Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Clemens.
Stephanie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started to teach in Oak Park in 1971 when I rolled up the living room rug. By 1972 I moved into a Tai Chi Studio and traded office work in exchange for space to teach a few classes. By 1973, I rented a small storefront and began teaching classes and invited a couple other teachers to join me. Three years later I moved to a larger storefront, and in 1977 we had our first school dance and music recital at our local high school, and we had incorporated as The Academy of Movement and Music. In 1982 I purchased the old Bishop Quarter Building – a landmarked classroom/gymnasium building that was part of an older Catholic Military School.
We renovated the space with an enormous amount of volunteer work, and, by 1983 we founded MOMENTA, a resident performing company for faculty and advanced students. The old gymnasium was a perfect place to begin to create a real theater space – one that gets converted from classroom use as needed. We also began a preschool program based in the arts to fill the weekday daytime hours. We now have over 600 students, from 22 months up through senior citizens; we include students with and without disabilities in our classes and in our performances.
MOMENTA has performed throughout many places in the United States and also performed internationally. Our alums have gone on to dance with nationally known dance companies. We offer preschool programs, ballet, modern dance and jazz classes, and private music lessons in piano, voice, guitar and flute. MOMENTA’s repertory includes a great deal of historic dance, both ballet and modern, commissioned contemporary works, often to commissioned music and inclusive works created for dancers with and without disabilities.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There have been lots of challenges – financial ones – getting started you have to be willing to teach just one or two people in a class. In each place we moved into, floors had to be laid or refinished. The gym was over 100 man hours (volunteer) sanding 60 years of varnish and basketball grids off the wood. The Bishop Quarter building was owned by the Village of Oak Park, and the building was landlocked, so it could not hold a mortgage. It took two years of legal negotiations to purchase a right of way and deal with the new construction of neighboring townhomes and cross easements.
Our building was built in 1924 – buildings that age always need maintenance: boilers, tuckpointing, roofs – these are not things I learned from being a ballet teacher! There is the annual challenge of mounting the June recital – 450 children in 3 different ballets in one day, and LOTS of costumes. Constantly having to make schedules and organize classes and rehearsals. The time actually teaching and working with the children is the real pleasure.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Academy of Movement and Music/MOMENTA – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are a school – we teach dance – ballet, jazz and modern dance – we teach music – and we have a preschool based in the arts. Our dance company has both a Junior Company of about 60 young dancers and a Senior Company of about 35 adults and advanced teens. Our repertory of Historical Dance is exceptionally large – especially in 20th Century Modern Dance from 1895 through the 1930’s. We are one of the few companies in the United States that is Inclusive and develops professional level choreography for people with and without disabilities.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
No big changes in sight – simply for me, as a director for 45 years, to develop a succession plan that will continue the school and the company going forward. The wonderful thing about Oak Park as a Community is that I have many teachers here whom I taught as little ones, who have come home with professional experience as dancers and who are educated as teachers – and I have many “spiritual grandchildren” – former students who bring their children to study at the school.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.academyofmovementandmusic.com, www.momentadances.org
- Phone: 708-848-2329
- Email: stephanieclemens@hotmail.com
- Facebook: Academy of Movement and Music Momenta Dance Company EveryBody Can Dance
Image Credit:
Lisa Green
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