Studio Grows Out Of Passion For Dance, Education...

     In any venture, passion inspires people to achieve great things.  The corollary is, inspired, passionate people do what they do because they must.  It's a privilege to meet someone who puts this passion to productive use.  RoseMarie Libera does.   She owns Company 'N Tempo Theatre & Dance Centre In Cromwell.  The studio's in the rear of a squat, cavernous warehouse at 211 Shunpike Road.  It offers instruction in theater, voice, dance, piano and guitar.  Dance lessons keep the center going, but this isn't your typical dance studio.  No end of year recital featuring little girls in sequins and feathers dancing Rockette style in endless production numbers. Instead, Libera has designed a course of dance instruction that relies on age and developmental ability.  Learning a dance is secondary.  No one is exploiting them for the price or a costume or a show. Libera said of the preschoolers at her school, who do not appear on stage or at a recital.  Their performance is a half hour presentation in their classroom.  It's not for everyone, admits Libera, whose features soften as she reassures a student whose mother was late for a lesson.  Given her background, It's completely logical.

     Libera always loved dance. She never took a lesson until she attended Central Connecticut State University, where she received a bachelor's degree in English. She took modern dance classes and soon joined the school's dance company.  Before college, her choreography experience was limited to dancing to Fred Astaire movies on TV, cheerleading and gymnastics.

     After graduating from Central In 1971 (she was in its dance company), she taught English at area schools, coached track and field, choreographed high school musicals and took classes at the School of Hartford Ballet. Soon after, she returned to college to get a master's degree in physical education.  She continued teaching part time for a while and started a family with her husband, John Lael Libera of Cromwell Concrete.  They have four children: a 20year old son, 15-year old twin sons and a 13-year-old daughter.

     While raising her family, Libera started a dance troupe called Company 'n Tempo.  She was Tempo, a white faced character who looked like a mime.  Tempo performed at area schools to introduce  kindergartners to movement.  The presentation evolved into Libera's preschool program.  The leap from troupe to studio happened after a frustrating search for dance classes for her daughter. No studio taught dance the way Libera thought It should be taught.  "My teaching background made me aware of how kids learn. It made me look at teaching dance with a different perspective.  The why and how of movement is important.  It takes very little to put a dance together".

     Taking classes at area studios meant learning a dance or dances for a recital, which her daughter refused to participate In at first.  "She was only 5 years old. She was uncomfortable" said Libera.

     So, In October 1990, she opened the studio.  She hired teachers certified in their disciplines or those with teaching experience.  This included teachers from the School of Hartford Ballet, Connecticut Opera, an award-winning tap specialist and a dance teacher with a master's degree in special education.  The program doesn't depend on Libera's expertise in dance, but on her judgment as to who can best teach.

     If this were a musical, the curtain would rise, and the dancers would appear on stage to take their final bows to thunderous applause.  But how do you measure success?   Happy students?  The women In the adult tap dance class were smiling.   Alex Kromidas, a multitalented 12 year-old from Newington, was 6 when he started.   He stayed because everyone is nice. He's happy.

     But the production's not over.  This is more work in progress. No one has gone through the entire program yet, not even her daughter.  And It doesn't matter if her students become dancers.

     "We're teaching you to be creative within a structure, You can take that anyplace".

     And, if success means money, Libera would be a failure.  She's never taken a salary, and this is the first year since Company 'N Tempo has been open that she hasn't put in her own money to keep it going.  She hopes this will change, but in the meantime, she does what she does simply because she must.

A Personal Touch is about people in the Middlesex Extra circulation area of Cromwell, Middletown and Portland. If you have ideas about future columns. please call me at (860) 343-5253, send a fax to (860) 343-5220. or drop me a line at The Courant, 373 E.Main St.. Middletown, CT 06457.

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