The King Centre Performing Arts for the 35 Anniversary Celebration
Wanaque, NJ - The population of this town in northern New Jersey measures just a little over 10 thousand. According to the latest census, New Jersey's total population is approximately eight million people living in 800 or so cities and towns which makes the state the most densely populated in the USA.
This is not a civics lesson. It is an attempt to determine the number of dance studios in New Jersey. It's just a guess but there must be a thousand or two. You can't find everything on the Internet. However, what I did discover is that among the states, New Jersey has the highest participation rate in the arts and culture.
Not surprising then, that in wee Wanaque, you can find an entertainment organization like the non-profit New Jersey Foundation for Dance and Theatre Arts headed by Nancy C. King. Under its banner is The King Centre for the Performing Arts. Its info materials list accolades like "The finest education in the arts" and "Our students are our best credentials" and "The ultimate performing arts centre." Could be. Dancer Magazine chose the King Centre "....one of the top studios in the United States."
It is housed in a beautiful, old, Tudor-style mansion with myriad rooms. The entry hall, or foyer, is large enough to accommodate any number of students waiting for classes. Others accompany them: Parents, companions, siblings, even newborns.
Greeting me with a smile and inviting me into one of her offices is Executive Artistic Director Nancy King - petite, blonde and vivacious in a fire-engine-red dress. Since she and her husband, Brendan, began launching studios 35 years ago, King has worn many hats and has accrued a plethora of impressive titles which are listed at the end of this account of my visit to the King Center for the Performing Arts.
"I was five years old when I started dancing," she recalls. "My mother, Mary Evans, loved the ballet. She wanted us all to dance....my older sister, Marilyn - who did dance - and my two brothers who were more into sports like my husband." King agrees that dance and sports are very closely related.
My first lessons were just ballet in Scranton, Pennsylvania. My wonderful teacher, Constance Reynolds, had been with the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet [also known as the Birmingham Royal Ballet]. The first year I went for a class, I wouldn't go in. I just wouldn't leave my mother. I'm the baby in the family." King explains that when this happens with children in her own schools, she assures them that "....I was one of those people, too."
As a child, her first show was "Cinderella." Vividly, she recalls, "I was 'The Clock.' I was five! I had a little step stool that I had to stand on and hold that position for a long time. I also had a solo." Mirthfully, she titters, "I still have that costume!"
Does Nancy King consider herself a triple threater? "Yes," she proclaims unabashedly. "I started taking jazz when I was nine or ten. Then introduced to tap at thirteen. I also played the violin. The first real show I did was 'Carousel.' I was Louise, the teen-aged daughter of The Barker. Later, in 'Oklahoma!' I danced the part of Laurey in the Dream Scene. I was the French Maid in 'The Boy Friend.' It was great fun. I was not married then."
Summer stock was an important part of King's early theatrical experiences. On one occasion, she and two other dancers fell into the orchestra pit during a show in Haddonfield, New Jersey. "It was theatre-in-the-round and it was so dark but we didn't destroy any instruments." She laughs at the recollection. "I learned that no matter what, you have to go that straight line when you exit."
Did Artistic Executive Director King ever fall in love with a leading man? "I had a terrific crush on a fellow who sang in a revue we did in Philadelphia." That fellow was Hector Troy, actor, director, movies, Muppets. Somewhat later when King was already married to Brendan, she saw Troy in a movie. "Ooooaaah!" she exclaimed at the time. "There's Hector!" She smiles. "You know how it is with someone you have admiration for.
"When I was in an automobile accident, he came to see me. I was so disappointed because he kissed me....on my forehead. Not on my lips." The memory amuses her but more seriously, she also remembers that the accident was a result of "....burning the candles at every end. Dancing every weekend, teaching dancing, choreographing 'Guys and Dolls' and I was in the show, too. And there was the revue in Philadelphia. After the accident, they thought I wouldn't dance for a couple of years but I was determined." And dance she did! And still does as a full-time teacher.
"I do a lot of choreography, a lot of master teaching and traveling across the country. I do a lot of judging. I run a lot of things meaning I put together shows. I love doing that."
