Annie Rosenthal Parr

Katie Kruger (Alameda, CA)

Lifelong learning and commitment to class:

I find technique classes to be endlessly stimulating.  The nuances of both ballet and modern dance are a constant life lesson in honesty and detail.   I am fortunate to be in a position with my current job where I can take up to four classes a week. This has been a blessing as I age.  Dance class has been a necessary support physically, mentally, and socially for me as a person.  I know that we are a fortunate group of people to be able to dedicate our time to our art, so I don't want to take class half heartedly.  Lately I have been mentally preparing by dedicating a class to someone who is less fortunate.  I recognize that the next hour and half is a gift. 

Annie Rosenthal Parr (Mill Valley, CA)

Talk about your life as a performer and choreographer over the years.          

When I was younger, being a performer was the only thing that interested me as a profession. I never dreamed nor wanted to have my own company or dance studio. When I decided to have a baby, I was faced with the reality of being financially depended upon and I had to reconsider my career as a performer. The opportunity arose to take over a bankrupt fitness studio where I founded RoCo Dance. Being a business owner and teacher was not satisfying my identity as a performer and I had no time to dance for anyone else. I had to start choreographing my own work in order to continue performing. I found that by inventing my own material, I was able to authenticate my style and develop my own technique and approach to movement. Choreographing has developed the stylist in me, making me a more mature dancer and performer.

Sarah Crowell (Oakland, CA)

Finances and financial stability. Advice to young dancers –

Start saving retirement money early!  I regret that I didn’t put away even $25 a month when I was younger, because now I am scrambling to save as much as I can in a short amount of time so I can actually retire one day.

Future career goals:

I want to grow old at Destiny Arts Center and watch the children and grandchildren of my students experience the same ecstatic community building, empowerment through the arts as their parents and grandparents did.  I want to teach other teachers what I know about working with youth in after school performing arts/violence prevention settings so that the gem of the work gets passed on.

Jeanine Durning (New York, NY)

I think the biggest thing I’ve learned and am continuing to learn in my 40s is that the messiness that I refer to is not something that needs to be formalized or contained. Dance for me has become a much more global and holistic practice that doesn’t always find its container in the body moving according to learned behaviors or historicized forms. It’s a philosophy, it’s a spiritual act, it’s perceptual gymnastics, it’s time traveling, it’s  psycho-emotional excavation, it’s social communion. The other thing that I’ve realized and something that is not necessarily a comfort is that once you reach a certain stage, not determined by age always, meaning the more the world opens up to you through this elusive practice called dance, there is no turning back. 

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