Sudbury Living - Spring 2008 - (Page 50)

■ arts BY DAVID DUCHARME D ncin Ida Ida Sauve (right) started teaching in a basement studio built by her father. PHOTO BY KARL SOMMERER Sauve hasn’t really thought much about it. But come May, it’s bound to sink in. That’s when a group of friends and former students will help her to celebrate 50 years as a dance teacher in Sudbury. Sauve fondly recalls how it all began. “When I was 12, I was taking classes – tap, acrobatic and baton twirling - with one studio. And I was taking ballet with another studio. And one of the teachers asked me to help out with her classes.” Soon after, when the instructor became pregnant, Sauve was asked to temporarily take over. The following year, Sauve’s father built her a small studio in the basement of their home in Minnow Lake. Parents found it a more convenient location because they didn’t have to drive “all the way into town” to take their kids to dance. So, with the blessing of her teacher, Sauve began running her own classes. “I really didn’t think about it much at the time. I must have been terribly weird,” Sauve says with a big laugh. “I look at the kids today and I think, ‘oh my God, I was 13 and running my own business’!” It wasn’t much of a business really. She only charged her students a quarter a month. But she had laid the foundation for a life in dance. It didn’t take long for her enterprise to take the next step. When her instructor moved to Toronto, just one dance studio remained in Sudbury. That left a huge void that Sauve was all too willing to ﬁll. Her class went from 10 students to 25 overnight. “And it never stopped. By the time I got out of high school, I had about 35 students.” When Sauve graduated from high school, she made what she now regards as a curious decision. “I took a job with the city,” Sauve says. “I still didn’t know I had a business!” She would work until 5; teach until 9 or 10 every night, and on weekends. “It was basically two full-time jobs,” Sauve remembers. The city gig lasted ﬁve years before Sauve “came to her senses.” “It occurred to me, I couldn’t keep going like I was. So, when it ﬁnally registered that I could really teach dance full time, the choice was easy.” 50 Sudbury Living Spring 2008 sudburylivingmagazine.ca http://www.sudburylivingmagazine.ca

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Sudbury Living - Spring 2008

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