The King Centre's Director takes me on a tour of the old Tudor mansion with its maze of rooms and spaces. Walls and halls are covered with photos, posters and other mementos of classes, events and shows that took place over the years under King's leadership. Represented are thousands of student dancers, little and larger, and this remarkable lady remembers each one.
She provides a running commentary as we pass all the memorabilia. "These are from past and last recitals; we were World Champions representing the United States at the Royal Dance Championships; this is a student of mine, Kim Kimble, who won Junior Star Search; this is a photo in front of the World Trade Center; these are students of mine who have gone on to dance careers; we won the Gold Medal at the North American 2005 Championships; this is our American Youth Dance Company with Governor Jon Corzine at the inauguration; these are pictures of my students in shows; Susan Meisner and Danny Rutigliano in 'Guys and Dolls'; Ashley Pettet in 'Annie' and 'The King and I' - she's now on a national tour of '42nd Street'; Erin Loscalzo is also touring nationally." You get the picture?
Also represented is son Michael Scott King, dancer (since age two) and actor. He plays the lead in "The Olympians," a feature-length independent film being shot in New Jersey. Michael can also be seen in television commercials. Brother Brendan King - "Mr. Dance America" in 1998 - appeared with Michael Crawford in "Dance of the Vampires" on Broadway, toured cross-country with Jessica Simpson and is presently dancing the lead in "Movin' Out" which will soon be movin' to Japan. He holds a Rutgers University scholarship. Sports. His fiancee, Amy Krawcek, is a Rockette and Assistant Choreographer for the Rockettes. She was in "Sweet Charity," "A Christmas Carol," "Lion King," the movie, "Chicago." The Kings' youngest son, Christopher, is a high school senior. "He wants to dance for a living, he tells us," reveals his mother. "He got hurt playing football, had two surgeries on his knee. When he came out of the surgery, he said, 'I am going to be able to dance, right?' He has done national commercials and has won national titles."
At the mention of her students, King furthers that they come not only to dance. "We're teaching musical theatre classes now. Today students have to learn to be a triple threat. They learn a lot of different things from Broadway shows incorporating choreography, music and acting from various scenes. We have all forms of dance....ballet, tap, modern, jazz. We also have great teachers from [New York] City, 35 minutes away [across the Hudson River]."
King proudly reports that the Centre also has a pre-school program called "Imagination Kingdom" for two-and-a-half, three-year, and four-year-olds. Add to that a five-day program for five year olds. Explains King, "The five-day [ABCs] program prepares children for Kindergarten but we also include the arts. It's state-accredited and so is the teacher."
The American Youth Dance Company, which presents a "Nutcracker" yearly, is the school's company under the umbrella of, yet, like the school itself, separate from, The New Jersey Foundation for Dance and Theatre Arts. With pride, King relates, "We went to Belgium, England, Scotland, Wales, Roumania. When you dance in Europe, it's a raked [inclined or tilted] stage and that's difficult. We have danced in beautiful places like Lincoln Center and then we have danced in a field of flattened cow manure. We didn't know that till later. We were all dancing in our bare feet. Oh Yuck! Our feet got all brown." Her laughter peals up and down a six-note scale. "We did a lyrical dance and didn't even see the cows!
"With us during a Roumanian festival was a Russian gentleman who has taught at the school....Alexis Dolinoff [formerly with the Russian Imperial School of Ballet and Pavlova partner] wanted to meet with other Russian participants in the festival's performances. He got up at four o'clock in the morning to meet them but they were gone. That was in 1980 when Roumania was still a part of the Red Block. That was hard."
One of many, many events King recalls with special pleasure took place several years ago at the "Grounds for Sculpture"* in Trenton, New Jersey. Tommy Flagg, dance impresario and New Jersey original who now owns Terpsichore Management of Beverly Hills, CA, asked her to put together a dance for a large affair at the "Grounds." Thinking back, she says "To a drum beat, I choreographed a piece for nine dancers who performed among the sculptures. It was a great day, an occasion later repeated in Lambertville, New Jersey."
As we continue our tour of the King Centre for the Performing Arts, the Director pauses at one of the studios. It has a wooden floor. Says she, "This is a fun room where we actually do all the dances....ballet, tap, acrobatics. The floor has a special coating so we don't have to worry about its being slippery. We also have a Marley that we take with us when we go to perform. We roll it up for transport....forty-six by fifty feet. We have a store house where we keep it."
