In the Grand(y) tradition: Maria Grandy.

When I ask the Juilliard School's vivacious, energetic, feisty Maria Grandy what makes her unique as a dance teacher, she pauses for a beat, then says, "My positive attitude and my love of dance. I try to help dancers understand that dancing is joyful, and that they are fortunate to be doing this wonderful thing. I also emphasize that life is now, not later; live it every day at every level. A good class is part of the fun of living!"

It was not the answer one would expect. What about pointing your feet, jumping, and turning? That did come later in our conversation, but technique was not the first thing on Grandy's mind. "It is extremely important that students recognize that they are human beings as well as dancers," she says. "Even Balanchine and Graham had lovers, were interested in good food and companionship, were sensitive to nature, enjoyed travel. Being a dancer doesn't mean that you stop experiencing other things in life.

"Also important is having a dream, and the confidence to know that dreams can change to accommodate to reality. If you fail in one direction, you can succeed in another."

Grandy's own life is a case in point. She grew up in Portland, Oregon, studying with Nicholas Vasilieff, Monica Land (briefly), and Jacqueline Martin Schumacher. "What a combination!" she says. "From Mr. Vasilieff came movement, flow, Russian panache. Mrs. Schumacher provided careful technical training--the fine details and nuance."

At seventeen, Grandy wanted desperately to go to New York City but didn't have the financial means. In August 1955, the company she had read and dreamed about, New York City Ballet, came to perform in nearby Seattle. Grandy went to see them, of course. Armed only with total naivete and a pair of ballet slippers, she went backstage after the performance and asked if she could audition.

As luck would have it, NYCB had been hit with a series of injuries. Ballet mistress Vida Brown actually granted an audition, liked what she saw, and offered Grandy a short-term contract on the spot. Within three days, Grandy had left Portland, and for two glorious weeks she performed with the company in Chicago.

Of course, the Cinderella story didn't continue. It usually does not in real life, which is why our dreams need to be adjusted. At the end of the two weeks, Balanchine informed her that, while he liked her work, she simply did not have the correct body type for his company (no long legs, only five feet four and a half inches tall, and not really skinny). He would, of course, pay her fare back to Portland. In typical fashion, Grandy convinced him that it would be cheaper to take her to New York City with the company, and so he did. One week later, dreams adjusted, she was hired by the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

Another dancer might look upon this as a misfortune. In the world according to the optimistic Grandy, it was a wonderful beginning. "I had no idea how fortunate I was," she says. "I had simply followed my star. I knew that I would dance someplace."

While at the Met, Grandy studied with Margaret Craske, a bit with Antony Tudor, and with Igor Schwezoff. Then she and Robert Joffrey discovered one another, and the course of her dancing life was changed forever. She adored Joffrey as teacher and artist; he loved her dancing and her intelligent way of working. She joined Robert Joffrey Theatre Ballet as a soloist. (It was early on, just one year after Joffrey's initial station-wagon tour.) The association continued throughout most of Grandy's career. She became ballet mistress for and assistant to Joffrey during his tenure with New York City Opera; she taught for many years at the Joffrey-affiliated school, the American Ballet Center; she became associated with the Joffrey 11 Dancers. Eventually she rose to become its artistic director after several years of being associate director working with Sally Brayley Bliss.

Grandy also did a stint in the ballet company of Radio City Music Hall. At one point in her career when she was dancing with the Brooklyn Ballet, she was so dissatisfied with the way rehearsals were run that she proposed to director Alan Banks that he let her rehearse the company. He agreed, and her career as a director and ballet mistress began.

At another juncture, Grandy again became restless and decided to study Labanotation. She enrolled in an intensive two-week course, became fascinated by the method, and went on to become a certified teacher and reconstructor; she now stages ballets of Joffrey, Massine, Tudor, and Norbert Vesak all over the world.

She was also an excellent student of notation. I know; I was her teacher. I was so impressed with her skills that I later asked her to do some guest teaching for me at the dance division of the Juilliard School, where I was director. She is now a full-time faculty member at Juilliard. Along the way, never forgetting her own advice about living fully, Grandy married entrepreneur Seymour Schorr, produced two lovely daughters, and is now the proud grandma of Baby Julia Silverman. She's a fine cook, a terrific gardener, a passionate bird-watcher, and a whiz on the tennis court.

