Dancing with the students; N.Y.U. team one of the ... - Lawrence Lerner

Ch e lsea
Javits Center
will increase
in size, get
a new hotel
by Randi Cecchine
The first signs of the Javits Convention
Center expansion and renovation project
are already visible. On the block bounded
by 39th and 40th Sts. and 11th and 12th
Aves. demolition crews are making way for
a new truck marshaling and loading facility.
Phase I of the massive Javits project is
budgeted at $1.68 billion. Scheduled for
completion in 2010, the Phase I upgrade
aims to make the center more competitive
in the national and regional convention
markets while energizing the local
economy.
According to the Convention Center
Development Corporation General Project
Plan, the Javits Center can no longer compete
with the nation’s largest convention
now
Dogging it, p. 20
Volume 1, Number 9 The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea november 24 - 30, 2006
Burns marks
20 years
at center
of Center
By Paul Schindler
“Doing this work was a tremendous outlet
for my rage and my anger,” Richard Burns
explained about his first decade at the helm
of New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
& Transgender Community Center.
Burns, who became executive director of
the Center on Dec. 1, 1986, when the community
gathering place had been open less
than two years, recalls that his 20-year tenure
there has been neatly divided between
two distinct 10-year periods.
“The job of a queer executive director in
Editorial,
letters
page 16
Chelsea’s
new troupe
page 19
Continued on page 6
Continued on page 9
Chelsea Now photo by Lawrence Lerner
Hillary Hayward-Thomas, of the New York University ballroom dance team, and her partner, Alexander Rechits, hold a dramatic
dip while practicing at Dance Chelsea on Monday.
Dancing with the students;
N.Y.U. team one of the best
By Lawrence Lerner
On most weekday nights, the ballroom
and Latin dance studio known as Dance
Chelsea is a blur of buoyant bodies, as individuals
and couples working on their own
dances glide across the expansive wooden
floor, stepping and swirling in their own
private universe while wondrously keeping
head-on collisions to a minimum.
Monday night was no exception. Private
and group lessons co-mingled happily in
most of the space, while back in the far
corner, Dance Chelsea owner Jennifer
McCalla stood in front of a group of 15
students who eyed her every move as she
talked them through the mechanics of an
upright lunge posture, the details of which
sounded daunting.
“So, as you push your foot back, you
push your body away from the floor, and
push your hip up as you reach your foot
down to create an oppositional stretch,”
she said. “Then you’re going to add to that
the torque as you twist around your spine
with hands on hips and your ribcage going
forward. You have to create opposition to
make this work.”
The students, who adjusted each body
part incrementally and focused intently
to hold the proper pose, are part of New
York University’s ballroom and Latin
dance team, which McCalla, a former
amateur and professional champion, has
been coaching for eight years along with
her husband and dance partner, Stanley
McCalla. The N.Y.U. dancers migrate to
Chelsea two nights a week for lessons with
the McCallas, who are dedicated to developing
collegiate talent in a sport that has
begun to catch on in America.
“This is the first time in the U.S. that
so many young people are involved in
dance,” said Jennifer McCalla as she stood
off to the side of the room, keeping an eye
on her pupils as they practiced their steps
on Monday. “It’s part of the culture in
Europe and in Russia, but in the U.S., it’s
definitely not been cool to ballroom dance
and touch each other.”
Continued on page 14
145 sixth avenue • NYC 10013 • Copyright © 2006 Community Media, LLC

14 November 24 - 30, 2006
Coach Jennifer McCalla leads mirror exercises with N.Y.U. ballroom dance team members at her studio, Chelsea Dance, on Monday.
Chelsea Now photo by Lawrence Lerner
Dancing with the students; N.Y.U. team one of best
Continued from page 1
She and others attribute the growing
popularity of competitive ballroom and
Latin dancing in this country in part to
ABC’s prime-time reality show “Dancing
With the Stars,” which began airing in June
2005. The show pairs celebrities with professional
dancers, pitting couples against
one another in formal competition before a
panel of seasoned judges.
But it is also the result of college teams
like N.Y.U.’s, which predate the show,
according to McCalla.