Another studio, ideal for voice lessons, is where Nancy King holds musical theatre workshops with composer/actor/friend, Diana Roth. "She writes beautiful music," enthuses King. "She does all the music and the acting and I do the dance and theatre parts. Posters on the walls certify involvement with many shows like "Mary Poppins," "The Wiz," "Anastasia."
It is of course logical that the Kings' daughter, Natalie King Smith, would enter the field of dance. And of course she did! Her credits are remarkable for such a young performer. It helps that she is tall, slim and beautiful with long, auburn hair that falls down to her shoulders. (This whole family is so-o-o good-looking.) King Smith, a Radio City Rockette, has performed On and Off Broadway, in television and films, industrials and national commercials. She has won many national awards for her eclectic choreography.
During my visit to the King Centre, I am also introduced to King Smith's baby daughter, Madison who, not yet two, is already dancing. In bright red, she is a tiny replica of her grandmother, Nancy.
Together, Natalie and Nancy have opened a second studio in Wyckoff, New Jersey. Called King Centre II, the new studio offers ballet, tap, jazz, modern, lyrical, hip hop, acrobatics and voice for all age groups from two-year-olds to professionals. Nancy King suggests that at any given time, the two studios may be teaching students from about five hundred families. "You may have more than one student from a family and a child may take seven or more hours a week. Dance hours can number in the thousands."
King confesses she didn't really want her family to go into "the business." she adds, "This is a tough road. I think they have the passion because I am so passionate about what I do. I think there is great joy in it. I love to see the children develop. It's not even about the trophies. It's about the feeling you feel when you leave a stage after you have performed." Almost apologetically, King admits that she wanted her children just to understand what she did "....and they all ended up in the same thing!" Mysteriously, she grins mischievously.
One family member doesn't dance: Brendan King, the husband and father. Tall and slim, he's a John Lithgow look-alike (with dimples) who seems as if he actually were a dancer. Nancy thinks "....he might do a Ballroom with a coupla drinks." She chuckles aloud. Big Brendan King is in silk flowers but he is the person at the King Centre for the Performing Arts who has been able to provide the answers to all my telephone questions relevant to this article after our interview. So....he's in dance! He probably knows that according to the Internet, there are 19 billion songs available for dance artists. Yeah. Nineteen billion.
Following is a list of Nancy C. King's professional statistics: Rider College; Hedgerow Dramatic School; professional performances as a dancer, actor, singer; Artistic Director and Owner of the King Centre for the Performing Arts - 35 years - Wanaque, New Jersey; Co-Director of The King Centre II with daughter Natalie in Wyckoff, New Jersey - 2005; Founder and President of The New Jersey Foundation for Dance and Theatre Arts, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization; Artistic Director of the American Youth Dance Company and the American Jazz Dance Ensemble; Director of the Imagination Kingdom Creative Arts pre-school; Co-Director of Studio 13 with Diana Roth - Musical Theatre Program; Past President of Dance Masters of America Chapter 26, New York City; Past National Director of the Miss Dance of America Scholarship Pageant; Member of the Chamber of Commerce - Wanaque and Ringwood, New Jersey.
* Note: The above-mentioned "Grounds for Sculpture" - and arts center - is located in Hamilton, NJ, which is basically a part of Trenton, the capital. The Grounds for Sculpture are a wonderful surprise, a fantasy-land in which abstract, modern and traditional sculptures can be found at every turn and spread over acres of lush, beautifully tended landscaping also graced by several restored buildings. NJ sculptor, J. Seward Johnson, a grandson of pharmaceutical mogul, the the late Robert Wood Johnson, is the primary benefactor of Grounds for Sculpture. His Johnson Atelier next to the grounds apprentices young artists.
Info: The King Centre for the Performing Arts, 527 Ringwood Avenue, Wanaque, NJ 07465, PH: 973.839.4031. The King Centre II for the Performing Arts,391 Clifton Avenue, Wyckoff, NJ 07481, PH: 201.848.7001