The untimely and sad passing of beloved dance teacher Anne Petersen has stirred memories of lessons, recitals, costumes, a 30-year anniversary, and performances of “The Nutcracker Ballet.”
Her efforts to share a love of dance have surely resonated with generations in the Morrison, IL, area, prior to Petersen’s visitation and funeral service this week.
A small group of male students might be recalling a unique training experience Petersen offered them 35 years ago. Ten of them gathered in the summer of 1978 to study ballet for ten weeks, at the urging of their Morrison High School basketball coach, Ray Gilbert. Eight would continue with weekly lessons he said. “Most of them felt it helped them in many ways and wanted to continue on a once-a-week basis.”
Those eight were MHS seniors Jeff Cole, Mitch Grau, Kevin McCulloh, Roger Smith, and Randy Stralow; juniors Dave Beto and Jim Ferry; sophomore Mark Gerlach. Shown with Petersen are, left-to-right, Smith, Grau, Stralow, and Gerlach.
During a studio interview with Quad-City Times correspondant Mickey O’Donnell on Saturday, July 1, 1978, Gilbert explained, “We hope this will help their jumpinig ability and coordination. This is a mature bunch of kids. They wouldn’t want to come here and do this if they weren’t. She [Petersen] does a real good job with them.”
O’Donnell wrote that lessons began with stretching exercises on a barre attached to the wall. From there Petersen never slowed the tempo for a solid hour, and each set of leaps left the athletes gasping for breath. They finished up with a jazz dance routine, that was more for fun than conditioning.
Petersen stated, “Not everybody can do it. We do a lot of exercises for people to hold their balance and a lot of leaps. Ballet is a sport. Thay have sore legs and sore toes.”
McCulloh stretches at the barre.
Teaching ballet to basketball players “was fun,” she said. “I love it! I think they have one thing in mind–that it’s going to help them with elevation, flexibility, and footwork. It’s too early to tell if they have much talent. Some of them catch on very fast, but that doesn’t prove anything. I haven’t pushed things like pointing the toes or the turn-out of the legs. They’re too old to get the turn-out right. They want to continue, because it helps them, but they all say they don’t want to be in a recital.”
Grau, front of the line, was a two-year basketball letterman in 1978. He leads Cole and Stralow in jumping and flexibility exercises.
