By Edward Henderson
You can tell by the way a person walks if they’re a dancer or not. Dancers exude a certain elegance in their movements. A confidence only hours of training and a free spirit can produce is evident in each step. Sylvia Boaz walks like a dancer. As co-owner of Balletiquette San Diego Academy of Fitness and Dance, Boaz works hard to instill the same stride in her students.
Growing up in Spanish Harlem, salsa music and dancing was constantly in Boaz’s childhood home. Because of this environment, it was a natural progression when she became a varsity cheerleader at Howard University in Washington, DC. On a trip with her mother to take in a performance at the Dance Theater of Harlem, the first African American classical ballet company, she fell in love with the art.
“After the performance I looked at her and said ‘that’s what I want to be when I grow up’,” Boaz said.
Little did she know, however, starting out in the world of dancing at the age of 21 is considered more than a grown up. This minor detail didn’t stop Boaz from pursuing her dream. She auditioned for Author Mitchell, founder of the Dance Theater of Harlem, and was embraced by everyone there. Boaz was accepted into the school and trained 6 hours a day for 7 years with some of the world’s greatest dancers including Tania Laclerq, David Howard and Tom Adair.
“90% of becoming a dancer is desire,” Boaz said. “There’s been a myth of blacks not being able to do ballet because of their body structure, but I didn’t have any problem with my body. My love for dance carries me through.”
After she left New York, Boaz traveled back to Washington, DC to train with Mary Day of The Washington Ballet in hopes to create opportunities for black dancers to join the company but the dance world wasn’t ready to embrace the idea.
“I thought I was going to be the one to break the trend of blacks dancing together. I left dance theatre thinking I was going to infiltrate into the all-white companies. But I was before my time.”
While Boaz had dreams of traveling the world dancing, she had a son to support and need to find other means of employment. She joined the Navy after scoring high marks on her aptitude test and went into the aviation field. The job brought her to San Diego and she’s lived here ever since. After retirement, Boaz got the itch to start dancing again. She began dancing at San Diego City Ballet and still does to this day. After surveying the San Diego landscape, the idea of opening her own studio was born.
“I never had a dream to open up a dance studio, but when I came here I saw an opportunity to use my skills to get some things done.”
Balletiquette opened its doors to the public in 1999 and has since expanded to incorporate a space platies training to strengthen the core of her clients. Boaz specializes in fine tuning raw talent and unexperienced dancers by embedding the detail oriented discipline and training she’s received throughout her career. Today, Boaz’ daughter co-owns the studio with her and despite all of the wonderful experiences she’s had in dance, one moment stands out more that the rest.
“When my daughter started dancing was the highlight of my ballet career,” said Boaz. “I feel like she was a better dancer than I ever was.”
The studio reaches out to the surrounding community through its nonprofit ‘Balletiquette Dance Theatre Company’ which puts on performances in schools to spread the art form. Boaz hopes with the recent achievements of Misty Copeland that more African Americans will become interested in ballet and believes building trust within the community is essential to doing so.
“I feel like a have a gem here. If you want it, you can come and take advantage of it.”
Visit balletiquette.com to find out more about Boaz and the work her studio is doing.
