Dancer trains the stars
[attach]4268[/attach]A North York resident and acrobatics teacher isn’t just dancing with the stars: she’s training them.
Since late 2010, Ruthy Dunec, owner of Fit For Life Group at Dufferin and Steeles has been coaching the four dancers who alternately play the title character in the hit dance musical Billy Elliot now playing in Toronto.
“It’s really the cherry on the top for what I do,” she says.
Dunec is known for her work training professional dancers in acrobatic skills through her Dance Trix program. The 30-year-old has been teaching gymnastics and acrobatics at the recreational and competitive levels for half her life.
Though her work with the Billys takes her downtown regularly, Dunec’s training and career has been rooted in North York. She grew up training as a gymnast at Steeles West Gymnastics, the very facility her business has been operating out of since its founding. She recently bought the facility from her mentor and former coach, who has stayed on as head coach.
“It’s sort of come full circle,” Dunec says.
Through Fit for Life Group, Dunec teaches various gymnastics and dance programs aimed at kids starting as young as a year old. She’s hoping to expand the Dance Trix program to the general public so kids can learn to do walkovers, handstands and cartwheels and even more advanced moves like back handsprings and aerials.
Whether coaching pro dancers or not, Dunec says working with kids is always rewarding.
“Every kid I’ve worked with, they all have that moment when they achieve and learn that skill,” she says.
“I call it the Ah-hah! Moment.”
The reward of that moment can’t be equaled, she says.
“That to me, is the reason I do every thing I do.”
For now, she’s continuing coaching the Billys until the show leaves town. The Dance Trix training she offers out of her facility is good for dancers and even figure skaters wanting to improve their acrobatic skills, she says.
Private training can get very expensive, averaging $50–70 an hour, so the group lessons she offers can be more cost-effective.