Dance Is Life For One Local Instructor
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Christine Fossemalle’s motto in life is to “pay attention to detail and tender loving care.” With such a creed to live by, it’s no wonder why Fossemalle Dance Studio will be commemorating its 21-year existence July 11-14 with the “An Invitation to Dance” performance.
“Dancing is like a calling for me,” Fossemalle said. “I’ve always loved it.”
Started up in 1986, Fossemalle Dance Studio offers classes in Ballet, Classical Jazz, Hip Hop and Tap. The studio is also home to the Santa Ynez Valley Performing Arts Company.
Fossemalle’s dance fever crept in when she was a 7-year-old and no cure has been found.
“When I first told my mother I wanted to dance, she told me ‘wait a year and if you still want to dance then, we’ll go ahead and do it,’” Fossemalle said, recalling how supportive her parents were. “I had to wait so much time to dance, that when I did [get to] dance I never stopped.”
Though Fossemalle does not come from a long line of dancers, she said her dance spirit comes from her grandfather Pierre, who loved to ballroom dance and was excellent with rhythm and timing.
“He was always happy, but towards the end of his life, despite being often tired, his fingers were always going and tapping,” Fossemalle said, while on the verge of tears at the memory of her grandfather, who recently passed away at 96-years of age.
As a native French woman, Fossemalle studied dance in conservatories in Europe before moving to Chicago to continue her education in the ‘80s. She made the Santa Ynez Valley home in 1986. Her first studio space was located at 3558 Sagunto St., where the Roasted Bean stands now.
“I had a studio in the front and in the back,” Fossemalle said. “Things were different then.”
Opening a studio and a dance company came naturally to Fossemalle.
“It just happened,” she said. “I danced for a while and then wanted to communicate and continue the tradition of dance that I had been taught.”
“I feel so lucky that I had such wonderful teachers, that I wanted to give what I was given,” she added.
Fossemalle’s drive to pass down the tradition of dance to her students has paid off. Some of her students have grown up in the studio and say they couldn’t imagine dancing without her instruction.
“The fact that there is so much love in the studio is my favorite part of dancing with Ms. Christine,” said 14-year-old Kathleen Degoede, who has been dancing with Fossemalle since the age of five. “I love moving around, being with my friends and I love music, so it just all adds up.”
17-year-old Brittany Cohen has been dancing with the studio for over 10 years and she also feels the Fossemalle dance experience is unique.
“I enjoy the environment [Fossemalle] provides,” Cohen said. “She doesn’t make it so intense where it’s not fun anymore. She makes it real outgoing and you’re just happy to be there and you’re happy to learn how to dance.”
Currently the studio has about 200 students and four instructors who teach Ballet and the other dance genres the studio offers.
2007 marks the studio’s 21st anniversary and the Santa Ynez Valley Performing Arts Company’s 20th Anniversary.
To commemorate its double decade existence, students who were ever involved and or graduated from the dance school were invited to come back and participate in “An Invitation to Dance 20th Anniversary Celebration” on July 11-14.
The performance will feature some of the studio’s favorite ballet, jazz and tap choreographies. The ballet segment of the show will include “Flower Festival” and “Faust.” The jazz and tap segments will include “Tuxedo Junction” and “I’ve Got Rhythm.”
Fossemalle has only one desire for the future, to continue to make the Dance Studio and the Santa Ynez Valley Dance Company a place kids and adolescents can experience the joy of dancing.
“I don’t want to expand. I just want to maintain what I have. I am not into numbers,” Fossemalle said. “I am lucky because I love doing what I do and I would never do anything else. As I get older, I see more people doing things they don’t like and that just makes me appreciate it even more.”
“Every time I teach certain classes with older girls, I always tell them that ‘I hope when you are my age’ even though I am not that old, ‘that you have as much fun doing your job as I do,’” Fossemalle added, “because for me it’s not a job. It’s my life and it’s just wonderful.”
For more information about Fossemalle Dance Studio, the Santa Ynez Dance Company or “Invitation to Dance” call 805-688-8494.
Tickets are now on sale for $15 and can only be purchased at the studio, 3595 Numancia St. Santa Ynez.
The performance will be held at the Little Theater at Santa Ynez Union
High School, East Highway 246 at Refugio Road. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the
performance starts at
7 p.m.