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Sylvia Hamer Ann Arbor's 'first lady of ballet'

Sylvia Hamer Ann Arbor's 'first lady of ballet' image Sylvia Hamer Ann Arbor's 'first lady of ballet' image
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Day
24
Month
February
Year
1985
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Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Dance fever hit Sylvia Hamer when she was 15 years old, which was 70 years ago. Ann Arbor’s “first lady of ballet,” as she has been dubbed by many, has been going non-stop ever since.

On the morning that we spoke, Hamer was about to travel to Lansing and planned to be back in the afternoon to attend to civic ballet business. Next week it will be San Francisco to teach at Mills College. (She coaches students and teachers in the fine points of ballet.) Last year, she spent three weeks in China and Japan and visited the Hong Kong and Tokyo ballets. Since 1952, she has been to London 19 times to study; “not just to take class,” she emphasizes, “but to study.”

While the study of dance has been a lifelong pursuit , Hamer is first and foremost a teacher. She has been teaching in Ann Arbor since Depression days, when she arrived from Port Huron with her husband, who was a theater manager. The Sylvia Studio of Dance opened in 1932, offering dance lessons for 50 cents. Today, Hamer still teaches, although the studio is owned and run by her granddaughter, Lee Ann King.

Our interview was a free-swinging discussion that covered many topics: the Ann Arbor Civic Ballet, which Hamer founded in 1954; ballet training; present and former students; degrees and honors received; conferences attended; writings published.

Hamer says today’s students are involved in too many activities to take ballet seriously. In addition to dance classes, there are music lessons, ice skating, gymnastics, on and on. Only the music lessons, Hamer feels, are necessary. And, she adds, students should also be exposed to art. If they have to draw a straight line, they will know what is being asked of them in ballet.

Hamer also thinks that there is something to be said for an “old school” learning method—memorization. “Dancers,” she emphasizes, “need keen minds.” And although her students are “smart as whips,” they have trouble, she says, retaining dance combinations fast enough.

“Thirteen or 14 is the critical age,” Hamer explains. “It’s the time when you make them or break them. After that, many lose interest… or know too much.” And she is very much opposed to dancers venturing out into the professional world before they finish high school, a rather common practice in recent years. At their home studios, she says, these dancers are the best. Suddenly, they are just average, competing with equals and better, and at an age when they are not equipped to handle the pressure.

“Give me an ordinary body, someone with desire, ambition and talent, and I can make a dancer,” Hamer says. “Talent alone doesn’t make a dancer.” She has seen too many talented people who get lazy. “Then, some people have no more talent than the man in the moon, but all of a sudden they blossom. But you must train properly. If you don’t train properly, there is no chance.”

Proper ballet training has been a long-time concern with Hamer. Her book, “Technique for the Ballet Dancer,” was published two decades ago, and is found in libraries worldwide. Hamer is also an authority on the Cecchetti system of ballet (based on the teaching of Enrico Cecchetti) and holds a Fellows Degree from the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. She is a co-founder, past president, and current treasurer of the Cecchetti Council of America.

Sylvia Hamer, who attributes her longevity to genes and her exceptionally good health to a life of dance and good doctors, shows no signs of slowing up. “My sister told me that when you hit 50, you’ll feel it. I guess I haven’t hit 50 yet,” she quips. “I don’t feel it.” —Marianne Danks Rudnicki

IMAGE TEXT: When dancers from Ann Arbor Civic Ballet, which Hamer founded, appeared at Jacobson’s last week to promote their upcoming concert, Hamer was there to offer pointers.