June Roper: How Ballet Stars Are Made
Many young dancers go to class day after day never understanding that dance in America was born of the hard work and inspired dedication of just a handful of people. Among these young starlets of the 1920's and 30's was June Roper. The daughter of a strong-willed Baptist minister from Texas, she was prohibited from dancing by her father's dedication to Biblical rule. But June's mother, Elizabeth, realized June's destiny lay in the dance world. She chaperoned her daughter across continents and through the ballet classes of the world's foremost teachers unaware that June would have her own lasting influence on dance in America.
If you've taken a ballet class anywhere in this country anytime since 1950 you've probably been exposed to a student or a student-of-a-student of June Roper's. Although her school was located in Vancouver, British Columbia, her students pursued professional careers from Los Angeles to New York eventually spreading out to help the regional ballet movement of the 80's take hold in the U.S. Because June's own dance training resulted from an extensive performance career in adagio, she taught her students with a single thought in mind for them all: a professional dance career. She and her mother had done their best to get good training for June from the likes of Cecchetti master Ernest Belcher in Los Angeles, but it was June's on-the-job-training as a dancer in night clubs and music halls around the world that influenced her teaching. All of June's students knew from their first class to the last that they were expected to perform just as June had. It was the way the American dance legacy was born. But how many contemporary students recognize that a little girl from a Texas pulpit still influences the dancing taught today?
In 1934, Roper traveled to Vancouver to visit relatives and ended up staying to open a dancing school. With start up money and community support, the Roper school quickly filled with the future stars of ballet, modeling, and Hollywood. In no time at all the studio ran full tilt from 10:00 a.m. to late in the evening five days a week. For $35 a month a dancer could take five morning classes and a private session weekly. It was in the private classes that June sought and encouraged the individual potential of each student giving them identity and courage to dance with technical prowess but with personality as well. Many of her students would be hired into the corps de ballet and complain that their training didn't translate well to the uniformity required to be in the corps. The lessons from the corps and their experiences in the Roper method soon blended as they quickly rose to the ranks of soloist most of the time. When it came time to disseminate their knowledge as dance teachers, they understood the need for technical accuracy but also the necessity of dancing with a group.
If you've ever taken a class from Duncan Noble or Robert Lindgren you've tasted June Roper's style of ballet. These men began their distinctive careers with Roper learning that ballet is definitely an art of demanding technique with a dash of the dancer's personality thrown in. Their 40 year command at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem guarantees that their students are part of Roper's lineage. Her influence on their artistry combined with their exceptional performance careers with Ballets Russes, American Ballet Theatre, and New York City Ballet followed by stellar teaching careers insures that Roper's influence is wide spread.
On the west coast Margaret Banks and Jean Hunt perpetuated Roper's legacy by opening their own schools. Hunt also had a successful teaching career with San Francisco Ballet.
Roper titled her annual student revues "The Stars of Tomorrow." Her vision of students filling the rosters of companies, movie sets, and Broadway shows was easily realized due to her diligence as a teacher who encouraged students to train well but perform incessantly as a means of perpetuating dance as a true communication art. Roper's stars of tomorrow are the teacher's of today who fearlessly continue to share her style of strong technique with flair.
According to Roper's biographer, Leland Windreich, "Her uniqueness lies in the scope of her success and the impact it had upon the American musical theatre of the period. At one time in the 1940's it was estimated that seventy June Roper pupils were performing professionally in New York City alone. Perhaps her major achievement was in populating the touring Ballet Russe companies with her young Canadian ballet pupils."*
Since the dawn of the new millennium, many of Roper's star students have retired. It's up to their students to realize their own futures as part of the extensive universe of Roper's dancing stars. Are you a descendent of the Roper galaxy of stars?
*June Roper, Ballet Starmaker, Leland Windreich, Dance Collection Danse Press, Toronto, 1999.