entertainment
for a majority of their lives, Steve, 37, and
Rebecca, 35, each began their careers after
participating in pre-teen classes along with
middle school peers. Taking dance classes
near their grandparents' home, Steve said,
"I used to take a shower there and, since
my grandparents didn't have a hair dryer, I
would dry my hair in the oven."
The two began to assistant teach a few
years later in a Joe Cornell class held at
Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. "I got my
first job in 1985 after Joe asked Becca to
come to work," said Steve, president of the
Southfield-based business. "She was only 14
and didn't drive yet, so Joe told her to bring
her older brothers so she'd have a ride."
They each continued on, teaching class-
es and working at parties as both emcees
and DJs.
The pair took over the business as col-
lege students — with Steve, a senior at
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and
Rebecca, a sophomore at Eastern Michigan
University in Ypsilanti — running things
by phone, computer and with weekend
drives home for parties.
"It was a natural thing for us to take over
Joe Cornell," said Rebecca, the business'
vice president. "We were already home on
weekends, working on party service for Joe
and already so involved in the business as
employees. We just continued doing the
same things we were already doing, but on
a permanent basis. And as the industry
grew, we grew along with it."
Not only was it a comfortable continua-
tion of their dance lives, but, Rebecca said,
"Our father worked with his brother, so we
saw this kind of family work connection
growing up. So when Joe brought up the
idea of Steve and I — who were really close
growing up — working together, we knew
it was a fit:"
Steve and Rebecca's aunt, Gayle Docks of
West Bloomfield — a 1970 Joe Cornell
graduate — serves as booking agent,
office manager and class registrar. "And
immediately after we bought the business,
our mother, Harriet, became our accounts
28
January 18 • 2007
payable person',' Steve said. "I think she
took the job partly as an excuse to hang
out with us:' And that's the reason she
stays on, according to Harriet, whose other
son Ron also owns a business in the same
Southfield building that houses Joe Cornell
Entertainment.
"My [late] father, Robert, who owned
Detroit Popcorn Company and was always
very party oriented, used to come by after
our parties when the staff all got together,"
Steve said.
His dad even continued the tradition
during the eight years (1992-2000) Steve
helped run the business from New York
— with regular trips to Detroit for parties
and special class events — while work-
ing there as an actor, holding the lead in
several independent films and working in
more than 30 television and radio com-
mercials.
"We used to go out to dinner on Saturday
nights and then he'd go home, take a nap
and get up to go greet the guys after par-
ties, with pizza or deli and pastries," Harriet
said. "I still bake cookies for them to pass
out to the staff after parties:'
While the Jasgurs may be the longest
standing Joe Cornell family, others, too,
have multi-generational connections.
"I started at Joe Cornell when I was 12
and never left',' said Laurie Nedelman of
Farmington Hills. "I taught. I competed and
used to bring my kids to class when I was
working. I grew up there. And then they
did."
Both Erica, 19, and Alana, 17, went
through the program and now Alana works
there as a (dance assistant during classes.
"Joe Cornell was my very first job at 14,"
Laurie said. "I assisted Joe in his Greenfield
Road studio [in Oak Park]. And I know,
from having gone through that experi-
ence, that when my kid goes to work on a
Saturday night, she's in a great atmosphere
— dancing at somebody's party:'
Alana agrees. "A lot of people dread going
to work, but I really look forward to it. Joe
Cornell is like a big family; we all spend
a lot of time together and even stay after
parties to be together. I remember going to
work with my mom when she taught dance
classes when I was 3. Now I'm so lucky to
have a job dancing:'
tice partner. We are not asking you marry
them — yet."
Esteem And Etiquette
"Joe's dance classes taught us how to lead
and to follow — now it's less about perfect
technique and more about how making
dance a social outlet:' Steve said.
And it's always been about social eti-
quette.
"The kids definitely still learn to dance
he said. "But the simple fact is, we're not
just dance classes. We're about the confi-
dence and self-esteem and socialization
that were always part of Joe's instruction."
Changes through the years continued
when Steve and Rebecca took over.
"Dance classes are referred to as "the
Joe Cornell Experience to reflect the
changes the kids go through during the
course of the classes:' Rebecca said. "We
prepare them for the seventh-grade social
scene but also give them the tools to carry
to adulthood.
"That's the reason for everything we do;
it's the reason the kids are asked to dress up
for class [no jeans; no untucked shirts]. It's
why they learn how to ask for and accept a
dance, right off the bat, as a lesson in social
skills and respect." And, said Steve, "At Joe
Cornell, we never say no.
"We tell the kids, `This is just your prac-
Since Steve and Rebecca took over the busi-
ness, some logistic changes have been made
in the 13-week program to fit the lives of
modern pre-teens. The age of the students
was rolled back from seventh grade to sixth
grade, when the kids' time may be less
filled with extracurricular options and b'nai
mitzvah celebrations and preparation.
Where Joe used to teach ballroom danc-
ing classes, Rebecca said, "Now we teach
the beginning of coming of age' dancing
classes."
And where each boy used to ask each girl
in the class to dance at least once during
the course of a session, now the girls also
each ask all the boys.
And some of the competition was
eliminated. "There used to be a Spring Ball,
where 400 kids wore numbers and danced
for prizes',' Steve said. "Joe used to also take
couples on the road to compete."
As dance styles and party types changed,
Joe Cornell Entertainment expanded and
grew with the times and needs of their
clientele.
Classes that were held in students' homes
in the '50s, eventually moved to a studio
and then to outside venues — like syna-