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Waltz of the Flowers rehearsal October 2011

Renes bluebirds complete mp3

Von Weber correct mp3

Crystal is on the far right almost out of the picture.

EXHALE DANCE TRIBE will be performing at Seton High School on Glenway Avenue, Sunday afternoon, FEB 13th at 3:00pm and the tickets are substantially lower than they are for their show at The Aronoff the following week ($7 for Seton tickets ) The date doesn’t appear on Exhale’s website because it’s part of the Seton-Elder Performing Arts Series, but it is open to the public and anyone interested in the art of dance is encouraged to attend!  The EXHALE DANCE TRIBE will also perform the following week at the Aranoff:  February 19 at 8pm.

CRYSTAL DRAPER was a tiny ballerina taking lessons from Conni in Pleasant Ridge in the early 80’s.  She was in Kinderballet many years and always an outstanding dancer.  She also graduated from SCPA and earned a degree in Dance and Psychology from Shenandoah University.  In 2002 she returned to AvO at a critical juncture to teach all the classes for the summer when Laura Hughes first moved away.  Not surprising then to find out that she is now running her own studio in Daytona Beach Florida, “Kinetic Expressions Dance Academy.”  She is also blessed with her own beautiful child!

 Crystal writes:

See you at the performances!

Written by

Conni Berns

March 9, 2010

You might not be aware of this but Anneliese was the fifth child, born to Maria and   Reinhart von Oettingen.  Their first child died about the age of 8, and her favorite doll was the name they then named this their “replacement child” ( I was later told).  At a young age, Anneliese was quite precocious, sitting down at the piano and playing tunes by ear.  She still could come up with several at later times, but never had a lesson.  She loved to dance, and could do the bird’s nest at a young age, and started modern dance around age 11.  She begged to study ballet, but the family could not afford such frivolities. Her father referred to all that as, “Skipping around, meaning nothing”….

Her Mother recalled her own dreams, shattered at a young age.  She had wanted to sing in the opera, run away to be in the circus, become a stenographer- all impossible at her time, because her father insisted she marry and become a “Hausfrau”.  She made a deal with the Balletmistress:  she would become the office manager, and Annelise would help and take class, whatever needed to be done, in order for her to take class.  Three years later, when the Teacher needed to move, she asked Anneliese to take over her role, take the exams to become certified in Germany for all fields of instruction, lead her ballet company, and of course, for her to take over the business with her mother as the office manager.  Without this business Anneliese could not have supported her entire family, found refuge during the war, and saved others.

In America some time later she found an accordian, and started playing by ear.  She could play a bunch a songs, and just knew how to do it as if by magic.  I picked it up often, and never could figure it out, even though I took years of piano lessons, and knew the notes.  She would buy tubes of oil paints and canvas and start paintings, and end up with woods, lakes, boats and landscapes.  She painted and drew by some inner inspiration.  I am sure it was somewhat driven by the out of doors.  She often referred to the woods as a cathedral built more grand than any by human hands.

There were also German games she brought with her we played, and one of them was Handrummy- which had very specific rules to it.  You held 12 cards in your hand, drew a card, discarded, and in order to “lay down” you had to have trios counting up to 52 points- it was a chore to figure this one out as a child, but once you did, we played til late into the night.  Anneliese would always remark to those who did not win, “Oh, the German saying here, unlucky in cards, lucky in Love…”  Tyll always put down a trio with two seven of hearts- “but you CANNOT have two of a kind”, I hear Anneliese say,  and the arguement would start, ending with Tyll taking all his cards back. Then Anneliese would be upset because Tyll would not discard one of the sevens, and they would argue again, “Why don’t you just get rid of it????”   “But I might need it for something else.”   “You will mix it up again!”  “No I won’t!”  “”You do it everytime!”  The second way Tyll would get Mom upset is when he would lay down his cards and he would be short.  He would count wrong, so she always insisted on recounting his points.  She did not recount others often, but HIS? HE often took his cards back and started collecting again.  I think he liked the attention and seeing her upset about this.  Students could try her patience, and she remained super calm.  Tyll could heat her to the boiling point in seconds.

I think I have such wonderful memories of Eagle Bay because my Mother worked so hard.  Every hour in Cincinnati was spent with ballet, music, costumes, other people.  Here in the woods suddenly time was for us, too.  We went to the beach, we spent time playing games, we sat around the campfire.  Life took on a different pace, and it meant something else.  We appreciated each other more, because we understood each other better.

