Jacque Dake Leaves Deep Footprint on Y-S Performing Arts
Watch carefully at any musical or talent show, and many reitals in Yuba-Sutter and you are likely to see the strong influence of Jacque Dake's dance stylings displayed.
    Launched in 1998 and expanded this year, Jacque's Dance Expressions in Yuba City is not the only dance studio in the Twin Cities. But is surely the largest and possibly the most successful, whether measured by enrollment, accolades or trophies.
    The JDE studio currently has about 450 tap, jazz, ballet and hip-hop hopefuls on its student rosters. "Altogether we have 800 to 1,000 names on our computer list of students who have been with us over the years, " Dake said.
    A major JDE public recital can deploy a few hundred or more young jazz, tap and ballet dancers in upwards of 60 individual and ensemble acts.
    Dake's dancers range in age from three to 65, and girls and women predominate. But Dake's reputation as a hard driving, demanding yet approachable mentor has also attracted a small, but enthusiastic cadre of young male dancers, as well.
    A small faculty of dance teachers help Dake deliver the hours upon hours of instruction and practice that goes into making a dancer.
    Go to Dake's new studio almost any evening, and join the several parents and voluntary pickup-and-take chauffeurs in the bleacher seating and watch the young dancers and patient tutors sweating and bending to music in their glassed-in dance rooms.
    The evening show at JDE is live entertainment, not much different from the informal preview rehearsal shows San Francisco opera and ballet fans sneak into--or once did, anyway.
    Out of this milieu Dake each year assembles a crack team of competition dancers. This year's team numbers 42, Dake said. "We used to divide the team into seniors, juniors and peewees, but this year we're all one big team," she said.
    The team travels frequently to regional and West Coast dance competitions and conventions, and scores well.
    This year for example, it took first place at the huge "Spotlight" dance competition in Las Vegas and brought back top trophies from California State Talent Competition last year.
    It is difficult for those not already toting tots to dancing school to imagine how large and intense these dance competition can be for young hopefuls.  Dake's team was off to a regional competition in early 2004 wich is expectied to draw 5,000 dancers who will hoof their hearts out all day long for two grueling days, Dake said.
    Competitions are where the various studios and schools, teachers and instructors assess trends, see what's hot and what's not in the dance world, They also provide rising star dancers a chance to strut their stuff for their peers and future teachers, Dake said.
    Teachers are crucial figures in a dancer's life, according to Dake, who was born and grew up in Yuba City, where she started dancing at the age of five.
    One of my neighbors was taking dance and baton lessons. "And I wanted that," Dake reminisced recently.
    Her many years of work and practice took Dake to Los Angeles--one of the great proving grounds of the entertainment industry--and she was on her way to New York, which is more or less the Paris of American chorus line dancers.
    "I was going in that direction but I met my husband, and things changed," Dake Said. Love and family brought her back to Yuba City. Five years ago ago she opened her own studio.
    Blong, trim, fit and vital, Dake still dances -- both energetically and well -- as she ably demonstrated recently when illness forced out Austin Dixon, the lead dancer in one of the best acts at a major recital at Marysville Community Auditorium, and she stepped in for him.
    A teacher who helped bring out Dake's own dance talents and foster her love for the art form was Colleen Holt, a big name in local Yuba-Sutter dance lore.
    Not one of her teachers, but nonetheless a significant influence in her life of dance and teaching is Carolyn Foy-Hoffer, whose picture appears with the others on a wall of pictures and plaques at Dake's new studio.
    Dancer stars also give aspirants models and goals to strive for, Dake said. "Gregory Hines, who just died, was important. He was great. Then there was fred Astaire and Gene Kelly," Dake remembered.
    Not a movie star, but certainly important to Dake is Doug Caldwell, a dancer and dance teacher.
    While it was easy for Dake to acknowledge her debt to teachers and mentors, Dake tends to shrug off the admiration students and parents somtimes confront her with.
    "It's humbling," but appreciated, she said, recalling a recent surprise telephone call from the mother of one of her most notable proteges, Amanda Blanchard.
    The mother was at a rehearsal and happened to look up to see her daughter dancing on the stage and she felt compelled to call Dake to thank her for all she had done for Amanda.
    "For me, it was one of those moments. It was the right thing at the right moment. It meant so much to me," Dake said.
   

Appeal Democrat