Still dancing at 89, Don McCardle, family look back on 60 years of joy in dance in Falls
Sixty is especially sweet for Don and Carolee McCardle, co-founders of McCardle's Dance Studio in Cuyahoga Falls.
McCardle's, an Akron-area institution for generations of dancers, will celebrate its 60th anniversary June 3 with a 7 p.m. recital at Cuyahoga Falls High School.
The show, which will feature about 150 dancers in more than 60 dance numbers with music from programs dating back to the 1960s, will celebrate six decades of dancers. A competition teams pre-show will precede the recital, from 5 to 6 p.m.
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The studio, run by the McCardles' daughter, Colleen Contillo, since 1999, had its last big extravaganza in 2013, for its 50th anniversary. Don and Carolee performed the jazz/ballroom number "Let's Dance" by Barry Manilow, the first time they'd partnered as dancers in 14 years.
This year, the couple, both 89, and Contillo will be honored before the recital by Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Walters, who will proclaim June 3 McCardle Day in the city.
Don McCardle, 89, teaches 16 weekly classes
Don continues to teach 16 group classes, duets and private lessons weekly, Mondays and Wednesdays at the small studio at 2871 Bailey Road, which was formerly May's grocery store.
The McCardles met dancing in the Akron club circuit in 1953 and married in 1958, after Don had moved to New York to perform in the night club circuit and then was drafted into the Army. He served from 1956 to 1958 in Stuttgart, Germany, where he choreographed USO shows.
Don, who started dancing at age 10, trained with Akron dance legend Jean Shepherd. Carolee started dancing with Charles Boyd in the Falls at age 9.
Don danced at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Akron while he was in high school.
"I made more money dancing (nightly) at the Mayflower than my dad did at the rubber shop" at Goodyear Aerospace, said Don, who went on to become a senior accountant at Goodyear.
The McCardles began teaching dance out of the basement of their Cuyahoga Falls home in 1962, where their niece, Leslie Newberger, was their first student.
They opened their studio in 1963 on Newberry Street and moved five years later to Hudson Drive.
McCardles keep studio in family with daughter Colleen
Contillo, 56, who started studying ballet and tap with her mom at age 2, was a nonactive apprentice with the Ohio Ballet and worked in New York and on cruise ships before returning to run the family dance studio.
Contillo's daughter, studio alumna Mya, 24, will return to do a solo for the big recital. She's a schoolteacher in southern Ohio but hopes to one day return and take over the studio.
Don says he's the last of the old guard, Akron-area dance teachers. That includes names like the Boyd, Shepherd, Eleanor Buchholzer, Helen Jeanette (Dorton) and Norwood Dixon.
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At a recent tap class at McCardle's, a smiling Don, clad in dark jeans, a bright yellow shirt and tap shoes, taught cousins Miley Genet, 13, and Kennedy Henderson, 8, of Cuyahoga Falls, who were practicing their recital duet "Jessie's Girl."
"Good girl," Don said to Kennedy as he called out the steps.
Don danced in Palm Spring Follies
Don didn't stop dancing when Contillo took over the studio. In 2006, at age 72, he auditioned for and got the part of a star male dancer in the Fabulous Palm Spring Follies in Palm Springs, California, where he performed nine shows a week for nine months. Everyone in the show was age 55 or older.
"Do you want to move down there?" Don asked Carolee before his audition.
"Why don't you wait until you make it?" she responded.
"I'll make it," he said.
Don competed against 77 other men to win his coveted dance spot.
His specialty is tap: Among his numerous classes, he teaches two reunion tap classes for former students.
One of those adult tap classes will perform "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" for the recital, a dance Don created for him and Carolee in the 1970s that has been repeated over the years.
Tallmadge resident Diana Ross, 60, will dance the adult tap number with her daughter, Carolyn Davis, 39, of Munroe Falls. Ross started dancing at McCardle's at age 6 and the tradition continued with both of her daughters, including Kristen Williams. Now, Davis' daughter Lily, 8, also takes lessons at the studio.
"I just love the studio. It's a family. It's very warm. We have a lot of fun. The technique is great too," Ross said.
Don has "boundless energy" and is an excellent tap choreographer, Ross said.
"I just feel very blessed that we still have him as a teacher," she said.
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What are the McCardles' favorite memories from teaching?
"The kids. I get all teary eyed because they have a way of worming their way into your heart and everything," Don said.
He said it's difficult when longtime students graduate from high school and leave the studio: "It's hard. It really is. It's like letting go of a family member, I think."
Multiple generations at McCardle's
Veronica Neubert of Akron, who started studying at McCardle's at age 4 in 1984, has raised her five kids dancing there. She's a studio teacher and also performs with her children, Ali Moss, 16, Cosmo Moss, 15, and Carter Moss, 13.
"It's like our second home," Neubert said.
Michelle Hujar of Akron, who teaches voice and piano at the studio, also dances with her daughter, Jenna, with whom she'll perform in ballet and jazz numbers for the recital. Daughter Jocelyn also dances at McCardle's.
In this tight-knit studio family, Carla D'Antonio grew up dancing with Hujar and Contillo. Now, D'Antonio is the baton instructor and is doing a baton number with her daughter, Isabella D'Antonio-Koukoutas, for the recital.
Looking back at their dance performing and teaching careers, the McCardles have a lot to be proud of.
"It's been a good life," Carolee said.
Reach arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: McCardle's Dance Studio celebrates 60 years in Cuyahoga Falls
