{"id":105318,"date":"2025-04-29T11:43:51","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T16:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=105318"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:05:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:05:28","slug":"adult-ballerinas-chasseing-down-memory-lane-more-than-just-a-side-hobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/adult-ballerinas-chasseing-down-memory-lane-more-than-just-a-side-hobby\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult ballerinas chass\u00e9ing down memory lane: \u2018More than just a side hobby\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kaitlyn Luckoff<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Debra Cannon, 66, leaves her job at Abbott Laboratories around 5 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday \u2013 and puts on a ballet leotard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI like the feel of being in ballet, wearing ballet clothes,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cannon suits up for Melanie Cortier\u2019s 90-minute advanced beginner\/intermediate class at Chicago Ballet Arts in Evanston. The studio offers $17 drop-in sessions for adults five days a week.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cortier invites students to come to class in whatever is comfortable. Some even wear socks instead of ballet slippers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to cater to people’s schedules and to make it possible because dance is so fun,\u201d Cortier said. \u201cI just want to make it possible for anybody who wants to participate.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though no one formally tracks how many adults are taking such classes, teachers and students report ballet is no longer just for little kids in pink tutus and professionals at The Joffrey. After all, studies show dancing can improve cardiovascular fitness, endurance, strength, flexibility, balance and agility. ClassPass, the popular fitness, beauty and wellness subscription platform, lists more than 30 dance classes for adults in Chicago. With International Dance Day on April 29 (the birthday of modern ballet creator Jean-Georges Noverre, born in 1727), men and women alike are staying on their toes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do get some people in our classes who are, like, \u2018I haven’t taken a class since the second grade,\u2019\u201d said Stefany Cotton, co-owner of The Rooted Space in Lakeview. \u201cYou’re going back to a happy place.\u201d Some students talk about healing their \u201cinner child,\u201d she said. \u201cI also think there’s something really beautiful about nostalgia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The older folks<\/b><\/p>\n

In her classes at both the Lincoln Street Ballet in Evanston and the North Sho<\/span>re Senior Center, Hallie Rehwaldt says the average ballerina is 58 to 75.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor most studios, an adult class means anybody over the age of 18 who’s not on a professional track,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me, I’m training women who are over 50, and going up to the point where they don’t want to be on their feet anymore. You could be 95, and I’ll have a class for you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rehwaldt\u2019s only requirement: wear dance shoes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The older demographic of dancing adults is around the same age at Glenwood Dance Studio in Rogers Park.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Adults perform at Glenwood Dance Studio annual performance. (Photo courtesy of Kim Baker).\u00a0<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When their local studio suddenly went out of business after two years, these adult dancers founded a non-profit in its place, saving their dance community. Founding member Sandra Verthein said students\u2019 ages range up to 70s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur tagline is that we’re a welcoming community of dance,\u201d Verthein said. \u201cWhether you’re good or not does not matter. What matters is that you’re showing up, and you’re trying, and you’re doing your best.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The first-timers<\/b><\/p>\n

When Nia Crosley was growing up, she couldn\u2019t take ballet because of the cost, she says. For the past 15 years, the now-35-year-old has been dancing as a hobby.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to be a ballet dancer,\u201d she said. \u201cI had the ballerina Barbie and everything, but I didn’t start dancing until I had my own money, which was in college.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crosley takes classes at The Rooted Space, an exclusively adult dance studio that opened in Lakeview five years ago. It stopped offering children\u2019s classes in December 2024 because of higher demand for the 18-and-up demographic, said Cotton, the co-owner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always very important to me that it never felt like a kids studio,\u201d Cotton said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Rooted Space offers ballet and contemporary classes, jazz, modern, fundamentals and a \u201cbooty barre\u201d fitness class.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most fitness-class students reserve a space via ClassPass, Cotton said, but fewer dancers book through the platform. Instead, they tend to buy drop-in passes for $17. The fitness class and professional class rate is $14 at The Rooted Space.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Teaching grown-ups<\/b><\/p>\n

