Dance: Choreographer Stephanie Sands
Time of Sands
Choreographer Stephanie Sands Stepping Down
SundayNews (Lancaster, PA)
March 28, 2004
By MaryAlice Bitts
As Stephanie Sands shepherds the students of Manheim Township High School through “Footloose: The Musical” April 1-3, she’ll be “cutting loose, footloose!” herself.
At 50, the still fresh-faced choreographer/educator says she is about to hang up her dancing shoes for good.
“I have had people ask me to do some things after this show, and I really don’t want to do that. I haven’t scheduled anything ... until I do my comeback,” Sands jokes.
The local arts community will feel the loss. For more than two decades, Sands has been seemingly everywhere, lending her talent to approximately 71 performances across the county, as resident choreographer of the Fulton Opera House; director, performer and choreographer at the Ephrata Area Playhouse; originator of Theater of the Seventh Sister’s Winter Dance Festival; and as a teacher at camps and schools.
In short, if you’ve attended musical theater or dance in this area, you’ve probably applauded her work – whether you knew it or not.
Trained as a modern dancer (“Modern dance really comes from your gut”), Sands is known for using untrained dancers well.
“I’m not a great dancer, so I know how to break things down – how to make them more comfortable,” she said with a modesty belied by her starring performance in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” several seasons ago at Ephrata Playhouse in the Park.
In Actors Company’s “Fiddler on Roof,” her dancers did a difficult ethnic dance with glass bottles balanced on their heads. Sands notes regretfully that the program never noted that the bottles were NOT Velcroed on as they are in many productions of that show.
“In the scheme of things, it’s no big deal, but oh, I wish people knew how hard that is to do, and how hard they worked,” she said.
Newspaper reviews did, however, praise the “incredible, spirited dancing at the tavern,” and Sands’ “unique” and “effective” touches.
So why, given her success, is she leaving choreography at such a young age?
“I’ve changed my interests,” Sands said simply, “just focusing more on family and church.”
Sands had been scaling back for some time. “I had been doing about three or four big productions per year (plus other projects) and more in the late ’80s. Lately, I’ve only done one or two. I’ve been very gently closing the door.”
Several years ago, family demands called for major life changes. “My father passed away a couple of years ago. Prior to that, I was in a care-giving role and had to do third-shift jobs to take him to doctors’ appointments. My mother had Alzheimer’s. Choreography and teaching take a lot of energy.”
Sands decided to cut back on teaching and theater, and she learned something: “I didn’t even miss dance. I can be creative with cooking. I can be satisfied working in the liturgy.”
The liturgy was relatively new. Sands had been raised Catholic, but had “bounced around from Christian Science to Zen Buddhism” as an adult before returning to the faith of her childhood. Two years ago, when a part-time position as a liturgy coordinator became available at her church, St. Mary’s in Lancaster, she gave it a try.
In that capacity, she organizes all elements of the Mass and all of its lay participants.
“Somebody said it sounds like I am a stage manager. I get to use the same skills I used as a choreographer, and I am working with people I care about on a daily basis,” she says.
There is a temptation, as one nears retirement, to let one’s mind wander away from the task at hand, toward the next phase in life.
But as she prepares her young “Footloose” dancers for opening night, Sands is clearly enchanted: “The students have so much enthusiasm, and they aren’t afraid of overtly showing it – that is just so incredible.
“With a show like ‘Footloose,’ they are just agog – they are really loving it! And that kind of energy feeds you in ways that I haven’t felt fed in some shows. It comes through in the performance, too.”
And in the choreography. The moves, Sands assures us, aren’t the same old, same old.
“I like to try new things!” she says. “I’ve been at Manheim Township since 1983, and the kids have been my guinea pigs through the years. I try something out on them, and if it works, I take it out to the community.”
As to after the curtain falls, Sands said, “I don’t have anything booked. I’m kind of humming and waiting to see where this will go. I encourage people to listen to that little voice telling them, `What do I think I can learn from this?’ This journey of my parents has led me to this realization – happily so.”
