Sept 2012 Article - Miller Marley School of Dance and Voice

AROUND TOWN
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS AT MILLER-MARLEY SCHOOL OF DANCE AND VOICE
BY LAURA MACK
Photo / Laura Mack
When you think of Kansas City “Institutions”, you might think of the Chiefs or Arthur Bryant’s
Barbecue, but when you think of dance - another Kansas City institution comes to mind:
the Miller Marley School of Dance and Voice. This year, the school celebrates 50 years, a
monumental milestone that is practically unheard of today. Its legendary leader and tap
queen, Shirley Marley, (seventy-six years young) can still be found in Studio 4 teaching
fourth graders though high school students some of the most complicated tap steps you’ll
ever see. “I’ve loved it, I’ve always loved it,” Marley shares of her deep affection for learning
and teaching dance.
Marley, originally from Corydon, Iowa, was first introduced
to dance by her mother at the age of six. It was love at first
dance! Over her lifetime, she has taken ballet, tap, jazz and
acrobatics at numerous schools and studied tap in particular,
quite extensively through the years with greats such as
Ron Lewis and Jimmie DeFore. Upon moving to Kansas City,
Shirley continued taking dance and began teaching classes
and giving private lessons for her studio’s owner while still in
high school. Eventually, the studio was passed on to Shirley
and in 1963; she met Johnny Miller and formed the studio
that we know today. Miller Marley, originally located in the
basement of the Ward Parkway Shopping Center, took in 250-
300 students in its first year and grew to over 1300 students.
Due to its stellar reputation, people drove great distances just to
come to dance at Miller Marley and the trend continues today.
With that stellar reputation comes some of the major accomplishments
of Marley’s career, including many contributions
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to the city, such as founding and directing the Chiefettes (the
NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs Dancers) for twenty years as well as
serving as the Children’s Choreographer at Starlight Theatre
for nine years. Mostly recently, Marley has filmed two segments
for Billie Mahoney’s” Dance On” which will be added as
a part of the Library of Film and Video in the New York City
Archive for the history of dance. However, Marley says that
some of the biggest thrills of her career are seeing the “light
bulb moments” when it “just clicks” for a student and having
the opportunity to teach third generation students. Notably,
one of Shirley’s crowning achievements is producing 10+
students that have opened their own studios. Miller Marley
has also produced over 50 Broadway and theatre stars including
five that are currently on Broadway as well as numerous
dancers in Los Angeles, Off-Broadway productions and national
tours. As of late, Miller Marley has just produced its first Rockette
and Noelle Bradley of Olathe, age 17, plans on being the
second after training with the Rockettes in NYC this summer.
Brian McGinness, the studio director, also shares that Miller
Marley is best at “instilling the passion for this art form”…and
“those students that do pursue this as a career, get the feeling
that they can do it,…because they’ve seen others before them do
it. It gives them the strength, the connections…”
Now located at 103rd Street and Mastin in Overland Park, KS,
the studio has had more than 30,000 students dance through
their doors. With an average of 600+ students a year and still
growing, the offerings have grown as well. McGinness along
with eighteen master instructors and valuable office staff
make it all happen. Miller Marley offers a staggering 124 classes
a week including tap, jazz, ballet, hip hop, lyrical, leaps and
turns, partnering, tumbling, and musical theatre. The studio
boasts more levels of dance than any other studio in the city,
up to 14 just in tap. “We are the school that does it all…we
have so much diversity in what we offer: a serious professional
track in ballet, jazz and tap”, states McGinness. “Each student
receives a personalized schedule of recommended classes specifically
for them at their own appropriate level at the beginning
of each year”…“No one gets lost here.” While proud and
thankful of the school’s success, he relays the school’s unending
quest to always make it better. Marley and her instructors
are always striving to learn more, attending numerous dance
conventions to keep up their training. What sets this studio
apart is that “We are all intellectuals in our fields.” states
Marley.
The school now hosts six studios, including the new studio 6,
dubbed the “university studio” which opened in the last year
at an impressive 3,150 sq. feet. In addition to classes, the studio
offers students the opportunity to perform with bi-annual
recitals at the Music Hall, and their recital for “Little Stars”
on alternating years. Miller Marley also invites students to
perform through numerous competition teams, youth ballet
company, and performing troops. Groups from Miller Marley
have studied and or performed locally and in London, New
York, LA, Disney World in Orlando, and Seville, Spain at the
World’s Fair.
The expertise, personalization and sense of family are truly
the secrets to their success. Instructor Jill Hochman says
“Many of the teachers on the staff have a long history with
Shirley and are her former students...Our familiarity with
her philosophy, values and teaching style is a big factor in the
longevity of the school”, a sentiment Ann McCroskey shares
- another instructor who has been dancing there since age 5.
She says Miller Marley is “home.”
And home, in Studio 4 is where Shirley Marley is. When asked
if there are ever plans to put her tap shoes away, Marley says
with a twinkling smile, “I don’t plan on retiring. When I stop
learning, that’s when I’ll stop, and I’m still learning.”
Copyright 2012, Mach Publications, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction
prohibited without the express written permission of Mach Publications, LLC.
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