Vaulting into culture

For any society to flourish, the culture needs to be passed down to the younger generations. Traditionally, this has been done through exposure to the arts including dance and gymnastics. One Ville Platte studio has carried on this tradition for the better part of three decades.
“I would say dance is a need, and it’s an exposure because when you go to New York, you’re going to want to go to a Broadway production,” said co-owner of Dance & Gymnastics, Inc., Barbara Fontenot. “We do productions, but they are small productions.”
These productions include a Christmas production and a recital every Spring. There will be four recitals this year on Saturday, May 5, with each recital having different ages of the kids.
Fontenot’s co-owner Veronica Manuel expanded on how dance preserves the culture. “For years we’ve been teaching about the history of dance,” she said. “I go back to ballet because it’s French. When students come in, they’re going to have ballet. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it because ballet is the foundation to everything. We teach it all, but students have to have their ballet to do it.”
“They learn the terminology of ballet in French as well as the dance,” added Fontenot.
The co-owners have been in the dance and gymnastics business for the last 34 years. “We were teaching for Cliff and Peggy McCauley, and then we ended up just breaking off and opened up our own,” Manuel said. “This building was built in 1989, but we first started, believe it or not, in the old Montgomery Ward building. We used to be in the back of Dizzy’s store in that little warehouse section. From there, we went to Franklin’s skating rink.”
Fontenot described the drawbacks of having gymnastics lessons in the skating rink. “Before we built this building, we had all the equipment at Franklin’s,” she said. “We’d have to take it apart every Friday, save it, and put it back together every Monday because the kids were still skating then.”
The gymnastics equipment that moved to the current building on Nina Drive included the balance beam, the uneven bars, the vaulting horse, and the floor exercises. As Manuel said, “It was everything they do at the Olympics.”
Over time; however, the gymnastics has faded away from the studio and also the equipment. “Once we got here, the majority of the enrollment wanted dance and regular tumbling,” Manuel said. “The gymnastics phased out, and the equipment wasn’t that popular anymore. When we had the bigger side of the enrollment wanting dance, we decided that was room that we needed to do away with.”
Aside from phasing out the gymnastics, Dance & Gymnastics, Inc., had to face competing with year round sports and other activities that caused the enrollment numbers to dwindle over time. “So many students would come, but then it got to be such a big commitment,” Fontenot said. “The parents said they couldn’t handle it because they had too many things going on.”
“We’re lenient,” Manuel added. “The school coaches are not lenient, so we have to work with what’s left over. Practice comes first at school. Just so our high school kids can come, we have class on Sundays to accommodate them because there are too many activities going on during the week.”
Instead of trying to compete against sports, Dance & Gymnastics, Inc., has adjusted to complement the sports. “We were once told by one of the coaches that dancers and gymnasts were making the better athletes for overall confidence, poise, posture, and just getting out of that shell,” Manuel said.
“There are some kids that are super shy, and we have to work with them,” added Fontenot. “But, there are football players who have already said that they take dancing to help them with their sport.”
Dance & Gymnastics, Inc., has also produced a few athletes of its own as 10 former students have become collegiate cheerleaders. Of these 10 are Morgan Manuel at UL-L; Logan Shipp, Heidi Manuel, and Lauren Parrott at McNeese, and Amy Pellerin at UL-M.
“That’s a lot for a small town,” Manuel said. “Whenever they go try out or have the little classes at their college to learn the routines to be able to try out, our kids are very often asked where they come from because the instructors like their technique, their ability to stunt, their power, and their facial. It makes us feel good because I feel we’re a little shrimp in the sea when it comes to these big colleges.”
According to Manuel, the success of the studio over the years goes back to its staff of 10 former students including Peggy Doucet, Misty Arnold, Tana Doucet, Kelly Wilmouth, Kelly Vidrine, Sarah Manuel, Rainee Deshotel, Britney Fontenot, Logan Shipp, Anna Fontenot, and Morgan Manuel.
Also on staff are Manuel’s husband Chad and daughters Abigael Triplett and Misty Arnold. She explained that her daughters will be charged with keeping the legacy going. “Misty teaches at Sacred Heart now, and she went to UL where she got her degree in dance and foreign languages,” Manuel said. “So, she’s taking over the dance department, and our other daughter Abigael loves the tumbling.”
She concluded, “It’s good that this will keep going. We’re going to be here as long as we can, but I’m happy my kids want to continue.”