Making Classic Moves

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VIRGINIA PARK - For many, the day after Christmas was spent detoxing from sugar and excitement or waiting in return lines. But nestled in a nook on Bay to Bay Boulevard, four women in skintight nylon get-ups were sweating and smiling.

It was 6 p.m., and post-holiday fatigue was no excuse to miss dance class.

Founded in 1995 by Josette Manougian, the Tampa Ballet Center, 4219 W. Bay to Bay Blvd., offers classes for ages 5 and older and focuses solely on by-the-book ballet.

About 35 students attend weekly classes. The center's not-for-profit status allows it to receive government grants to fund student scholarships.

Robin Pollara, a 43-year-old, petite redhead, joined the center as a student in 1998 and became its director in 2004.

Pollara, who works full time for a computer software company, said she isn't paid for directing the center or teaching classes.

"It's about promoting the education for the kids," she said. "It's not about what I can get out of it."

Classes start at $70 to $90 a month, with the money used to maintain the center, which houses a 40-by-30-foot, wood-floor studio and a tiny waiting room.

Inside the studio, there's a mirror on one wall and a ballet barre on the other. CDs are stacked on a small piano, which neighbors a stereo on one side and a carpeted kitty abode on the other.

The cat house is home to Sugarplum, the studio's longtime stray turned groupie, who saunters past the swinging legs at the barre.

It takes more than a few degages to spook her.

"She adopted us," Pollara said. "The kids all love her, and she enjoys the attention."

Though classical music fills the studio for hours each day, Sugarplum lives in a world on mute. Still, Pollara said the deaf cat enjoys watching the ballerinas from her kitty condo - the best seat in the house.

She has plenty to watch. Pollara said ballet conditioning requires most students to take at least four classes a week, with advanced students practicing up to six days a week.

Maria Myers, 12, has been taking about three classes a week for three years or so, a schedule that leaves little time for TV watching or shopping.

"I'm too busy dancing," she said.

And what brings her back week after week? It's "Ms. Robin."

"She knows how to stretch and stuff," the Coleman Middle School student said. "And she teaches us what stuff means. Like, pas means step, and plie means bent or bending, and degage means, well, I forgot what that means. Oh, yeah, it means disengage."

Lynn Myers said she doesn't think her daughter is missing out on anything.

"She's gaining what she needs," said Myers, a former professional ballerina. "She's gaining the experience of performing without the hoopla that a lot of dance studios seem to push."

The center emphasizes training. Patrons study only ballet, don't put on recitals and don't enter competitions.

The center performs an annual spring concert at the University of South Florida, and students usually participate in a holiday performance of the "Nutcracker."

Pollara said she and the two other teachers - Manougian and Richard Geiger - assign selections from full-length ballets for the spring show to give students a look into the world of professional dance.

Pollara has been dancing since the early 1970s. Between work and directing, she still makes time most days to don her pink tights and black leotard.

Over lively classical music Dec. 26, Geiger hollered commands to Pollara and the three other women at the barre, reminding them to work their hips, cross their feet and feel the movement.

"It's like your eggnog cup," Geiger told them. "You fill the music and you never stop."

RAISING THE BARRE

WHAT: Tampa Ballet Center

WHERE: 4219 W. Bay to Bay Blvd.

CLASSES: For ages 5 and older; prices start at $70 to $90 a month

CALL: (813) 831-9660