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For The Love Of Ballet

. CANDACE C. MUNDY/TAMPA TRIBUNE

Young ballerinas work on all the moves during a classical ballet class under the direction of Lucrecia Trucker, a local ballet instructor for The Center for the Arts Ballet School. The class is held twice every week at The Scottish Rite Center, 5500 Memorial Highway

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By ANGELA DELGADO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 1, 2007

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Pink and black tutus, tights and slippers adorn 10 tiny ballerinas as they leap across the stage, doing their mightiest to impress their Ms. Lu - ballet instructor extraordinaire.

An arabesque here, a chasse there, the little ones twirl and point away.

The girls make up the youngest part of the Center for the Arts Ballet School troupe, which meets at 3 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Scottish Rite Center, 5500 Memorial Highway. Instructor Lu Trucker also instructs future ballerinas ages 6 to adult.

In the 3 p.m. class, the girls are 3 to 5 years old, and Trucker has to be quick to keep their attention. Tactics include ballet lessons in the form of fairy tales and instructions to flex their toes to resemble bunny ears.

A lot of encouragement, even when they're not pointing their toes completely, is also abundant with Trucker. Ballet is her passion, and she wants her students to feel the same way.

"Ballet is my life," she said. "I could be retired. I only teach two days a week because it's my hobby. In the summer, when I don't teach, I feel empty. It's the way I get my adrenaline going, my energy. It's very fulfilling."

Trucker's initiation into the world of ballet began when she was a 3-year-old living in her native Cuba. She learned to dance in the International Conservatory of Music, which her relatives from Northern Italy opened when they fled to Cuba during Giuseppe Garibaldi's time of revolution in the mid-1800s. Her relatives, who were counts, opened the conservatory because they didn't know how to work, only play instruments and dance.

In 1956, Trucker and family moved to Miami. She studied under the Miami Ballet and opened a studio called Ms. Lu School of Ballet in 1966. When she moved to Tampa in 1983, she worked for a Jewish community center for 10 years and then opened the Center for the Arts Ballet School. Although her studio used to be on Hillsborough Avenue, today she teaches out of the auditorium at the Scottish Rite Center.

Trucker's class is traditional, classic ballet. No hip-hop or jazz is involved. That appealed to the mothers of her young students.

Josie Purcell of Odessa is the mother of Erin-Elizabeth Purcell, 3. Purcell was a professional ballerina before she became a stay-at-home mom. Because she studied true ballet, it was important for her to find a teacher who could do the same for Erin-Elizabeth. Trucker also appealed to Purcell because they both studied under the Miami Ballet.

"I wanted it traditional," Purcell said of Erin-Elizabeth's ballet class. "I wanted ballet, not 'dance.'"

Trucker's methods also don't include teaching her students one ballet performance to show off at the end of the year. The point of the class isn't to learn Swan Lake in a few months; it's to learn the proper steps and techniques.

Instead of a big production, Trucker has an open house for parents at the end of every month so students can choreograph a dance and show it to them.

Aside from teaching traditional ballet, Trucker also focuses on etiquette and self-esteem. She teaches her students how to sit properly, how to present themselves in public, and she has them thank her and curtsey at the end of every class.

"My results have been beautiful," she said. "It gives them a refinement, a certain je ne sais quoi that you don't get anywhere else."

Former student Aubrey Paffenroth, 15, and her mother, Lisa Paffenroth, credit Trucker for breaking Aubrey of her shyness.

"I kind of felt like I was good at it, and since I made a lot of friends there, it helped me open up a little," Aubrey said. Trucker "is very encouraging, she's very patient, and she gives you a lot of individual attention."

Today, Aubrey is a student at the Orlando Ballet School.

Trucker also emphasizes how ballet can be heavy on the fitness.

"It's a total body toner," she said. "It actually covers from your tippy toes to your head."

In a letter to new students, Trucker specifies that "ballet is, without a doubt, the ideal way to achieve head-to-toe fitness. It is marvelous for flexibility. It tones and strengthens every part of the body and it is a great aerobic exercise."

Although ballet is good for fitness and etiquette, Trucker's little ones just like to dance.

Emily Katz, 8, and Emma Gunther, 9, want to be ballerinas when they grow up.

"I like how we can do a lot of things at ballet," Emily said. "My cousin found it, and I started to go and I started to love it."

"I like that you can do a lot of stuff like pirouettes and grand jetes," Emma said.

In the end, the love of the dance is all that matters.

"Ballet is telling a story without talking," Trucker said. "It's listening to the music and feeling and interpreting through dance what that music is telling you to do.

"I loved it from Day One," she said.

CENTER FOR THE ARTS BALLET SCHOOL

LOCATION: Scottish Rite Center, 5500 Memorial Highway

CONTACT: (813) 887-1979

CLASSES: Tuesday and Thursday at 3 p.m. ages 3 to 5; 4 p.m. for ages 6 to 10; and 5 p.m. ages 10 to teen; adults have a 6 p.m. class every Thursday

DICTIONARY OF TERMS: Pirouette - a turn on one leg; Grand Jete - a long horizontal jump; Arabesque - a position where one leg is extended behind the body; Chasse - where one foot slides and chases the other foot out of position

Reporter Angela Delgado can be reached at (813) 865-1501 or adelgado@tampatrib.com.

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