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Show Wednesday, July 28, 2004 B1 Eft wressions Community Calendar July 29 TOPS meets in Conference Room Pamiceir By Maureen Spencer Express Writer Watching her hands is deceptive. decep-tive. As each finger quietly interprets the movement of the young women before her, it is hypnotic as an index finger barely whisks a knee or the subtle upward swing of a thumb brings six ankles higher in the line of ballerinas at the mirrored bar. The dancers' eyes are frequently riveted to her gentle movements. Taunia Wheeler's voice is soft as she evaluates the girls' movements, but strong with authority when giving instructions. She has told me earlier, "I saw the excitement of teaching and giving to someone else and seeing them grow." That was when this Idaho farm girl was already an experienced dancer and being recognized by her own teachers-each teacher with a respectable list of accomplishments. Taunia is a native of Blackfoot, Idaho, where her mother was a recognized local tap, ballet and tumbling teacher. Paunie Van Orden was about to give her gifted daughter a dancer's opportunity of a lifetime. When Taunia was six her family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. "That's when so many opportunities opened to me," she says in retrospect. Because the Las Vegas strip was beginning to be the showcase of the "stars", a long list of the best singers, musicians, comedians and dancers were flocking into the desert to entertain. Along with the headliners, entertainment coaches and teachers likewise had followed the exodus into the Nevada desert. Tap dancer Macio Anderson, one of the Step Brothers, was in Vegas. He had worked with Jerry Lewis and Donald O'Conner. Paunie approached Anderson requesting private tap lessons for Taunia, 14, and younger children Troy, 10, Wendy, 8. Anderson- was"Th'en 'looking for five young dancers to become the next Step Brothers and "Sisters" and saw great potential in Taunia's dancing abilities. Paunie had taught her children well. "This was really exciting," Taunia remembers of the honor of being picked to be a protege of this show business dancing star. Her mother continued to teach her ballet until she couldn't take the girl's talents further. That's when Taunia began six years of intense ballet training with Christina Carson. Carson had studied with European teacher Madame Premajenska, a premier ballerina in Europe. Christina Carson went on to become a principal dancer with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a Russian Ballet company. Taunia acknowledges that Christina gave her a passion for classical ballet. Today, Taunia's sister teaches dance in Mesa, Ariz., and her brother was on the Brigham Young University ballroom dance team. A fleeting touch reminds muscles motion. "('H' (Iff My iJ --II , ', ffomMals esxciiteinTueirDti dot tieadhiiiinigj : i.- 9 L f I As a young dancer, Taunia Wheeler received dance instruction from a wide variety of recognized tap, ballet and gymnastics professionals, enabling her to develop her own dance studio in Vernal. She was recently named the National America on Stage director of the year. " I)' IP f j r.-l Li Taunia asks perfection from the decades of learning the art. DUl 1UIIUIIC WUUIU uui pciiim U1C young Taunia to garner fame and fortune tap dancing on the Vegas n.. r i : .l and tendons to reach a unified , "" , ' f .it. v i 1i & W 4 V.. M . J : ;-4':y;ky 7 i i dancers who enter her studio. The strip or as a ballerina in Nevada. Taunia's senior year of high school, Paunie returned her family to Idaho. Looking back at her years of dance training, Taunia says, "My mother gave me a dance education. My dancing from experience and excellent teachers was a better education than I ever could have received in college." From Christina she had learned the beauty of mastery and discipline. Taunia's voice becomes animated as she recalls the experience. "Self-mastery, "Self-mastery, where you're always reaching for perfection-it. is so incredibly awesome that you're in control of your body in self-mastery. It is an exquisite art." Seventeen-years-old and back in Idaho there seemed nothing for the trained young dancer to do. "Dance was gone. I felt I needed to continue dance to be where I wanted to be to reach my goals," she says. Her goal was to "hit New York and be part of a professional ballet company." Thirty miles away from their home lived a dancer who invited the artistically languishing Taunia to be a guest artist in her production of the "Nutcracker." As a result of her outstanding , performance in the classic, ballet, and the impression she made on the principal dancer, she was offered . a dance scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet in New York. Her dreams were coming true. The years of training from impressive 'iy ' - 4 TT requirement is based upon her teachers had paid off. She did not go to New York. "I was still a senior in high school. The timing just was not right. I realized that this was not what my life was to be, even though I desired to be on stage." After a pause, Tauna says with conviction, "It was my gift to channel students to have confidence in themselves. If they don't have that, I think they get lost." So her Saturdays would be spent in the junior high gym teaching tap and ballet. Before long, her mother would develop her own studio and Taunia would teach there. Today, at 70, Paunie still teaches in her Idaho studio and has come to teach in Taunia's studio. . Now' a high school graduate, Taunia and a local farm boy "noticed" each other. Within a year Clint Wheeler and Taunia were wed. Eventually they bought a farm. "It was the year all farmers gave their potatoes to the pigs because the prices were so low." The Wheelers lost everything. Knowing ' that they would find work in the Utah oil boom, they packed up and moved to Vernal, where Clint worked for Western Petroleum.' . Taunia spent a year1 cleaning house, pregnant and being bored. She began teaching dance