Thousands of dancers

Last year Cynthia Johnston was hoping to celebrate, joyfully, the 40th anniversary of her Miss Cindy’s School of Dance. What she got instead was a pandemic with all its accompanying darkness.
Nevertheless, this dancer, who has taught generations of dancers at her Quakertown and Perkasie studios, prevailed, despite having to cancel classes temporarily.
She was forced to close shop suddenly and completely from March to June, and even though she sent instructions home to her dancers, she lost 30% of her enrollment. “I was very fortunate that I was able to start up again,” she said.
Things picked up a bit when she was allowed to resume classes again with COVID-19 restrictions in place, The spacious tall-windowed studio at the top of 245 Broad St. allows plenty of room for social distancing.
Her “show must-go-on” attitude even produced a Christmas recital, masked, distanced and sanitized, last December at the Quakertown VFW.
And now rehearsals are ongoing for the June recital, outdoors this year for the first time. Four shows are scheduled next week, beginning each night at 6 p.m. from Tuesday through Friday at the Univest Performance Center 401 West Mill Street in Quakertown. Miss Cindy’s hoping the weather gods will look favorably upon her dancers and their parents. Many of whom are former students.
Cynthia started taking dance lessons in Quakertown when she was 6 years old. “My first love was always ballet,” she admits, even though her classes range from tap to hip hop and jazz to ballet and gymnastics. “I’ve come to love teaching,” she said. That it’s been a very successful as well as satisfying career is obvious as she points to a kind of informal wall of fame in her Quakertown office. It’s covered with photos of students who have gone on to make names for themselves in the dance world.
At 17, Cynthia’s own passion and talent took her to New York City, where she studied under a number of legendary names in the dance community, and discovered she wanted to teach, too, rather than perform.
And teach is what she has done – absolute legions of little girls and many boys have grown in grace and confidence under her carful guidance and watchful eyes.

She opened her first dance studio in Quakertown in 1979 to a bit of parental skepticism. “I rented a building and my father told me I’d be lucky if I could get 50 students. Well, I got my 50 students,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.
She currently has 250 students but has never stopped to come up with a total for all those she has taught, a number that must be in the thousands.
Among her past students is legendary dancer and choreographer Gary Flannery. Two young women who became Eagles cheerleaders studied with her. One student is a college professor. Cynthia had a student go on to dance in Broadway’s “West Side Story,” another with the Temple Owls dance team. She taught Russian exchange students and helped to keep them here in this country.
All of her own dance instructors are former students and one of their students has just been accepted by the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts in Bethlehem.
The list goes on and on – and it includes Cynthia’s own daughter and granddaughter. Her daughter, Tara Harlow, now teaches at Miss Cindy’s after dancing in New York and on Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Lines ships, once escorting a party of 45 including dancers and parents on a cruise. Although both can perform many types of dance, Cynthia prefers ballet and Tara favors jazz and tap dancing.
Tara’s daughter, Alexis Harlow, has just completed her first year at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, where she’s enrolled in the dance program. She’ll be working toward a bachelor of fine arts with a concentration on modern dance.
It’s a proud and beautiful legacy to pass on.
kathrynfclark@verizon.ne

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