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Show Dancer, choreographer makes Park City her new home i l W frT -1 , ' ' j ,,-.3 I felt v ;' ) I-' 1 :Vi - M'l ; ) ; ' " I ' 7j , ? l . jiUmM m .maim' j0 K .kU'V'" ' 'iff' ' ' Grpll gives Stephanie Cochrane some personal dance pointers. . ; .. by JIM SMEDLEY Record staff writer Professional dancer and choreographer Lori Groll was suffering suf-fering from burnout. She was tired of big cities, constant travel and life where friendships go as fast as they come. So she sought a small community. And the dance world's loss was Park City's gain. Lori and her husband, Gerry, married mar-ried since June 1983,' grew tired of the separation his job demanded. So he left an electrical engineering firm in Golden, Colo., and they accepted her parents' offer of helping with the management and operation of the Edelweiss Haus condominiums and rental units on Empire Avenue. "One of the first things I did when I arrived in Park City was check out what's going on with the arts. I love to keep my foot in the door," Groll said. i "So I sent my resume to Brenda Bensch ( drama instructor and director direc-tor of Park City High School shows) when I got here. She called me shortly short-ly thereafter. It just so happens that , the high school's first play was 'Dames at Sea,' a musical. So I'm doing the choreography. "I enjoy working with teens because it's challenging and they . have all kinds of energy. Plus they : become loyal to you once they test you," she added. "I like working with someone who has the mental and physical ability to do what I tell them." She said the high school has its ; share of talent for a school its size. Groll, however, is used to working with students from much larger, schools, where the talent pool is larger. '.: :.v , . ; She choreographed "Oliver" at Parsippany High School, Parsip- j pany, N.J., and said competition for . lead roles was intense as there were no less than five teens who, in her 7 estimation, "sang and danced , magnificently." She added the town V had about five ballet schools and a ! wide variety of other dance oppor-' oppor-' tunities. . , - , - , m. winthe'iatemofefGroll taught ad' vanced jaz? at the University TST Utah and choreographed productions produc-tions there. She also taught jazz dance at Butler Dance Academy and exercise classes at Nautilus Plus, both in Salt Lake City. She instructed in-structed two ballet and jazz dance g, classes while in New Jersey from 1983-84 and in early 1985 she taught ballet and jazz in Denver, where she also was a substitute ballet instructor instruc-tor of the advanced professional class at the Colorado Ballet. "I was offered a permanent position posi-tion with the Colorado Ballet, but we had a chance to move to Utah, so we took it. Besides, Gerry was always traveling with his Denver job and we wanted to spend more time together," Groll said. She also was anxious to get a little stage time in and auditioned for Park City Performances' "Plaza Suite." In late October, she learned she will play Karin in the first act. Groll's desire to escape the everyday every-day life of dance and performing did not mean she wanted to lose touch with it. It is difficult to lose the smell of greasepaint and abandon the warmth of the floodlight. : Besides, Groll likes to keep busy a habit learned in her younger years. Her dance career began in Canada when she was 4 and continued in Los Angeles in 1964. She studied with the Wiesbaden Opera Ballet in Wiesbaden, W. Ger., in 1965 and the Royal Ballet School in London from 1966-68. - From. 1968-69, she studied with Yvonne Mounsey of the New York City Ballet anc attended the San "-Francisco. Ballet,. ,.on a summer " scholarship in 1970. In 1972, she studied with the Tachibanna Ballet, ; Tokyo, and from 1974-76 she attended attend-ed the Dupree Dance Academy on a scholarship. "All I did from age 4 to 23 was dance. I was kind of a horse with blinders on. I didn't date and the only on-ly time I had for a man was when I was 17. I was injured and had my first date, " Groll said. "It's good to learn discipline when you are young, but I finally decided that dance was too limiting. "When I quit professional dance, it took about three years to become a Lori Groll: "I'd rather be near nature than concrete. . ' Groll shows Stephanie Cochrane (back left) and Stacey Eberlein what she is looking in part of a dance called "Wall Street," in first act of "Dames at Sea." real person one who loved to dance4 instead of being a dancer," she add-r ed. v d' "You spend all your time thinking, 'I, I, I.' It's an ego-centered existence. ex-istence. Not necessarily egotistical, but everything revolves around you. "The way you move is your market. Your body is your instrument." instru-ment." Groll said she had been a loner since she was 15 and had the propensity propen-sity to make quick friendships, but not deep ones. The competitive and cutthroat nature of the professional dance business was not conducive to making lasting friendships. , . "I wanted to have friends, a normal nor-mal life. I wanted to belong. And I found that it is a pleasure getting to know people and learning from other people," she said. "Being married is the greatest thing in the world because I'm married mar-ried to the greatest guy in the world. "Marriage was absolutely amaz ing because I had someone there all the time. Part of me fought being loved because I was not used to having hav-ing someone who loved me, other than my parents, " she added. "But getting married was the greatest thing I've ever done." Groll has found a home in Park Gty a small town in which the arts play an important role. It's an active town and yet it's a place where she can be near the wide-open spaces. "I'd rather be near nature than concrete." con-crete." Of course, it does not bother Groll if there is a stage and possibly some lights not too far away from the nature she enjoys. |