Louise Jackson's pioneering School of Performing Arts 2013 recital will mark a special anniversaryBy Jessie MonizFor six decades The Jackson’s School of Performing Arts has been infusing the Bermuda community with a passion for dance and music.Many of their alumni have gone on to become professional dancers, instructors, dance studio owners, musicians and even a former Premier (Dame Jennifer Smith).The school celebrates its 60th anniversary with a dance recital titled Rewind 2013 to 1953 at City Hall next month.The Royal Gazette this week sat down with retired founder and director Louise Jackson and Jackson’s current managing director Jeanne Legere to talk about Jackson’s and its history.Mrs Jackson grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a teenager she dreamed of becoming a star on Broadway, but her father would have none of it.“I became a professional when I was about 16 dancing for an opera company called Dram-mu,” said Mrs Jackson. “I wanted to go to New York, but my father said I don’t think so, you are going to college and getting a degree.”Today, she is immensely grateful for his wise insistence. She obtained a degree in health and physical education from Howard University, and that led directly to her coming to Bermuda.“The person who came first in our class was promised a position in Bermuda starting a physical education programme at Berkeley Institute,” she said.She accepted the post and arrived in Bermuda in 1953 to find a highly segregated community that had little to offer students interested in dance. There were no dance schools on the Island at that time.Seeing a need, she started an after school programme for 20 students interested in ballet at the Berkeley Institute. This morphed into a dance school for 40 students run out of a guest house called Sunset Lodge.“The man who owned it wanted his two daughters to take lessons and gave me the recreation room free of charge,” she said.Their first recital was held at the Bermudiana Hotel which burned down several years later.“It was segregated in those days and black people couldn’t even go to see the shows in the theatre,” she said. “The theatre closed down just before my recital and the people who were in there last, the Cooper Brothers, were very open minded.“They were disgusted with the segregation. They gave me all of the costumes they had left over from the shows and they left the scenery there for us.”The recital was so successful that afterward there was a rush of people signing their children up for classes. After that the school drifted about, from the corner of Church and Burnaby Street, to Brunswick Street and then to another location.“It was a hard situation because there were no facilities here for a dance school,” she said. “We were able to get this building on Burnaby Street. The Hill family rented us the third floor at that time at a ridiculously low price. That is when the school really started to climb to the top. We had a recital every year. No one else had that. That made the school very visible.”Despite the heavy segregation in the community, students from all races began to sign up for classes, making Jackson’s the first integrated dance school in Bermuda.Anne Hines and Beverly Brock were some of the school’s earliest teachers. Barbara Frith, Conchita Ming and Heather Shrubb came later and also taught for many years.When Jackson’s expanded their outreach to schools across the Island, the teachers would put a record player in their moped basket and head to schools east or west, often in the rain to teach on site classes. The students they taught paid 25 cents a lesson.“We really took dance to the whole community,” said Mrs Jackson.Jacksons also expanded into a performing arts school, offering music lessons, drama and gymnastics at different times. Douglas Frith was in charge of the music department. At their peak they had around 900 students and also had the building next to their current location. They now just utilise one building and concentrate mainly on dance.“The strongest motivation for this school has always been to give the gift of dance to any child who really wanted it,” Mrs Jackson said. “Over the years we have given out hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships. The end process of that has been we have graduates of the school who now have their own schools, in Bermuda and internationally.”Jackson’s has received a lot of support from the late Paul LePercq and his LePercq Foundation. Mr LePercq’s daughter attended the school as a child.Ms Legere started teaching at the school in 1984. When Mrs Jackson retired in 1999 Ms Legere, took over.“Mrs Jackson came to me and said she was ready to retire and asked me if I was interested in taking the school over,” Ms Legere said. “I was 49 years old at the time. I said, do I really want to take on something that has been an institution.“I was a bit worried, but it has worked out. I have learned a lot. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. People are saying I should start thinking about retirement, but I’m like ‘and do what’. I am teaching four classes a week. I teach seven years old and up. You have to be really special and young to teach the babies. I teach the older children.”Mrs Jackson was a founder of the National Dance Foundation. She has held a number of leadership posts in the community including Board Member of the Bank of Bermuda and Chairman of the National Gallery.She is a tireless advocate of senior citizens in Bermuda and has been United Bermuda Party shadow minister for health and shadow minister for seniors, among other things.Jackson’s recital will be held on June 19, 20, 21 and 22 at 7pm. Tickets are on sale now available at www.bermudatix.bm. Adult tickets are $39 and children under 12 are $33. Everyone must have a ticket above the age of two years old including dancers.www.jackssonschool.com