For Michelle and Jerome Vivona, taking ownership of the American Theater Dance Workshop is another way of embracing their passion for the performing arts.
“It’s our chance to give back to the community. Like any art form, if important parts are not passed on, they’re lost. It’s our turn now,” Jerome Vivona said.
The Vivonas, who purchased the American Dance Theater in August for an undisclosed price, bring an extensive resume in the arts that includes dancing, acting and singing in Broadway shows and on tour.
They also have a 10 years of experience in teaching theater skills while operating another private performance school, Drama Kids, which is now becoming a companion school to American Theater Dance as it enters its 31st year.
Drama Kids will join the American Theater Dance Workshop at the Herricks Community Center as a separate entity after being in different locations in north Nassau County. Aspiring actors aged four to 18 are taught at the school.
“We want to just centralize it here. It’s a symbiotic relationship,” Jerome said.
Michelle and Jerome said they had been exploring the prospect of purchasing American Theater Dance from its longtime proprietor Maddy Dempster for the past seven years.
Michelle had started teaching tap classes for the American Theater Dance Workshop five years ago while she was performing in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” on Broadway and as a member of the Rockettes in Radio City Music Hall. Jerome started teaching there two years ago, while simultaneously coaching soccer in the New York Red Bulls youth training academy, where he taught for five years.
He was in a show called “Curtains” when Maddy told him over dinner after a performance one night that she wanted to pass the school onto the Vivonas.
And from that point, it was only a question of when they would strike a deal.
“It finally came to the point where it made sense to do it,” he said. “It seems like something we’re intrinsically capable of doing.”
In a letter sent to approximately 300 students formally announcing the school’s change in ownership in mid-August, Dempster wrote, “I only wanted people I would feel confident to continue our legacy and make it even better.”
According to the Vivonas, no dramatic changes are afoot for American Theater Dance.
Michelle will teach drama and dance along with the school’s existing faculty. And the Vivonas will rely on veteran ballet teachers, including Katherine Healy and Leslie Brown, who was featured in “The Turning Point,” to carry on the school’s work.
Lauren King, who teaches ballet, is an alumnus of the school and is currently performing with the New York City Ballet.
Kurt Froman of the New York City Ballet, who coached Natalie Portman in “Black Swan,” will be a guest teacher at the school this weekend – and the Vivonas said they will regularly bring in guest teachers.
Portman is one of the school’s most famous alumni.
“If you’re interested in taking adult ballet class, you don’t have to go to New York,” Michelle said.
In addition to current course selections, she said the school will soon be offering adult beginner classes in ballet, tap and jazz dance.
The core of the school are the approximately 300 female dancers who are high school age or younger at various levels of ballet, tap and jazz dancing and musical theater ability. They come from New Hyde Park, the Willistons, Roslyn, Manhasset , Great Neck, and beyond Nassau County as well.
Annual tuition for one weekly dance class is $850, with a 10 percent discount for a sibling. Single adult ballet classes are offered for $23 apiece.
Michelle, who first took ballet lessons at age four from her father at her parents’ dance school in Pittsburgh, is completing a circle teaching at her own dance school now. She said she feels a responsibility in passing on what she learned during her performing career
“I love teaching dance. I grew up with parents who were performers and passed on their love of dance and theater, and were supportive of me,” she said. “It’s unbelievably rewarding to see someone with talent they don’t even see yet, to help guide them and give them the support and confidence to follow their own dreams.”
She followed her dreams to New York City, scoring her first role in the national tour of “On Your Toes” starring Leslie Caron and Natalie Makarova. She played Lorraine in “42nd Street” and debuted on Broadway under the direction of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon in “Sweet Charity.”
She also appeared in “Anything Goes,” which starred Patti Lupone and worked under Jerome Robbins in “Gypsy” with LInda Lavin and Tyne Daly.
Jerome was accepted on scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City after starting his training in Port Washington. He eventually performed with the Alberta, Canada, dancing in the Alberta Ballet under the direction of Ali Pourfarrokh, his teacher on Long Island who now teaches at American Theater Dance.
Not long after that, he started working in musical theater.
Jerome and Michelle met while performing together in the Paris company of “West Side Story” in 1990. They toured together in “Guys and Dolls” directed by Jerry Zaks in the U.S. and Japan and were married and settled in Westbury shortly after that.
His credits also include “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” with Matthew Broderick, “Seussical the Musical,” and “Kiss Me Kate.”
They both say they worked hard to prepare for the opportunities they had as performers, and that’s a lesson they also hope to pass on.
“We always say that each person’s path is different,” Jerome said. “You have to do the hard work, the preparation, so when you get your chance, you’re ready. The impulse to work hard for a goal is lot in this society, but it is worth it.”