When teaching adults, classically trained ballerina Morgan McDaniel, 26, uses the same piano music, arranged in eight counts, that she played teaching children. The music varies based on her mood, she said. McDaniel instructs \u201cabsolute\u201d beginner ballet, beginner\/intermediate ballet and beginner\/intermediate jazz at The Rooted Space.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAdults are super self-motivated because they’re choosing to take class,\u201d McDaniel said. \u201cWith kids, sometimes their parents are putting them in classes they don\u2019t necessarily want to be in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A conversation with the late David Howard, international ballet dancer and teacher, resonated with Cortier, as she teaches children three days a week and adults four.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Children learn from the toes up, adults learn from the head down.\u2019 And that’s really true,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to really be able to use your words and describe what it is for them (adults) to figure it out, because the older we get, the more nervous we get just to throw ourselves at something.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Adults coming back to the barre<\/b><\/p>\n

Walking through the doors of Chicago Ballet Arts is a step into her past for 31-year-old Maxine Lapin. She danced at the studio for 12 years when she was growing up and remembers the required tight clothing as her least favorite part.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs an adult, I really love that the standard is anything goes,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I’m in just a leo and tights I feel childish, because that was the uniform of my childhood and also because no one wants to be under that level of microscope.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lapin explained the importance of traditional ballet attire for young dancers beginning their training.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so much about correcting alignment and developing the right type of movement when they’re growing up,\u201d she said. \u201cSo you need to see their hips and you need to see their feet and you need to see their bodies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After college, Lapin participated in the highest level of children\u2019s ballet until an adult class was finally offered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen adults don’t have their own space to take ballet classes, there could be an increased risk of injury, or also just feeling insecure,\u201d Lapin said. \u201cIt’s just very different dancing as an adult than it is dancing as a kid\u2026 (I) feel, not young again, but like ballet has a new meaning to me\u2026 It’s just about doing what we used to love doing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Adult dancers begin class at the barre. (Photo courtesy of Chicago Ballet Arts Staff).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Continuing the legacy<\/b><\/p>\n

Founded in 1986, Chicago Ballet Arts is training its second generation of ballerinas. Lapin attributes the continued success of the nonprofit studio to the comfort of the small, family-oriented community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a reason why families come back,\u201d Lapin said. \u201cGirls who were in the first classes in the \u201880s and \u201890s bring their daughters and their kids.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An underlying message: Give adults the opportunity to dance, whether they\u2019re childhood ballerinas or first-timers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are people with rich lives, they’ve been good at various things,\u201d Rehwaldt said. \u201cMost of them were never professional dancers, but they bring so much to it and I am so motivated to keep it really interesting and fun for them. I\u2019m not easing up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Luckoff is a graduate student at Medill specializing in magazine reporting. You can connect with her on <\/span><\/i>Linkedin<\/span><\/i><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kaitlyn Luckoff Medill Reports Debra Cannon, 66, leaves her job at Abbott Laboratories around 5 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday \u2013 and puts on a ballet leotard.\u00a0 \u201cI like the feel of being in ballet, wearing ballet clothes,\u201d she said. Cannon suits up for Melanie Cortier\u2019s 90-minute advanced beginner\/intermediate class at Chicago Ballet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":996,"featured_media":105320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,5251,5542,5493],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-chicago","category-msj25","category-spring-2025"],"yoast_head":"\nAdult ballerinas chass\u00e9ing down memory lane: \u2018More than just a side hobby\u2019 - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/adult-ballerinas-chasseing-down-memory-lane-more-than-just-a-side-hobby\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adult ballerinas chass\u00e9ing down memory lane: \u2018More than just a side hobby\u2019 - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Kaitlyn Luckoff Medill Reports Debra Cannon, 66, leaves her job at Abbott Laboratories around 5 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday \u2013 and puts on a ballet leotard.\u00a0 \u201cI like the feel of being in ballet, wearing ballet clothes,\u201d she said. 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