When I ask Grandy what makes a great dancer and how a great teacher trains one, the answer is predictably straightforward and wise: "No teacher can take credit for a dancer. They are potentially good when they come to you. But we can help them grow as technicians, as artists, and as human beings. There are certainly some physical necessities: a well-proportioned body, good natural coordination, no extreme physical disabilities, adequate feet, and some natural turnout. Most important, a potential dancer needs to have a love of music, a sense of drama, imagination, the will to take chances, and a certain inner light. These are things that can't be taught.

"A good teacher can help students capitalize on their natural abilities and make them aware of what they possess. We encourage them to take those chances, to be open to constructive criticism, and to learn to criticize themselves in a joyful, positive way. It is also imperative to make the student aware of his or her range of dynamics. Each of us has a preferred inherent range--some of us are, by nature, quick, others are more legato. Becoming aware of these natural predilections, capitalizing on them, increasing the range, and working on the areas that are not inherent is a large but essential task. The teacher will recognize how each type of student approaches or finishes a movement and will help with the sense of attack and the phrasing.

"Teachers themselves have a limited range. If you are inherently quick, your adagios will never be as slow or as satisfying as those of a slower teacher, and vice versa. We need to be aware of our own dynamic range, which can be complemented by selecting an accompanist whose range is the opposite. The accompanist has a huge influence on the class.

"I love classes that are quiet, ones in which the teacher speaks softly and the students listen in rapt attention. Whenever I observe such a class I am determined that I will teach just like that. Then I enter my own class. Within ten minutes I am yelling and screaming, clapping my hands, calling out corrections, and the place is anything but quiet. Sometimes it gets absolutely chaotic. But how can I teach in that nice, quiet manner? There is nothing about me that is like that. I try to instill in students the idea that they must accept what they are. I find it more difficult to apply this wise adage to myself!"

Grandy suggests that a good school will assemble a faculty with differing dynamic ranges and strengths. She is highly in favor of studying with several teachers when it is practical and believes that a dancer should be exposed to more than one ballet style or technique. While there are some technical things that are basically correct (or incorrect), there is a lot of room for variation in many areas. Technique is constantly evolving.

What else should a dancer's training include? Grandy believes that the more a dancer knows, the better dancer he or she is going to be. Sometime during a dancer's training he or she should gain some knowledge of anatomy and kinesiology. A knowledge of music is absolutely essential, as is exposure to modem dance, since that seems to be the way contemporary ballet is going, with many emerging choreographers coming from the modem dance world.

Knowledge of Labanotation was quite helpful to Grandy herself as a teacher. She finds that students who have that training see movement more clearly and have a better understanding of both timing and the small adjustments that occur in dancing.

She also believes that a dancer should be familiar with theater, either by studying acting or gaining knowledge of dramatic projection in other ways. She encourages young dancers to read books on technique and to look at pictures to analyze the technique and artistry that come through the photos. Line, technique, and placement are interwoven; line is also part of the artistry. The more one sees, the more one has a goal in the mind's eye.

Grandy closes by talking about how she has been privileged to participate in the development of so many beautiful dancers and so many beautiful people. Tina LeBlanc, Jodie Gates, Tom Mossbrucker, Glenn Edgerton, Cynthia Anderson, Kevin O'Day, Leslie Carothers, James Canfield, and Mark Goldweber are among her "babies." "Some of my former students have big names; some don't," she says, "but all have enriched my life so very much. Teaching is a wonderful profession--it's not really teaching, but sharing. You share your information and the students share their hard work."

To students, she says, "Even though your dreams probably won't come true as you first imagined, start with a dream. Dreams change; they get altered by reality, but the passion for dance need not go away. Performing is a short career, so try to prepare yourself for the `afterlife.'"

Postscript: After our extended interview, I got a call from Maria Grandy. "Be sure the article isn't just about me," she said. "Make sure the readers come away with some information they can use."

Muriel Topaz, a Dance Magazine editor, was executive director of the Dance Notation Bureau (1978-85) and director of the Juilliard School Dance Division (1985-92).