“When Stanley and I were at the world
championships at age 25, we’d been dancing
for only five years, while our international
competitors had been at it for 15,”
she said. “But junior dancing — 16 and
under — is growing, and the 18-and-over
segment is growing even faster because
of all of the college ballroom teams. Now,
you don’t have to wait until age 23 to get
serious.”
If anyone knows the dance world, it
is McCalla, whose Fred Astaire Dance
Studio was located near N.Y.U.’s main
Washington Square campus before relocating
to 127 W. 25th St. in 2001 and undergoing
a name change more in line with its
new environs.
She and her husband were U.S. Amateur
International-Style champions from 1983
to 1987 and represented the U.S. at four
world dance championships. They turned
pro in 1987 and, two years later, won the
first People’s Choice Award for international
dancing at the Ohio Star Ball, which airs
on PBS and is the largest televised ballroom
dancing championship in North America.
From 1990 to 1997, they toured the
world with the American Theater Ballroom
Company, directed by Pierre Dulaine,
and were also the Fred Astaire National
Professional American-Style Champions in
1996 and 1997, retiring shortly thereafter
to teach privately and work with college
ballroom and Latin dance teams, beginning
with N.Y.U.’s in 1998. (Stanley began
coaching the Columbia University team
five years ago as well.) The couple also
runs three-day workshops for college teams
throughout the country, while judging competitions
twice a month.
“What a reward it is to work with college
students, and my N.Y.U. kids. These
guys aren’t encumbered by life yet. They
have no homes, families or mortgages, so
they can give a lot to the ballroom scene,”
said McCalla. “And dance, like any art
form, needs long-term work. Knowing we
have a long-term foundation with these
kids — we can work with them for four
to six years, which means we can really
develop them as dancers.”
On Sunday, the N.Y.U. team had just
returned from Ohio, where the group competed
against 140 couples in the National
Collegiate Dancesport Championships,
managing to reach the finals and semifinals
of many divisions, which range from beginner
to championship level.
And among schools in the northeast, the
N.Y.U. team remains atop the heap.
“We’re known as, if not the best, then
one of the best in the region,” said Jamie
Schiffer, the N.Y.U. team captain. “People
know us as a force and look up to us. In
fact, a few weeks ago, someone at Cornell
told me that we’re models for them, which
feels really good.”
That is all the more remarkable, given
that team N.Y.U. is 30 members strong,
while many of their competitors have
upwards of 70 people. And many of the
N.Y.U. students enter the team with little
or no experience.
“We work with many levels of kids
and have the privilege of helping them
develop,” said McCalla.
For the most dedicated dancers, the
team can be a significant time commitment.
The McCallas offer two lessons a week
at Dance Chelsea, while the team holds
an additional two-hour weekly practice at
N.Y.U., where experienced team members
mentor newcomers. Then there are the
competitions — four or five per semester
— sometimes requiring car travel to colleges
throughout the Northeast. On top of
all of this, many team members take up the
McCallas up on their offer for unlimited
practice at the studio, and many end up
taking discounted private lessons with their
coaches as well.
But attendance is ultimately optional,
and given the students’ busy academic
schedules, such built-in flexibility is welcomed
by members.
“We’re a really easygoing, stress-free,
relaxed team. We welcome people when
they come, and when they have to leave,
we don’t say a word,” said Schiffer. “That’s
one of the reasons it’s good to be on this
team.”
N.Y.U. graduate student David
Hammon, who has been with the group
for three years, is happy to be a part of this
fast-growing sport.
“At first I thought it would just be a
nice way to meet new people. But after a
while, I really enjoyed it more,” he said
after Monday’s group lesson at Dance
Chelsea. “It’s kind of like learning to play
an instrument. At the beginning, nobody’s
very good, but if you put in some time and
effort, you can learn how to do some things
that really look great, even if you’ve only
been doing it for six months.
“And sometimes, while I’m, say, waiting
for the subway, I find myself taking
small steps and creating patterns on the
platform,” he said. “The neat thing is, no
one knows I’m practicing but me.”