Greensburg ballet teacher isn't just about classics

Eleanor Viecelli Tornblom, owner and artistic director of Laurel Ballet Academy in Greensburg, has spent her entire life in the service of her art. From lessons at age 6, the 79-year-old Carbon resident quickly progressed to teaching. Eleanor's Dance Studio opened in 1957 and became Laurel Ballet in 1974. She still teaches classes and private lessons Tuesdays through Fridays each week and otherwise is in the Highland Avenue studio so much that, “I'm part of the furniture.”

Question: How did you become interested in ballet?

Answer: I grew up in Westmoreland City, so close to the train tracks that I could spit on the trains as they went by; but my folks weren't interested in anything that wasn't classical. My father was an opera buff and my mother was a pianist. My oldest brother also was a pianist and my sister was a singer, so I danced.

Q: Where did you study?

A: My folks drove me back and forth to Pittsburgh, and I took classes from everybody who was anybody, including (noted ballet maestro) Karl Heinrich. Early on, Karl Heinrich took my mother aside and said I was a born teacher; so I was never trained to perform, I was trained to teach. The only time I went onstage was when someone was injured or somebody wasn't ready, so I would step in.

Q: When did the teaching begin?

A: When I was about 16, some of the neighborhood mothers saw that I was dancing and asked my mother if I would teach their daughters. She started taking me around to different places to give lessons. It was hard times and there were four children, and she was entrepreneurial. People thought she used me, but I say she trained me. I've never regretted a minute of it.

Q: Did you venture into other dance forms?

A: In 1957, I was teaching all genres, only because I couldn't have a school without it. There was always some tap and a little bit of this and that, but the class was predominantly ballet. I'd say, I'm sorry, we don't have time for tap today. So I became known for ballet and people came for that, and pretty soon I didn't teach tap at all anymore.

Q: What is the philosophy behind your teaching?

A: There are very few small communities that have a school like this in their midst. The school itself is very classically oriented and is interested in creating ballet for the community, building ballet as an art form that reaches more than just the elite. If the Abby Lee type of dancing (TV's “Dance Moms”) is what you want, don't come here.

Q: How many students do you have?

A: We have more than 100.

Q: How many instructors are there?

A: We have six instructors regularly. My daughters are both instructors — Judy (Tubbs) is a choreographer, and she could work anywhere. Joy (Uschak) teaches the beginners and she's wonderful with them and they love her. She also handles all the costuming, which is a big job.

Q: Where do your students perform?

A: Our performances are always staged at the Palace Theatre. We do three “Nutcrackers” in the fall and two performances of another repertoire in the spring.

Q: Tell about one of your most memorable students.

A: Guan Ming Jun danced with us for a long while. He was from Beijing, and he went on to the American Ballet Theatre in New York. The first performance he did with us was “Firebird” in 1963. He was 5-foot-11 and had big, long legs and a skinny body. He looked like a frog. He could jump like crazy, turn like crazy. He was beautiful onstage.

Q: What would you like people to know about ballet?

A: People think it's all “Swan Lake” and “Giselle,” and it isn't. You can have anything in ballet. We've done “Rodeo,” which is all about horses and stuff. There's “Appalachian Spring” that is also very Western. There's a ballet about Lizzie Borden, who killed her parents with an ax; so there you are with a murder mystery as a ballet.

Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-836-5750 or smcmarlin@tribweb.com.