“Be Humble,
Work Hard,
Stay Focused”
Patel Conservatory instructor Kelly King
talks about training under famous Chicago
star and choreographer Ann Reinking.
Kelly King, the lead instructor for the Patel Conservatory’s popular dance
program, met the legendary Ann Reinking during an audition for Reinking’s
Tampa-based Broadway Theatre Project in 1994. Kelly landed a spot in the
project, a three-week intensive, as a freshman in high school. She caught the
Fosse dancer’s eye with her long lines and theatrical presence, thus launching
a mentor-protégé relationship that lasted several years. In honor of Chicago’s
return to the Straz Center, Kelly talks about what it was like to study dance
with such a celebrated Broadway star.
“I rst met Annie when I was 12 years old, and I didn’t have any preconceived
ideas of her … I knew she was huge in the 1970s and danced for Bob Fosse.
Then I started researching her life and dance background and found her
fascinating. I think she saw in me a young girl who was a spit re with a lot of
love and passion for what I was doing. I was moldable to her.
Ann’s personality is like everyone’s … she can be sweet or very intense and
intimidating. She is a professional and perfectionist so when you worked
with Ann, you never marked or did it half fast ... as she would say to me: ‘If
I’m a surgeon going in for surgery but not feeling like doing it, should I tell
the patient I’m going to give you fty percent of my energy – you may or may
not make it.?’ (I would go GULP when she said this.) Ann gave me a lot of her
work ethic. Her teaching style is the same as mine: she is an educator as she
teaches. She keeps it about the dancer, not herself, and I feel that’s where I’ve
become successful as a teacher. It’s about molding the young generation not
myself anymore.
Ann always taught me to be humble, work hard, stay focused and don’t be the
only person in the room who doesn’t get the joke. She taught me to keep my
education going and always keep growing. Never think there isn’t someone
hungrier than you are in the room, and if you’re going go for it – go big or
don’t go at all.”
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