Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – While many fifth-graders at Zippel Elementary School are preoccupied with their friends, sports, grades and the upcoming transition to middle school, Karen Montanaro was able help to teach the students last week how to stay focused on one particular idea.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
WORLD-RENOWNED DANCER and mime artist Karen Montanaro spent most of last week working with fifth-graders at Zippel Elementary School. She showed them the simple techniques of mime and dance as tools for helping them focus. Engaging in one of the activities are, from left: Abram Dow, Tyler Ayotte, William Knowles, Montanaro, and Shelby Shaw. Montanaro’s visit to Presque Isle culminated with a school performance Thursday.
A world-renowned dancer and mime artist, award-winning choreographer and the innovator of “mimedance” (the fusion of two classical art forms), Montanaro spent Monday through Wednesday working with the students. Her visit to Presque Isle culminated with a school performance Thursday.
“My real passion is being able to get to kids who don’t necessarily want to use their energy … maybe they’re a little tired or in a bad mood. There are a lot of reasons to be in a bad mood today, and I feel for them,” she said. “They come in and they’re dragging, and when I see them suddenly get their energy back and start clicking and being happy and smiling, that makes me want to keep going.
“I’m here to teach kids the simple techniques of mime and dance as tools for helping them focus,” Montanaro said. “Focusing is something they can use no matter what they do. If they’re sitting in math class and start feeling blurry, tired or confused, one thing they can do is sit up straight, take a deep breath, and actually turn on their focusing mechanism … like imagining you’re in a cold shower, which will mobilize you and spark you up. They can do that in a math class.”
Montanaro grew up in western Massachusetts and started her career as a ballet dancer. She studied at the Cantarella School of Dance, the Ram Island Dance Center and on scholarship with the Joffrey Ballet School. She danced professionally with the Ohio Ballet and the Darmstadt Opera Ballet in Germany. For more than a decade, she toured and taught internationally with mime master Tony Montanaro. Over the years, she has danced and offered workshops on stages across the U.S. and in Germany, Aruba, Israel and Spain.
“By the time I was 12,” Montanaro said, “I knew that was what I wanted to do with my life. I made a lot of money, traveled all over the world, got lead roles, and then I started to get depressed and injured because I was overdoing the discipline. That’s when I met my late husband, Tony Montanaro.
“That was the beginning of me coming back to life,” she said. “I’ve seen Baryshnikov dance and other people who can stun the world, but when I saw Tony, who was 60 years old, out of shape, and going through a divorce, move, it was absolutely pure magical. I thought, ‘I have to know what this guy is doing.’”
Through Tony’s training, Montanaro said she learned how to recapture her own “impulses that had become so suppressed from the fear of making mistakes.”
“It’s energizing to stand up in front of a group,” she said. “The students might be afraid of doing it, but as soon as they do, they feel great. It’s a paradox … the very thing that they’re afraid of is the thing that’s going to liberate them. I see students make breakthroughs all the time, and that’s what keeps me going.”
Montanaro taught the children various mime routines including “The Fixed Point,” “The Ladder Climb,” “The Wall,” and “The Illusionary Walk,” which she described as the “granddaddy of the moonwalk.”
Montanaro last visited Zippel two years ago. While some elements of her workshops are the same, many are vastly different.
“Since I was here two years ago, I’ve gone to New York City and I’ve taken teacher training courses at the National Dance Institutue,” she said. “They have a pedagogy that I am very excited about, and this is what I’m using now.
Fifth-grader Casey Gagnon said participating in Montanaro’s workshop was “pretty fun.”
“She wasn’t what I expected. I thought she’d be wearing black and white and wouldn’t talk,” she said. “She talked and wasn’t wearing black and white.
“She taught us some of the things she was taught when learning how to be a mime,” said Gagnon, “like the ‘Ladder Climb’ and the ‘Illusionary Walk.’ It was a lot of fun. We worked with her for two hours, and it seemed to go by pretty quick.”
Jordan Bevins said the experience was “fantastic.”
“It was fun. I liked it because I’m a big dancer. It was cool how she does the stuff that she does,” he said. “I liked doing the Ladder Climb. Now that I know how to do it it’s fun to keep going on and act like you’re going up a ladder. I showed my family and they think it’s pretty cool.
“There was a game that we played to help focus our energy that was fun,” said Bevins. “I had a good time. When I was in third grade we went to the high school to see her perform, and I hope I get to see her again.”
Byron Winslow said Montanaro kept his attention the entire time.
“I really paid attention to what she was doing,” he said. “It’s mostly about having fun. She’s not coming here to have a boring time with us and do random dancing; she wanted to have fun, but teach us to focus and use our energy. I was able to do that.
“She kept everything fun and gamey. If there was someone who was bored, she would go up to them and try to cheer them up and talk with them,” said Winslow. “She interacted with us really well; everyone was laughing and having a good time.”
In addition to working with Zippel’s fifth-graders, Montanaro also performed Tanzspiel, her one-woman show at the Universtiy of Maine at Presque Isle.
Montanaro’s visit was funded through the Aroostook Partners in the Arts and the Presque Isle Elementary PTO.
For more information on Montanaro, visit her Web site at www.mimedance.com.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
PARTICIPATING IN A WORKSHOP with Karen Montanaro, right, a mime artist and dancer, are fifth-graders at Zippel Elementary School, from left: Tyler Ayotte, Byron Winslow, Abram Dow, David Hunter, Frank Dawson and Taylor Williams. While at Zippel, Montanaro showed them the simple techniques of mime and dance as tools for helping them focus.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
PRACTICING “THE ILLUSIONARY WALK,” which dancer and mime artist Karen Montanaro, right, describes as the “granddaddy of the moonwalk” are, front row, from left: Micah Belanger and Madison Bagley. Back row: David Hunter, Parker Lambert, Zachary Rice, Taylor Williams and Byron Winslow. Montanaro spent last Monday through Wednesday working with fifth-graders at Zippel Elementary School where she showed them various mime and dance routines they can use to help stay focused. Her visit to Presque Isle culminated with a school performance Thursday.
LEARNING “THE LADDER CLIMB” from dancer and mime artist Karen Montanaro, second from right, are Zippel Elementary School fifth-graders, from left: William Knowles, Erica Corey, Shelby Shaw, Abram Dow, Tyler Ayotte and Hailey Cameron.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
KAREN MONTANARO, left, an internationally-known dancer and mime artist, shows fifth-graders at Zippel Elementary School how to do “The Illusionary Walk,” which she describes as the “granddaddy of the moonwalk.” Trying to learn the technique are, from left: Abram Dow, Shelby Shaw, William Knowles and Frank Dawson.
