MAPLEWOOD, NJ — To many, dancing is as essential as breathing. This is certainly true for Karen Eriksson-Lee, the Columbia High School graduate who recently opened a dance school in New York City, just a PATH ride away.
Eriksson-Lee and friend Leslie Seeger recently opened NYC Classical Training in the West Village. Prior to this, Eriksson-Lee founded and ran the Northern VA Academy of Ballet in Front Royal, Va., from 1987 to 2009. Then, she moved to Carlisle, Pa., where she had been a faculty member at internationally recognized Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet since 2006. Eriksson-Lee had studied there in her earlier years and her children later danced there.
Though she can be classified as a model, a teacher, a student and an artist, all of these come from her principal classification: dancer. Dance has been center stage in Eriksson-Lee’s life since a young age.
“At age 5, my mother put me in classes with a Russian ballerina who owned a school in our little town of Danville, Ill., at the time,” Eriksson-Lee told the News-Record earlier this week. “After moving to Maplewood in fourth grade, my mother would take me to see New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center and local shows to inspire me through to high school. My love of dance just grew from there.”
While her love of dance began in Illinois, it was nurtured in Maplewood.
“Growing up in Maplewood, where there was such a love and respect for the arts, afforded me many opportunities to discover my love of dance,” she said. “Jefferson Elementary School offered ballet classes after school with Anne Krohley, who has been a staple in Maplewood for decades, and my mother enrolled me in those classes.
“In junior high school we had a full-time dance teacher, Ms. Hicks, who saw something in me and would drive me into the city to take classes with her two days a week,” Eriksson-Lee continued. “She took me to a little school called Jo-Jo’s Dance Center, which later became the Broadway Dance Center.”
But the Maplewood-South Orange community did more for Eriksson-Lee than just foster her love of dance. It provided her with strong emotional ties to New Jersey and with memories that have helped make her a well-rounded and successful adult.
“Growing up in Maplewood was like growing up in a Normal Rockwell painting — I always tell people that I lived a charmed life growing up here. And it’s true!” Eriksson-Lee said. “My first trip back to Maplewood in many years was just a few short weeks ago; I got choked up as I walked through the village; shopped in King’s Market; noticed how so much had changed in terms of stores, but so much was still the same, and how my old home on Ridgewood Terrace was now a different color, but still as I remembered.
“My favorite memories of Maplewood had everything to do with being a kid and feeling the magic of childhood right here,” she continued. “In 1976 we had the 200th anniversary celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in the park, and it was a celebration that is forever seared in my mind. As a child, it was such an exciting time, and the town was alive with energy — and, most of all, fun! The other memories forever seared in my mind from childhood are all the summer nights spent watching ‘Movies in the Park,’ and all the winter snow days sledding at Underhill Field in South Orange. Could a kid ask for anything more?”
But, while SOMA children take advantage of the memory-making opportunities around them in the two towns, Eriksson-Lee hopes they will also consider incorporating dance into their lives.
“Dance is vital for all children to experience,” she said. “It gives them a sense of freedom, and at the same time teaches self-control, develops a strong self-esteem as a child masters their muscles, and attempts and then masters difficult movements. It fosters the spirit of cooperation and compassion, and allows a form of expression that would otherwise be lost.”
And Eriksson-Lee reminds that dance is not just for children, as it provides substantial benefits to adults as well.
“As adults it allows us to stay active in both mind and body, helps us unwind and relax, and gives us a community in which to let go and embrace each stage of our lives,” she said.
Because of all this, Eriksson-Lee felt a strong urge to found another dance school, just a train ride from her beloved Maplewood. Returning to the area after 30 years to set up shop so close to home has been a good thing, Eriksson Lee said. “We feel blessed to have found this space, and to have it in such a convenient location for all of our N.J. students.”
According to Eriksson-Lee, the school offers much more than classical ballet training.
“Our focus is to have a solid training program for our youngest dancers up to the pre-professional levels,” Eriksson-Lee said. “Along with dance, we know how important a solid education in music is. Because we have a passion for music as dancers, we offer a beautiful early childhood music program that I am licensed in, called ‘Musikgarten.’”
Musikgarten promotes musical awareness, respect for your peers and the world around you, trains the ear, and prepares younger children for future ballet or music lessons, she said.
“Some of my fondest memories with my three beautiful children — now 22, 20 and 18 — are in Musikgarten classes, which I started when my oldest, Nastassia, was 18 months old,” Eriksson-Lee said. “It was another way for me to love my children, as I rocked with them, waltzed with them in my arms, and fostered a lifelong love of dance and music in each of them.”
And Musikgarten worked, according to Eriksson-Lee, as years later her children were often singled out in dance classes for demonstrations because teachers said “they were the only ones who were hearing the music.”
Developing a strong foundation is what drew Eriksson-Lee back home to the Tri-State Area, reminding her of the foundation she received as a student at Jefferson, Maplewood Junior High and CHS, and as a result of her weekly trips into the city.
“Opening this school brings me full circle and back to where it all began for me with trips into the city to dance so many years ago,” Eriksson-Lee said.
It was a no-brainer for Eriksson-Lee to open her new dance school in New York City, in an echo of her childhood.
“Ballet is my first love and the foundation for all other forms of dance,” Eriksson-Lee said. “It teaches students an awareness of their muscles they would not have otherwise. I can always tell which dancers have been trained in ballet when I watch other forms of dance, attend performances or watch ice skating. Those dancers have a grace about them and a control over their bodies that other dancers do not.”
But Eriksson-Lee is quick to point out that, while ballet is her passion and the school’s focus, it does assign value to other forms of dance and offers classes in hip-hop, musical theater, flamenco and more.
“To develop strong and versatile dancers, we require our dancers to take a variety of dance styles,” Eriksson-Lee said. “The focus in our school is to offer a graded curriculum in all of our dance forms. We want the dance education that students receive here to be a meaningful and rich experience. We recognize that not all students will go on to become dancers, but we want to offer a professional and graded curriculum so those students who wish to pursue a career in the world of ballet or modern, flamenco, jazz, musical theater or hip-hop will be well-prepared to move on.”
Photos Courtesy of Karen Eriksson-Lee
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