I’ve forgotten the names of all of my
elementary and high school teachers, but one name that will remain with me till
the day I die is Dorothy Lister. Dorothy
Lister was my ballet teacher at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. I studied--more like suffered--under her
tutelage until the age of 15ish, at which point she quit the Joffrey, and I
quit ballet.
Miss Dorothy was, oh, just your average
ballet nazi. :) Old enough to be my grandmother, she was a stickler for
discipline and had zero tolerance for lazy feet, lifeless limbs, and other
similar ballet crimes. And she’d punish us
too. Whenever she caught us slacking off
at the barre, she would angrily clap her hands and let out a shrill “STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!” At which point the class, the piano
player, and all of 6th Avenue would freeze in frightened paralysis. She
would then sarcastically imitate our mistakes to show us how dumb we looked, and
literally yank our body parts into the correct position. Miss Dorothy always ended these torturous
episodes with her signature dirty look, which masked her grin of sadistic
satisfaction. She’d then carry on with
class.
