Love of dance is ageless

When he was a child, as odd as it seems now, he overheard relatives say he had no sense of rhythm. And Walker believed it, as children tend to do.

"People don't realize, when they say something like that, how it can hit," said Walker, 77.

But luckily, the world of modern dance and ballet was not to be denied Norman Walker's talent and grace.

He explored acting and considered a career as an artist, but in the end, Walker realized he can dance.

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A New Yorker from birth, Walker grew to love Tucson after visiting his friend Gertrude Shurr here several times. (Shurr, a modern dance pioneer, died in 1992).

But when Walker moved here eight years ago, he didn't retire. After a life-long career in dance, he wasn't ready to quit. He still isn't.

"There are too many more pieces of creative choreography that I want to do yet," he said.

He now teaches the most advanced students at Tucson's Arizona Ballet Theatre.

Walker's lengthy list of accomplishments includes dancing with the May O'Donnell Dance Company in New York City and as a guest with Pearl Lang and Company.

He's taught and choreographed in China and New Zealand. He started his own dance company, Norman Walker and Dancers, and ran that New York-based operation for a decade.

He spent five years as director of the renowned Jacob's Pillow Dance in Becket, Mass., and is the former director of Theatre Arts at Adelphi University on Long Island, N.Y.

"When Norman started teaching at my Tucson studio, I practically had to pinch myself, I was so thrilled," said Cecily Bressel, founder of Arizona Ballet Theatre, who first met Walker at the Boston Ballet in the 1960s.

"Norman gets the very best out of my dancers, who work very, very hard for him because they respect him so."

Each year, Bressel said, Walker puts together at least two original pieces with her students, which are always "pure magic."

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Walker doesn't use recorded music or an accompanist when he teaches. Instead, he keeps a beat on his own and moves his dancers through stretching and practice with a singsong "bup, bup, bup" and "dee-da, dee-da, dee-da."

He changes the tempo frequently as he walks through the sweaty bodies, making corrections and, it seems a little less frequently, offering compliments.

Walker is slightly over 6 feet tall, and there's barely a wrinkle on his face.

"Good genes," he says with a big smile. Walker plays tennis regularly and exudes enthusiasm about life and, of course, about dancing.

Where does the love of music and dance come from?

When he was young, Walker said his Slavic mother and her relatives would dance at every opportunity, every celebration, he said.

His paternal grandfather taught the piano and would play Walker recordings of operas while telling him the tragic stories that were unfolding.

Walker is passing along his passion to younger generations.

One of his students is Bo Brinton, 19, a dance major at the University of Arizona who credits Walker and Cecily Bressel with fostering his passion for dance.

Brinton said he started dancing at 16 when he took a high school jazz class.

"The advanced level was the only one that would fit into my schedule, so I got thrown in without much knowledge about what I was doing," he said.

He started looking around for more instruction, and a friend recommended Arizona Ballet Theatre.

"My first class there was in May of 2009 with Norman Walker, and the higher level of technique left me a little uneasy, but thrilled to come back and learn more," he said.

"What I love about dancing is that no matter how far you progress, there is always another level to reach. As you get better, the bar is raised higher and higher."

Megan Winter is a founding dance instructor at Arizona Ballet Theatre who said it was Walker who introduced her to modern dance.

"I do mainly ballet, modern, jazz, and tap, although I have dabbled in many other dance forms throughout the years. My first love was ballet, but thanks to Norman, I have fallen in love with modern, too," said Winter who, at 26, has been dancing for 23 years.

Winter said she's had many wonderful teachers in her life, but finds Walker "a true inspiration."

"Not only is he a gifted dancer, teacher and choreographer, but he is gifted in so many other areas," she said. "He loves music, art, theater and writing plays. He really is a renaissance man, and he brings all of this to his classes and rehearsals."

If you go

• What: "The International Language of Dance 2012," including modern and ballet performances to the music of composers Antonio Vivaldi, Frédéric Chopin and Giovanni Bottesini. There will also be a modern dance duet, "Jacob and the Angel," set to the music of Alberto Ginastera.

• When: Performances are at 6 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

• Where: Stevie Eller Dance Theater, 1713 E. University Blvd.

• Tickets: Call the Arizona Ballet Theatre at 322-8019 or email Cecily Bressel at misscecily@mac.com. The performance is reserve seating only, and tickets are $15.

Contact reporter Patty Machelor at pmachelor@azstarnet.com or 806-7754.