 Written by

Conni Berns

Nov 27, 2008

The first time Mom went to Moss Lake Camp for Girls to teach Ballet she refused to leave us in Cincinnati.  She would not go for the summer and have Tyll and me wait elsewhere.  We were a package deal.  We came with a sitter (I believe that was the first year Mrs. Van Holle, Suzanne Farrell’s Aunt was our sitter), and we stayed at the nurse’s cabin on camp grounds.  It didn’t work very well.  We had to stay out of camper sight, keep off the daily camp areas, and be “unnoticeable” .  Then we had to be at meals when campers ate, and follow their rules of etiquette.  Mom found this worked not at all well.

The second year, and from then on, she found a rental in Inlet or Eagle Bay and commuted the 2 or 3 miles to work each day.  The problem was transportation.  There was none. 

The first year she bought a scooter.  It had two wheels, and ran on gas.  She was quite capable riding it, and she zoomed around with her feet on this little platform, carrying groceries between them when needed.  When we were eager to go to a movie, she would carry one of us in front of her about 50 yards ahead, go back get the other, jockey that one fifty yards ahead of the first, and hop on down the road til we got where we wanted to go.

Dr.  George Longstaff owned the camp and was a Dentist.  He insisted the teachers and instructors all be experts.  My best friend’s dad had been the Olympic fencing coach.  He was always looking for the best. Dr.  Longstaff decided Mom needed to learn to drive a car, so she could buy a car and “move up” to a more acceptable type of transportation.  I am sure he was not so satisfied with the sight of her coming to work each year on a little putt-putt scooter.

Mom would have driving lessons at any time of the day when she was at camp.  She would then descibe to us what she had done, and what she had learned.  It fascinated us.  “I don’t understand,”  she said, “He makes me drive backwards all the time.  He said if I can do it looking backward, forward will be easy.  I have driven all the camp roads backward, turned around, driven in circles, it is getting crazy.”  Finally she got out on the public roads and started driving forwards.

That’s when she explained another tecnique.  “In the mountains, on the very sharp turns, especially on narrow roads without any center lines, you can drive in the middle of the road, but you must honk the horn loudly.”

Anyone that has driven with my mom knows she had a unique way of driving.  She drove aggressively and was excellent at parallel parking.  She was not afraid of driving the larger cars, because she learned in Dr. Longstaff’s station wagon, “woody.”  She had excellent reflexes, as I noted while I was learning, and she would smash her hand on the dash yelling, “Brake!”  before I even saw the stop sign or the car stopping in front of me.  I always wondered if The Doctor had done that, too.  No, I cannot imagine him doing ANYTHING with a raised voice.  Raised eyebrows, yes.

She did take the driving test in New York after tutoring from the Doctor, and passed.  She then bought a car from a neighbor in Eagle Bay.  He was a car dealer in Syracuse, and she gave him $600 and he came back with a green 2 door Plymouth.  We had that car for a long time, and it served Mom well. 

Dr. Longstaff must have been a good teacher.  Mom never had a major accident, but she was constantly stopped fot speeding.  We would sit horrified in the back of the Plymouth, holding our breaths.  She began her story, “I just come from the old country, and there we have no speed limit, and I am so new to this all, …” She used the same tactic after she had been here thirty years.  I cannot recall when she EVER paid or received a ticket!!!!! She always charmed the officer out of it.

Here is a personal thank you from one of our dance families…

All:

This is a heartfelt THANK YOU to all the individuals who worked hard and 
donated to the floor for the studio.  It is awesome both visually and in 
performance.  I walked into the studio and could not believe how great it  made
the studio look.  Jackie was thrilled with the floor.  No more  worries
about falling or sliding off pointe due to the floor.

Thank you Cheviot Westwood Kiwanis for helping to make our studio dream 
come true.  Our dancers are very dedicated to their ballet and to the  studio.
The new floor will help them to continue their pursuit of  dance and to
be able to continue to give back to the community through their  art. 

 Sincerely,
The Sidow Family (Jackie Sidow – Dancer)

A photo captures a moment in time from a unique point of view.  Dance has that mercurial essence: it is a movement then it is a memory.  When a photo captures that special moment that may have otherwise been forever lost, it is worth celebrating and sharing!

The new AvO Ballet website is a wonderful venue for sharing those special glimpses of our ballet world or or some other aspect of the Art of Movement that we hold in common.

If you have a “FLICKR” account, write to us with your links!  If you do not have a FLICKR account they are really easy to create!  

Create your own flickr account!

If you already have pictures on a facebook page write us with your links, so we can share!

 Write me with any questions about this process so we can all celebrate that special ballet moment!

laura@avoballet.org