Sara Heilman/The Omniscient
A young Leah Wilhelm arrives at the dance studio and strides over to the barre to warm up. Her Russian instructor observes that her posture is incorrect. Suddenly, Wilhelm is rapped on the back with a wooden ruler. Disappointed, the teacher says, “No, Leah, no, no.”
Wilhelm, who has been the school’s dance teacher for 12 years, credits dance to shaping her life and impacting her own students. Although she had a bittersweet experience during her middle school years, her experience with dance in high school inspired her to make dance her career.
Wilhelm’s experience with dance began at the age of three. According to her mother, after watching a Sesame Street episode featuring Big Bird dancing in a tutu, she told her mother that dance was what she wanted to do. Her mom signed her up for her first dance classes, sparking what would become her passion and career.
In middle school, Wilhelm had a difficult experience with ballet under the instruction of her demanding teacher. While she gave Wilhelm lead roles, she did not approve of her in class.
“In ballet, there is no interpretation; it is either right or it is wrong,” Wilhelm said.
In the studio, punishment was regular for Wilhelm.
“She would hit me with a yardstick all the time to make me a better dancer,” Wilhelm said.
Wilhelm recalled a painful memory where she was given the lead role in a Nutcracker performance. After the show, the teacher was very complimentary, but then told her she would never be a professional dancer.
“[She told me] my neck was too short, my legs were too short, my arms weren’t long enough,” Wilhelm said. “All this stuff just broke me down.”
Wilhelm’s view changed when she met her high school dance teacher, “and then the lightbulb clicked.”
“She showed me it doesn’t have to be so mean, so serious,” Wilhelm said.
The teacher introduced her to modern dance, which Wilhelm took deep interest in. She says she enjoys it because of its lack of rules and emphasis on artistic expression, which, she says, fit her rebellious personality. The teacher became her mentor and role model.
“She is the reason that I sit here today, and it’s not because of her technique or what she taught me for my technique,” Wilhelm said.
“She taught me more to recognize why I dance.”
Inspired by her teacher, Wilhelm knew she wanted to pursue dance education as a career.
“I knew that I wanted to try to make people feel… the way she made me feel as a person, as a student, as a dancer,” she said.
Wilhelm went to East Carolina University and majored in Dance Education, becoming certified to teach K-12 dance. After graduating, she taught at her old high school, East Alamance High School in her hometown of Mebane, for the first three years of her teaching career. She then started her job as Northwood’s dance teacher a little over 12 years ago.
During her time at Northwood, Wilhelm has been amazed by her students’ development as dancers under her instruction. She says that one of the greatest parts of her career has been transforming unenthusiastic students into dedicated dancers and watching them mature as they take higher-level dance classes, or in her words, “take a ‘can’t’ to a ‘definitely I can.’”
“To see their growth is one of the great parts of my job,” Wilhelm said.
She says dance “gives students a break, a release in their day; high school is super stressful at times.” With the hectic schedules and deadlines of high school life, Wilhelm believes that dance helps students unwind.
“I think it’s needed for mental health, for a release throughout the day, just a good break,” Wilhelm said.
Wilhelm enjoys modern dance because of its lack of definite rules and emphasis on creativity.
“I have learned later in life that I am not one to really follow the rules on many occasions, so it worked very well with my personality,” Wilhelm said.
Dance is Wilhelm’s medium not only for enjoyment, but also for artistic expression.
“It’s emotion-driven and it’s emotion-based, for me at least, and I really respond to that, because I enjoy telling stories and conveying emotions with each of the pieces I’m either choreographing or dancing,” Wilhelm said.
Ultimately, dance is what makes Leah Wilhelm who she is.
“[Dance] has helped heal me in many times of craziness, and it always makes me smile, so I dance because it is a part of me,” