SuccessStory_JanFeb2015 - Core Rhythm Pilates Studio

SUCCESS STORY
Rockette's
A
Biloxi, MS. Within days, they called and offered
me a job. So in 1994, I left my boyfriend and my
hometown, and off I went to Reno.
Soon, I was performing twice a night.
The show featured a variety of celebrity
impersonators—from Michael Jackson and Cher
to Madonna and Garth Brooks—and we would
dance and pose around them. Before long, I also
became a line captain, making sure the other
dancers knew the choreography. We’d go out all
night after the shows, sleep, wake up, go to the
gym, then hit the pool. I loved it!
Second Act
When an injury threatened her dream of being
a dancer, Tracy Janczak, 41, managed to get
back on stage at Radio City, thanks to Pilates.
DON’T TRY THIS IN HEELS
G
Growing up in White Lake, MI, just outside of Ann Arbor, I
was one of those super-active, bouncing-off-the-walls kind
of kids. So when I was six, my mother signed me up for
dance lessons. She had no idea if I had any talent, but she
knew that my energy had to be channeled somehow!
It was love at first class. I studied ballet, tap and jazz,
and by the time I was 13, I was performing with the 16- and
17-year-olds. Then my father, my biggest fan, encouraged
me to enter some dance competitions. Throughout high
school, most weekends I was dancing somewhere, with my
Dad chauffeuring and cheering me on.
when I got the 22-cities-a-year gig.
Two other dancers and I would perform little five-minute
routines, dancing around the cars in leather jackets and
shorts and black tights. We did 11 damn shows a day! Sure,
I had to go straight to my hotel room and check in with
my parents each night, but it was thrilling to be part of a
professional show.
But at the end of that year, a week before Christmas
1991, my father was killed in a car crash. It was completely
shattering. But I think he’s been an angel, looking out for
me ever since.
GOING (SEMI) PRO
IT’S SHOWGIRL TIME!
Near the end of high school, just before I turned 18, a
neighbor who was a car dealer suggested to my father that I
audition as a dancer for the International Auto Show circuit.
Fortunately, my parents let me go for it, and I was ecstatic
After three years on the auto show circuit (with a year of
college mixed in), a dancer friend suggested that I try
out for the American Superstars Shows, which produced
big casino extravaganzas in Reno and Las Vegas, NV, and
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january • february 2015
STUDIO PHOTOS BY EMILY DAVIS
by Tracy Janczak • As told to Beth Johnson
A year and a half into my Nevada stint, I had
an injury that would ultimately change my life.
During a show, I was supposed to come onstage
and do a big leap with an extended leg. I rushed
my entrance, and when I landed on my left foot,
I rolled out of my three-inch dancer heels and
heard a loud snap. I could hear the awful sound
and feel the pain all the way up my body as I
collapsed on the floor. I knew right away that I had
broken my ankle. They had to carry me off the
stage, and for the next six weeks, I wore a brace.
All I could think about was getting back to the
show; I was terrified I wouldn’t have a job by the
time the brace came off.
DISCOVERING PILATES
As I was recovering, my chiropractor asked me if
I had ever tried Pilates. It was 1995, and I’d never
even heard of it. It turned out that his wife was a
Pilates instructor, so I decided to give it a shot.
We started slowly with the smallest little
movements, such as finding neutral and imprint.
On the mat, I’d do Roll-Downs and Hip Rolls, the
Hundred and ab prep.
It floored me that it was so hard. I had been
taking dance for years, and I really thought
I understood my body. My Pilates teacher
informed me that I had structural issues from
years of dancing, including two spinal curvature
disorders, kyphosis and lordosis. And the
shows I was doing were exacerbating them:
The choreographers would gear your routine
toward your more flexible side, so you could
kick higher and be more “showy.” No wonder I
was off-balance!
As my ankle got stronger, I was doing more and
more Footwork and Front and Back Splits, with the
goal of being both flexible and strong. Within two
months of breaking my ankle, I was able to return
to the stage. From then on, I decided that I would
never stop taking Pilates.
TAKING A STAND
OPPOSITE PAGE:
JANCZAK CUEING
A CLIENT
WHO'S DOING
BICEP CURLS ON
THE REFORMER;
JANCZAK IN
COSTUME FOR
THE AMERCIAN
SUPERSTARS
SHOW IN LAS
VEGAS IN 1996;
JANCZAK WITH
HER HUSBAND
MATHEW AT THEIR
WEDDING IN 2007.
THIS PAGE:
WITH FELLOW
SHOWGIRLS IN
RENO, NV., IN 1997.
After four years in Nevada, I was more than ready
for a change. One night, during rehearsal with the
“ It floored me that (Pilates)
was so hard. I had been taking
dance for years, and I really
thought I understood my body.”
pilatesstyle.com 39
Garth Brooks impersonator, I was fed up with
the skimpy costumes the (male) producers
were insisting we wear. “When was the last
time you went to a Garth Brooks show and
saw T&A?!” I said. The response was, “You’re
a dancer, and you have to do what we say.” I
turned around and walked out.
It ended up being the best thing I could
have done, because soon after, some of my
dancer friends told me about an audition for
the Rockettes. Ever since I was a girl, I had
said to my dance teachers, “I want to be a
Rockette someday!” But I figured that since I
wasn’t the most flexible dancer, I couldn’t kick
high enough to make it. But after two years of
Pilates, I felt I had a chance.
A NEW DIRECTION
THIS PAGE: JANCZAK
DOING A VARIATION
OF TEASER ON THE
REFORMER IN HER
STUDIO IN VICTOR, NY.
OPPOSITE PAGE: DOING
SHORT SPINE AT A
FRIEND’S STUDIO, EAST
STREET PILATES, IN
ROCHESTER, MI.
I was one of 3,000 women auditioning for
200 Rockette spots that year. When I got
the call that I had been chosen, I literally
dropped the phone and ran around the room
crying and screaming like a two-year-old. It
was such an honor! I’m convinced I got that
job because of Pilates.
I’M A ROCKETTE!
I was thrilled when I got to New York in
1998 to prepare for the famous Radio City
Christmas Spectacular. It was also very hard
work. Rehearsals took eight hours a day for
REHABBING MYSELF
six weeks to get the very precise routines
down. Once the season started, we worked
six days a week and did four 90-minute
shows a day; each show had 10 numbers
and some 500 Rockette kicks. We had to eat
like linebackers because we burned so many
calories doing more than 2,000 kicks every
day. I’d do a show, go backstage to a huge
buffet of food, take a nap under the stage,
then go back on and do it all again. Then at
the end of the day, we’d all sit in these huge
tubs of ice water, from the waist down,
to recover.
On our one day off, I would stretch at
home and do Pilates matwork for core and
spine mobility. Sometimes before a show, I
would even lead other Rockettes in a 15- to
20-minute Pilates warm-up, doing Cat Stretch
and Rolling Like a Ball.
I held it together until I got home
from the hospital, all taped up and on
heavy-duty painkillers. I walked into
my apartment and started sobbing
hysterically. Being a Rockette was
the pinnacle of my career, and all I
could think was, They’re going to cut
me from the show. A member of the
chorus would fill in for me, and my
“dancer insecurity” had me obsessing
that they’d give her my job.
Every day, the stage manager
called to check in on me…and to see
if I was ready to come back. For the
first two days, I was feeling seriously
sorry for myself, and washing my
painkillers down with alcohol. On
the third morning, they told me that
they had to think seriously about
replacing me if I couldn’t get back in
line soon—the show literally had to
go on.
That did it—I had to get back
to my job. As soon as I got off the
phone, I tried some basic, gentle
Pilates stretches with an emphasis
on breathing laterally because chest
breathing was excruciating. My
knowledge of back breathing from
Pilates saved me! I did level-one
matwork until I was blue in the face,
and by day five, I was up to an hour of
Pilates in the morning and an hour in
the afternoon.
A week after my accident, I told the
stage manager that I was returning to
the line.
PLANNING AHEAD
But even though it had always been my
dream to be a Rockette, I knew I had to
start planning for when I became a former
Rockette. I had seen enough older dancers
who didn’t have any idea what they’d do
after dancing. Because Pilates had made
such an enormous difference in my life and
health, and I had loved all the teaching I did
as a line captain, I knew that I wanted to
teach Pilates. So in 2000, during my down
time, I got fully certified through STOTT
PILATES® by Eva Powers at Equilibrium
Studio in West Bloomfield, MI.
The very next year, in 2001, it was driven
home to me how important it was to have a
backup plan. Something went awry during
the “Rockette Wooden Soldier Fall,” a wellknown scene in the Christmas Spectacular,
in which each Rockette, very slowly and
with great control, falls backward like a
domino onto the next dancer. I was the
ninth girl, and this time, the fall happened
too fast and eight women landed on top of
me. As they each tumbled in turn, I tried to
breathe, but it hurt so much I could barely
gasp. I’d never felt that much pain! It took
three other dancers and a stagehand to help
me offstage. My ribs seized up and I had
shooting, stabbing pain all down my chest. I
collapsed backstage, where several dressers
got my costume off. Then the company
manager and an assistant rushed me to the
hospital. It felt like hot knives were stabbing
me, and I was sure I had broken something
in my chest, or that my lungs had collapsed.
Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as I had feared.
Nothing was broken, but I had six extremely
bruised ribs, and I would soon be black-andblue from my sternum to my belly button.
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january • february 2015
STUDIO PHOTOS BY EMILY DAVIS
ANOTHER INJURY
THE SHOW GOES ON
BOWING OUT
I couldn’t have made it through those
first shows back without the other
dancers and the stagehands—and yes,
painkillers—to help me out. During the
Wooden Soldier Fall, the Rockette in
front of me took a huge hit, protecting
me from the full force of her falling into
me, and the Rockette behind me lifted
me up a bit so that the fall wouldn’t
hit me in my most bruised area. The
stagehands would carry anything
they could for me, like the 15-pound
wreaths and large Santa bells that we
had to lift over our heads, until I had to
be onstage. At first I could only make
it through half the performances, but it
was enough to keep me in the lineup.
After a few shows, I started feeling
more confident, and I made it through
the end of that season. Of course,
Pilates deserves a lot of the credit for
getting me through both the physical
and mental pain.
I danced happily as a Rockette for
three more years, but when I turned
31 in 2003, I was ready to move on
from the dancer’s life. So when the
Rockettes called me for the next
season, I told them no, thank you.
After I hung up, I stared at the phone
for a few minutes, wondering if I’d
done the right thing, but I knew it was
time to move on, to use my Pilates
experience to help others. Within a
year, I had opened the Pilates and
Movement Studio near my hometown
in Michigan.
MEETING HER TOP GUN
Then in 2006, when I was in Reno for a
friend’s bachelorette party, some Navy
pilots were having a bachelor party
at the same restaurant. That’s where
I met my future-husband Mathew. He
was an F-14 Naval Flight Officer—
just like Goose in Top Gun—and we
talked all night. After a few years of
long-distance dating, we moved to
Pittsburgh together, where he got his
doctorate in physical therapy. The next
year, we got married and 11 months
later, in late 2010, I gave birth to our
beautiful daughter, Grace.
PUTTING DOWN ROOTS
We are now settled on my husband’s
home turf in upstate New York. I have
two studios in the Rochester area, one
in Canandaigua and another down the
road in Victor.
Pilates absolutely gave me the
wonderful life I have. Without it,
I certainly wouldn’t have been a
Rockette, I certainly wouldn’t have two
thriving studios, and I seriously doubt
that I’d have such good health. I tell all
of my clients that Pilates is something
you can do forever. And you certainly
don’t have to be a former Rockette to
do it well! PS
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