We Gathered Together
It was somehow fitting that on November 19th, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, former and current students, accompanists, ballerinas, premier danseurs, teachers and just plain friends, gathered at Steps on Broadway to say, "Thank you," to David Howard as he celebrated 40 years of teaching in New York. Steps owner and artistic director Carol Paumgarten, her staff, and the ever energetic work-study students transformed Studio II, where Howard teaches his daily 10:00 a.m., Intermediate Advanced class, into a candlelit soiree. The festive occasion was boosted by the many students, now older and working in a variety of different fields, who were excited to meet up with each other again and reminisce about Howard's scintillating petit allegro combinations, his penchant for finding insanely talented pianists (like the late Lynn Stanford and the still going strong Steven Mitchell) and his un-matchable musicality.
Howard closed his own magnif-icent studio in 1995 and the memories, from West 61st Street, and even his previous Broadway and 62nd Street studio, flowed. But that was then, and Howard has said he doesn't like to focus on the past. Amazingly, after the late night party excitement faded, Howard was back teaching, the next morning. Always looking ahead at the coming generation, he's ready to give his knowledge, experience and attention to those who love ballet, as he does. His classes continue to attract high caliber dancers like Sebastien Marcovici, Philip Neal and Elizabeth Walker of New York City Ballet (NYCB), Angel Corella, Veronika Part and Sasha Dmochowski of American Ballet Theater (ABT) as well as dancers from the companies of Alvin Ailey, Henning Rubsam, Thomas/Ortiz, Fugate/Bahiri Ballet NY and Broadway dancers, from the ballerinas of "Phantom of the Opera" to show stopper Bebe Neuwirth.
Well-known former dancers and students Allegra Kent, Eleanor D'Antuono, Minneapolis-based James Sewell and Sally Rousse, 1983 Varna medal winner Katherine Healey, Darla Hoover (former NYCB principal), Cheryl Yeager (former ABT principal) and Virginia Johnson (former Dance Theater of Harlem principal) and the incomp-arable Gelsey Kirkland joined the many less-known Howard regulars who among their crew include physicians, landscape designers, dance therapists, physical ther-apists, chefs and writers. Many ballet teachers who studied with Howard in the past and are now colleagues were present including Peter Schabel, Dorit Koppel, Jose Traba, Fabrice Herrault, Alex Tressor, and Diana Cartier. Current ABT principal Michele Wiles and corps de ballet members Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews, along with ballet masters Wes Chapman and Clinton Luckett toasted Howard's unprecedented perseverance in New York, next to his long time colleagues and fellow Steps master teachers, Wilhem Burmann and Nancy Bielski. Howard graciously calls himself, Bielski and Burmann, "The Three Musketeers," for their triumvirate of morning classes, which fills Studio II and III with a serious, challenging, and generous pedagogy.
As Paumgarten gave a free-wheeling speech, touching on highlights of his well-known career with Sadler's Wells, the Harkness Ballet, and later as a pioneer, opening his own studios, Howard stood, looking at the filled room, and said, in response, simply, "I didn't do it by myself. I did it with all of you."