Vanessa Plettell-Chevrier sits comfortably on a chair in the middle of an empty dance studio. She just sent her last group of young dancers for their ballet examinations at the end of what has been a busy weekend for the director.
The dark wooden floors, large panel mirrors and ballet barres running along the walls would leave some feeling cold or even uncomfortable. But for Plettell-Chevrier, it could be her living room.
“Some people are so successful in their businesses and they make piles of money,” Plettell-Chevrier says as she looks around at her surroundings. She has been successful too. “I do it because I love it. I do it because I have to. This is the world I grew up in.”
From the age of four, the Lethbridge native spent endless hours training to become the only thing she ever wanted to be, a ballet dancer.
After finishing her training in Alberta, Plettell-Chevrier realized her dream of becoming a professional dancer with a company in Montreal. However, Ottawa eventually became the city where she would add studio director to her name.
In 1989, Plettell-Chevrier rented a space in the ByWard Market from Theatre Ballet on York Street. Theatre Ballet was taken over and moved to Bank Street, along with Plettell-Chevrier.
“We had people that came and went but it wasn’t ever huge,” Plettell-Chevrier says about the studio’s humble beginnings. “Especially when we only had one studio.”
For years, Plettell-Chevrier says, she taught mostly adults who took classes out of interest, not with the intent of pursuing a career on stage. Since moving to the new location near Old Ottawa South 10 years ago, Plettell-Chevrier says, she now mostly teaches children.
Vanessa Plettell Dance is an educational school that boasts three large studios for aspiring
dancers to train in. Every year, the studio puts on a dance production to give students the professional experience of being on stage.
As opposed to dance studios that focus on competitions as a means of gaining notoriety, Plettell-Chevrier says she seeks to set her students up to pursue dance as a career. She acknowledges that this form of dance training can be intense for some students. However, there are dancers who grew up through the studio that found success as professionals both in Canada and internationally.
Kim Morrison danced at the studio for 10 years after training competitively her entire childhood. She is involved in the studio now as a part-time instructor. Morrison said she appreciated Plettell-Chevrier’s focus on performance, rather than competition.
“She really helped to develop me into a much better dancer, both physically and mentally,” Morrison said, going on to explain how she often felt held back at competitive studios due to the inherently political environment.
The live piano music plays vibrantly from the studio next door as Plettell-Chevrier discusses the emphasis she places on students learning ballet at her school.
“I still believe that ballet is a fundamental of dance,” Plettell-Chevrier says as the music stops momentarily.
“If you build a house and you don’t put up a foundation, it’s not going to work. I cannot explain it any other way. There are no shortcuts in dance.”
In celebration of the studio’s 25th anniversary, students, teachers, parents and Plettell-Chevrier will pack up their ballet slippers and head off to Disney World this summer to perform in the parade and on a professional stage.
In and amidst the ballet examinations, year-end performance showcase and now a trip to Florida, Plettell-Chevrier reflects upon the last quarter-century, “I’ve never been bored,” she says with a smile. “Ever.”
This documentation is link to the website for Vanessa Plettell Dance. I found the website in the early stages of my research by typing “25th anniversary Ottawa” into a Google search. After searching through one or two pages, I came across the link to the studio’s website. The website was extremely helpful for providing me with background information about the studio, Plettell-Chevrier’s career, success stories of dancers who grew up through the studio and contact information. I did a large portion of my preliminary research on the studio’s website.
This documentation is an obituary for Eva von Gencsy that was published by The Globe and Mail in April 2013. Plettell-Chevrier cites von Gencsy as a personal inspiration in her biography on her website. I decided to learn more about von Gencsy after speaking with Plettell-Chevrier who mentioned that von Gencsy passed away last year. I found this obituary on the newspaper’s website. It provided me with more context about the history of jazz-ballet in Canada. Additionally, it helped me understand how Plettell-Chevrier strives to utilize what she learned from von Gencsy during the time they danced together to inform how she runs her studio today.