One of the most rewarding parts of following your dreams is being able to pass that passion to the next generation.
Yvonne Racz-Key, Instructor of Dance at Texas Tech and Artistic Director at Ballet Lubbock, has dedicated much of her career to sharing her passion for ballet with students of all ages all around the world, most recently as a Fulbright Scholar at the Hungarian Dance University in Budapest.
This excursion harkens back to Racz-Key’s roots. A daughter of Hungarian immigrants, she grew up in New York surrounded by dance through her mother’s Hungarian folk dancing group and then, starting at the age of five, through ballet classes. Initially a hobby, she knew it had truly stuck by about third grade because, as she explains, “I felt very smart at ballet. I felt very confident.”
She trained in New York and then Lubbock, followed by performing in the Utah Ballet Company while attending the University of Utah. After graduating, she performed professionally across the country, from Washington DC’s Arena Stage to Cirque du Soleil. Eventually developing an interest in teaching, she has presented at numerous theatre and dance conferences and taught numerous dance workshops around the world. She also received her MFA in Performance and Pedagogy from Texas Tech and became an adjunct faculty member. All these achievements led to her latest international expedition with Fulbright.
The Fulbright Scholar Program offers US college and university faculty members the opportunity to teach and conduct research abroad, with the goal of promoting multicultural exchange and cooperation. Racz-Key’s project, titled “Classical and Cultural Dance to Advance Inclusive Teaching and Anatomy Awareness in Hungary and USA,” focused primarily on bringing her style of ballet instruction to the upper-level students at the Hungarian Dance University.
“It’s a different world of ballet,” she says of the school. “I was just teaching Olympic level dancers every single day. The discipline was in gold level standard. They’re so good and they take it so seriously.”
At the beginning, she struggled to figure out what they would need from her, until the realization hit: “Teaching them joy.”
The dancers were accustomed to a highly hierarchical environment where they simply did as they were told. They were thrown off by Racz-Key asking them about their feelings and motivations, leading to the big question, “Why are you here?”
This attention to the dancers’ individuality caused a notable shift in the classroom within a month. “There were more smiles,” she recalls. “There was more breathing. There was more taking up space. There was more talking, which was nice. There was never a lack of respect or discipline in the class, but there was just more joy.”
Racz-Key was not just teaching at HDU, though; she observed and learned more about traditional discipline and respect for the art form from the other teachers, and connected with her fellow Fulbright Scholars in Hungary, who came from a vast array of personal and educational backgrounds. She even got the opportunity to guest teach at universities outside of Budapest.
She began to hear a similar response from many of her non-ballet-focused students: “This is the first time I’ve liked ballet.”
Racz-Key’s teaching style is focused on process over perfection, and on meeting the students at their own level. A class of high-level ballerinas must be adjusted differently than a class of first years whose focus is jazz; however, it is important that “any dancer must learn all of it.” Each style of dance has important skills that can be incorporated into the others.
Ballet, she says, “sets you up for success,” improving core strength, posture, and many other elements that make up your body’s “basic math” to dance. Anatomy is infused into lessons, with attention to which muscles are used, why the dancer should do each movement, and how it will help them both mentally and physically.
Back home in Texas, Ballet Lubbock has transformed in the last few years under the collaboration of Racz-Key’s artistic direction and the “amazing” team working together to make things happen in the community. They have taken up residency in Buddy Holly Hall, bringing in guest artists from all over the world, and established a school with a well-respected curriculum. They are also one of the few dance school in West Texas with a community outreach program, which provides classes for all kinds of students, including those with autism or disabilities, and patients in local hospitals.
She is proud of the organization’s strong ties to Texas Tech, noting that several members of leadership are faculty at the university. Additionally, “90% of our teachers are dance majors at Texas Tech, and they’re giving back to the community.”
With clear pride in her voice, Racz-Key says, “Anybody will tell you, ‘Gosh, I remember my first dance teacher.’ Well, they’re someone’s first dance teacher.” Through these young artists and the excellent work of Racz Key, the cycle of passing down passions continues.