with a clientele of 2-3-year-olds. "The dance classes just grew," she says. Before long, she had 375 ballet, T 1 i .x 1 44 clogging, jazz and gymnastics students. She remembers the number of hours she put in during a week was "unreal". Her husband, says Taunia, "has so much art inside of him." She describes his set designs, directing plays and beautiful singing voice. Clint figures greatly in Taunia's Vernal business. "My Clint can do anything!" she exclaims, but her confidence in his abilities were sorely tried the day he took her to the place he announced as, "the most incredible place" for her to have her own studio. "There were dead pigeons, a cement floor and no ceiling," she says with humor in her voice at the memory. "Can't you just imagine this beautiful studio?" Clint urged. Seeing her dismay he advised, "Trust me!" And thus Powerhouse Theater and Dancers entered the Vernal entertainment scene. Added to the Wheeler's dance studio would be locally produced major Broadway plays-dramas and musicals-dinner theater, wedding receptions and community meetings. The remodel of the former diesel shop into a dance studio and theater took several months to complete. Memories flood her mind. "We were opening a show and the night before we were filling holes in the hardwood floor." She credits Clint with being able to walk into the hollow, littered garage and see a dance floor, lighting, staging, dressing rooms upstairs, a kitchen in the back for dinner theater, and how he could build the acoustics. Honoring her husband's talents, she says his father was much the same. "I am so grateful for a father who can teach their sons how to do things." She notes that he was able to pass a strong work ethic to their childrenDeveni, Dacia, Sage, Cheya, McKenna and Havana. All of their children also dance and have taught at her studio. This spring, the National America on Stage organization honored Taunia Wheeler with the National Director of the Year award. True, she enjoyed receiving the national recognition. But her sentences become fast and filled with pride as she notes that nine of her dancers qualified for the Junior Olympics, among many individual awards. Costs were prohibitive to attend the Jr. Olympics this year and the girls could not go. Powerhouse has earned the prestigious Triple Crown in past years. "Next year we'll be ready for the Jr. Olympics with fund raisers," she says, her hands again moving and eyes sparkling. " j This Idaho farm girl has not lost her excitement of teaching. of Vernal City Building 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Gwen Peterson, 789-8356. Open house 11:30 a.m. July 30 Community dance at Golden Age Center, 155 South 100 West, 8-10 p.m. every Friday night. Kay's Band provides the music. Eastern Utah Home Education Association 2nd Annual Convention and Curriculum Fair to be held July 30-31 at Western Park. Fair will include dozens of workshops and tables of curriculum. Contact Cheryl at 789-6660 or visit www.euhea.com. August 1 America in Bloom national judges will be judging Vernal for the national nation-al contest August 1-2. August 5 TOPS meets in Conference Room of Vernal City Building 1 1 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Gwen Peterson, 789-8356. Open house 11:30 a.m. August 6 Community dance at Golden Age Center, 155 South 100 West, 8-10 p.m. every Friday night. Kay's Band provides the music. August 7 Uintah High School Class of 1964 40th class reunion. Golf tournament at 7 a.m., picnic at Remember the Maine Park from noon to 3 p.m. and dinner and pictures at Stockman's at 6 p.m. Contact Lana Walker at 789- 1078, Tammy Carroll at 789-4089 or Sandy McCoy at 789-1263. August 9 1 Uintah High School volleyball tryouts in the big gym at Uintah High School. Ninth and 10th grade tryouts from 9 to 11 a.m.; 11th and 12th grade tryouts from 1 to 3 p.m. August 10 AVMC Diabetes Support Group, 6:30 p.m. in the AVMC medical offices conference room, located on the ground floor of the building adjoining the hospital on the east side. Topic will be "Move It and Lose It: Diabetes and Exercise." . : ' - r- August 11 Baby Book Shower, 10 a.m., Little Blossom Center in Fort Duchesne, Free $20 literacy book packet, door prizes, and refreshments. Early Literacy Information sponsored by Uintah County Literacy Commission, Uintah School District and Prime Time 4 Kids. August 12 TOPS meets in Conference Room of Vernal City Building 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Gwen Peterson, 789-8356. Open house 11:30 a.m. August 13 Community dance at Golden Age Center, 155 South 100 West, 8-10 p.m. every Friday night. Kay's Band provides the music. August 14 Uintah County Fair kicks off with a 4-H Horse Show at 9 a.m. at the Western Park. The fair will continue until August 21. Check the Vernal Express on August 11 and look for Uintah County Fair flyers for a detailed schedule. Miss Uintah Pageant will be held at 7 p.m. in the Uintah High School auditorium. August 17 ' MS support group meets the third Tuesday of each month at the Vernal City offices. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Anyone with Multiple Sclerosis or those knowing people with MS are invited to attend. Vernie 789-1903. Baby Book Shower, 10:30 a.m. at Prime Time 4 Kids located next to Cinema 5. Free $20 literacy book packet, door prizes and refreshments. refresh-ments. Early literacy information sponsored by Uintah County Literacy Commission, Uintah School District and Prime Time 4 Kids. August 18 Uintah County Fair parade will begin at 6 p.m. Parade participants will meet at the Vernal Middle School parking lot. From there they will travel north on 700 West to Main Street, onto which they will turn east and continue on Main Street until the reach 300 East, where they will turn south and end the parade at the Western Park. To place items of public interest on the Community Calendar, mail to the Vernal Express, P.O. Box 1000, E-mail, E-mail, editor vernal .com, or call the Vernal Express at 789-3511. |