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Aug. 28--"Latin Aerobics?"
Sandra Smeltzer, who takes the helm at the Post School of Ballet in Salem this week, says things won't change that much on her watch. The 20-year-old ballet school will still stress fundamentals and turn out well-trained dancers, some of whom will likely go on to make dancing their careers.
"I'm very committed to maintaining the standard that has been set by Terri," said Smeltzer -- referring to Terri Post, founder and longtime director of the Post school.
Post has sold the school to Smeltzer, effective this month. "I want to maintain the status quo," Smeltzer said. "For sure."
But she also wants new students, to add to the 70 or so already studying there.
Thus, "Latin Aerobics," to be taught by a new, Venezuela-born instructor, Pedro Szalay.
And salsa. And jazz. "We will be expanding the offerings," Smeltzer said.
It has been a tumultuous summer for Roanoke Valley ballet. The longtime directors of the valley's two most prominent dance studios, the Roanoke Ballet Theatre and the Post school with its affiliated Southwest Virginia Ballet, have both stepped down.
Former RBT executive director Jenefer Davies has moved to Lexington to design a dance program at Washington and Lee University. And Terri Post, artistic director of the Post school and SVB, is moving to upstate New York with her husband, Gene. RBT, which is on Grandin Road in Roanoke, has just announced the hiring of a new executive director and head of school.
In Salem, Terri Post and Szalay will serve as co-artistic directors for SVB, the Post school's affiliated dance company, in the coming year, said SVB board president Vicki Honer.
Smeltzer will play no role in SVB -- a departure from the years when Terri Post led both the school and the company, which stages dance productions. No one knows yet who will run SVB next year. "This is a transition year," Honer said. She said SVB board members were "encouraged" to hear that Smeltzer had taken over the school. "She has excellent credentials."
Smeltzer hopes to both continue Post's legacy as a ballet teacher and to build on it. Along with the new dance and aerobics offerings, Smeltzer has increased the number of teachers at the school from three to five.
One of the new teachers is Szalay, formerly a dancer with the Richmond Ballet. He has danced with the National Ballet of Caracas, Venezuela, as well as the Latin Ballet of Virginia and the New York Dance Theatre.
Smeltzer said Szalay brings "an excellence in teaching, and a very strong background in being on the stage. He's a very caring teacher. He's a very exciting teacher, too."
His Latin aerobics class seems a case in point. Smeltzer describes Latin aerobics as low impact aerobics done to Latin music with a great beat. She said Szalay taught a similar class in Richmond, where it was very popular. No knowledge of Latin dance is required.
Raised in Venezuela by Hungarian parents, Szalay, 34, has danced professionally for 15 years. He became an American citizen Aug. 16. Szalay said he is excited about making the transition from dancer to teacher. In addition to his classes at the Post school, Szalay will teach at Washington and Lee University and work with schoolchildren in Martinsville on behalf of Richmond Ballet.
"It's a big change," he said. "I'm very excited for all the opportunities that I have."
Wendi Wagner, a dance educator at Westside Elementary School in Roanoke, also has joined the Post school faculty, which already includes Susan Honer -- Vicki Honer's daughter -- and Yolanda Gibbs.
Smeltzer herself is a Richmond native who grew up in Abingdon and performed for seven years with the Bristol Ballet. She holds an M.A. in dance from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and is a past artistic director of the Virginia Tech Dance Theatre and the Washington and Lee Jazz and Tap Ensemble.
Smeltzer also owns New Castle School of Dance in Craig County, which she will continue to operate along with the Post school.
"I think there couldn't be a better person" to take over the Post school, said Jaime Robtison, a Post school student who studied with Smeltzer there in the 1990s and now teaches at the Atlanta Ballet.
She said Smeltzer always encouraged her to look at the big picture, and to enjoy herself. "I used to call her my weekly course of ballet soul food." Compared to the detail-oriented Terri Post, "I think her focus is more on the movement itself," Robtison said. Smeltzer also would remind her sometimes not to take herself so seriously. "It was good for me."
Smeltzer doesn't deny she finds dance fun.
"I really do love it," she said. "It makes you feel good physically. It makes you feel good mentally. It's a great source of joy."
To sign up for classes, call the Post school at 387-1410.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Roanoke Times, Va.
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