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Choreographer Stephanie Sands Stepping Down
SundayNews (Lancaster, PA)
March 28, 2004
By MaryAlice Bitts
As Stephanie Sands shepherds the students of Manheim Township High School through “Footloose: The Musical” April 1-3, she’ll be “cutting loose, footloose!” herself.
At 50, the still fresh-faced choreographer/educator says she is about to hang up her dancing shoes for good.
“I have had people ask me to do some things after this show, and I really don’t want to do that. I haven’t scheduled anything ... until I do my comeback,” Sands jokes.
The local arts community will feel the loss. For more than two decades, Sands has been seemingly everywhere, lending her talent to approximately 71 performances across the county, as resident choreographer of the Fulton Opera House; director, performer and choreographer at the Ephrata Area Playhouse; originator of Theater of the Seventh Sister’s Winter Dance Festival; and as a teacher at camps and schools.
In short, if you’ve attended musical theater or dance in this area, you’ve probably applauded her work – whether you knew it or not.
Trained as a modern dancer (“Modern dance really comes from your gut”), Sands is known for using untrained dancers well.
“I’m not a great dancer, so I know how to break things down – how to make them more comfortable,” she said with a modesty belied by her starring performance in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” several seasons ago at Ephrata Playhouse in the Park.
In Actors Company’s “Fiddler on Roof,” her dancers did a difficult ethnic dance with glass bottles balanced on their heads. Sands notes regretfully that the program never noted that the bottles were NOT Velcroed on as they are in many productions of that show.
“In the scheme of things, it’s no big deal, but oh, I wish people knew how hard that is to do, and how hard they worked,” she said.
Newspaper reviews did, however, praise the “incredible, spirited dancing at the tavern,” and Sands’ “unique” and “effective” touches.
So why, given her success, is she leaving choreography at such a young age?
“I’ve changed my interests,” Sands said simply, “just focusing more on family and church.”
Sands had been scaling back for some time. “I had been doing about three or four big productions per year (plus other projects) and more in the late ’80s. Lately, I’ve only done one or two. I’ve been very gently closing the door.”
Several years ago, family demands called for major life changes. “My father passed away a couple of years ago. Prior to that, I was in a care-giving role and had to do third-shift jobs to take him to doctors’ appointments. My mother had Alzheimer’s. Choreography and teaching take a lot of energy.”
Sands decided to cut back on teaching and theater, and she learned something: “I didn’t even miss dance. I can be creative with cooking. I can be satisfied working in the liturgy.”
The liturgy was relatively new. Sands had been raised Catholic, but had “bounced around from Christian Science to Zen Buddhism” as an adult before returning to the faith of her childhood. Two years ago, when a part-time position as a liturgy coordinator became available at her church, St. Mary’s in Lancaster, she gave it a try.
In that capacity, she organizes all elements of the Mass and all of its lay participants.
“Somebody said it sounds like I am a stage manager. I get to use the same skills I used as a choreographer, and I am working with people I care about on a daily basis,” she says.
There is a temptation, as one nears retirement, to let one’s mind wander away from the task at hand, toward the next phase in life.
But as she prepares her young “Footloose” dancers for opening night, Sands is clearly enchanted: “The students have so much enthusiasm, and they aren’t afraid of overtly showing it – that is just so incredible.
“With a show like ‘Footloose,’ they are just agog – they are really loving it! And that kind of energy feeds you in ways that I haven’t felt fed in some shows. It comes through in the performance, too.”
And in the choreography. The moves, Sands assures us, aren’t the same old, same old.
“I like to try new things!” she says. “I’ve been at Manheim Township since 1983, and the kids have been my guinea pigs through the years. I try something out on them, and if it works, I take it out to the community.”
As to after the curtain falls, Sands said, “I don’t have anything booked. I’m kind of humming and waiting to see where this will go. I encourage people to listen to that little voice telling them, `What do I think I can learn from this?’ This journey of my parents has led me to this realization – happily so.”
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Labels: bottle dance, mary alice bitts, MaryAlice Bitts, stephanie sands
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