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| Photo: Cravotta Photography |
Sabrina Sandvi Berry began
her dance training at Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School and the Augusta Ballet
in her hometown of Augusta, Georgia. She later went on to dance
professionally with the Augusta Ballet Company. After that, she attended
The Juilliard School and obtained her BFA. She began a long teaching
career with the North Carolina Dance Theater School of Dance in 1997 where she
taught several levels of ballet and developed the Modern program and syllabus under
then school Director, Darleen Callaghan. In addition, she choreographed
for the trainee and apprentice program and began the program's first
Composition class. During this period, Sabrina formed her own
company, American Dance Art for which she choreographed and directed until
2003. Three years ago she made a transition into teaching the work
of Joseph Pilates and now owns and runs her own Sandvi Studio in Charlotte,
NC.
For more information on
Sabrina and Sandvi Studio visit sandvistudio.com
.
How old are
your children? Boys? Girls?
My son is almost 6, and my
daughter is almost 8.
Where were
you in your career when your children were born?
I had been teaching a full
schedule of ballet and modern classes at North Carolina Dance Theater's School
of Dance for 7 years and also directing and choreographing for a small modern
dance company called American Dance Art for 4 years. The majority of my
company members were also dance teachers and our class and rehearsal schedule
had to be worked around our main income producing jobs, which meant we would
often get together during the week from 7 to 10pm.
How did you
plan to juxtapose work and motherhood? How did what you envisioned square
with reality?
I have always seen myself
as a working mother because I LOVE my work! I am so lucky to be
involved in work that gives me such pleasure and wonderment to do! BUT, the
vision of it was alot more glamorous than reality!
Because of my own
childhood experiences and having been a latch-key kid in the seventies and
eighties, it was extremely important to me to be very present in my children's
lives. I also subscribed to the whole idea of attachment parenting and
was committed to nursing my children for a year at least. This
meant that I was simply not willing to be away longer than absolutely
necessary. I was able to pretty easily maintain my teaching schedule
which was not an option to give up, but did often find myself in less than
lovely little rooms with a lactation pump and a photo of my child!
Not glamorous!
I also made the very painful, but right-for-me decision,
to disband my company. There was simply no way that I could have
maintained our rehearsal schedule and be able to parent the way that was
vitally important to my instincts.
Getting a
Pilates certification and opening your own studio is a time consuming venture,
even more so with young children. How did you make this happen?
With alot of family
support from my husband and mother-in-law.
My switchover into
becoming a Pilates teacher was very natural and progressed at a rapid pace.
I was able to have some of the apparatus at my home so I was able to practice and
study when there were openings in my schedule. I did all of my
training outside of Charlotte to accomodate my teaching schedule at NCDT, meaning I
was flying to NYC, Boston and NJ. This turned out to be an absolute
blessing in my discovery of brilliant teachers whom I consider my Pilates gurus.
My husband's mother was a
huge help because she would often take the kids for the weekend and they
would have a blast at her lakehouse. Also, my children were in
stages where a nap would occur occasionally! There was one very tough
year when I was teaching Pilates in the mornings and then would have to go out
again in the afternoons to teach my ballet and modern classes at NCDT.
I was also very lucky
to have had an amazing babysitter who had been with us since my son was six
months old. She was a tremendous comfort becasue my children really loved
her like she was family. Also, the recession had hit my husband's job
pretty hard that year (he's a fence contractor) so he was home alot more than
he liked then!
What do you
see as your unique appeal as a Pilates practitioner?
Most certainly that would
be the idea of exploration! Even as a ballet and modern teacher, I was
always eager and inspired to try new movement concepts. I am about to
attend a workshop with Tom Myers about understanding and reading the body
through myofascial meridians and have been studying his book Anatomy Trains. It's completely overwhelming and intimidating, but I am
fascinated by how much more there is to learn and experience. I think my
clients also enjoy taking this continual journey with me!
Teaching
Pilates was a career change -- at least somewhat-- and a natural development
for you, something that is true for many dancers. What advice do you have
for mothers who want to take their careers in a new direction?
Well, first I believe it's
very important to be moving through life with intuition and deep internal
instinct as a guide. And, when those are the guides, leap forward and
don't question or second guess yourself. It's really just like good
improvisation - feel the next move.
What
activities are your children involved in?
Ha! This question
makes me laugh because before I had my own children, when I taught younger
kids, I'd hear that they were taking all sorts of classes, and, I'd say to
myself, "I'll NEVER overschedule my kids like that!" Well,
my daughter takes piano, swimming, art, and now a theater class! My son
only takes swimming and tennis now and wants to add the theater class, which we
will let him do in the winter. Never say never! We live in the
country on some acreage so the rest of the time they really are barefoot
country kids running wild!
Your
mom-persona in five words or less?
I had a hard time on this
one, and asked my son what kind of mother I am. He said,
"Happy." So even if I'm not all the time by any means, it does
at least sum up what I'm striving for in our lives each day.
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| Photo: Cravotta Photography |
