we ~ NEWS photo Mike Waketleid WBAT HAS kept him teaching children to dance for the past 30 years? ‘I’ve always loved children,” con- fesses local dance instructor George Walker. TINY DANCERS Ballet instructor loves to teach tots HILDREN ARE not the most disciplined of students when it comes to dance. How to grab and keep their atten- tion, how to refine their coordination is a monumen- tal task indeed; it requires the patience of a saint. EVELYN JACOB spotlight feature But there is something fascinating about teaching toddlers that has kept North Vancouver's George Walker in the business for 30 years. “People always ask me how | can work with children,” says Walker, 52, ‘‘t have three sons, two step-children and thee grandctildren and they've all taken dance from me. i’ve always loved children.” Celebrating his 30th year as a Lower Mainland dance instructor, chances are most parents whose youngsters have taken lessons from Walker will remember him. . He has an uncanny way with kids. For one, he doesn’: believe in forcing them to learn. “! don’t believe in screaming and yelling at kids. Fear freezes the muscies and deadens the senses. All of them are different and all of them have to be handled differently.” Using toys and balls, ropes and tambourines, Walker helps kids develop group awareness in a pos- itive way — clapping exercises impreve coardination and teach rhythm. Teaching children is not as dif- ficult as most believe, says Walker, but the hardest part is under- standing what makes them tick. That took him 10 years. ‘I con- sider my first 10 years of teaching as an apprenticeship for working with children.” in addition to childreir’s dance classes, Walker teaches adult ballet classes and batiet classes for fitness — his oldest student is 75. Back in his dancing heydey, Walker was accepted as a scholar- ship student with the San Fran- cisco Ballet and later as a soloist with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He danced with the Bolshoi Bailet, auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and for Radio City Music Hall in New York. As well as a dancer, Walker was a singer and actor. But his first voice instructor suggested he con- centrate on dance as a dancer's career is shorter lived than a singer's. “My whole career was torn because ! could sing. | had to choose between singing, dancing and acting,”’ he says. ‘‘It’s very hard to do all three well. When | was 15 my dance teacher told me if you're going to dance you've got to do it now.” In the summer of '59 Walker came to Vancouver to perform a summer steck show for Theatre Under the Stars and that same See Teacher Page 24 “ SOUTHWEST ORIGINALS & PRINTS BY NEW MEXICAN - “ De 23 ~ Wednesday, October 18, 1989 - North Shore News \a4 ‘S” THANK-YOU To the corporate sponsors, volunteers and Jailbirds who helped raise $60,000 in pledges for the Canadian Cancer Society's Jail-n-Bail. Cantel tne. Peppi’s Restaurant The Robson Gritt Scaldaterri’s Deli Curtis Lumber Co. Lid. Sunshine Cabs Ltd. Ronalds Printing Batloonery Brer Rabbit Copyprint Ltd. Willson. Williams & Mackie Robson Manor Capilano Camera Finning Ltd. Toys & Wheels Van Noort Bulb Company Lynn Ray Microle) itd. Super Valu Rondale Colfee Service Inc. Cockroft Flowers Johnston-Kerr Associates Lid. Stongs Markets Ltd. Imperia! Trophies Lee Chapman Sauder Distribution North Shore Credit Union North Coast Building Products Ltd. Honda Pacific Automobiles Andres Wines (B.C.) Ltd Bank of Montreal West Varcouver Police Department Vancity Credit Union North Vancouver Detachment R.C.M.P. Kerrisdale Cameras Ltd. Canada Safeway Ltd. Dick Irwin Chevrolet Oldsmobile Ltd. La Gourmandise Windsor Toys The Costume People Five-star Beaver Lumber Marketing Park Royal Administration Incorporated The Hair Company Dominion Directory Co. Ltd. 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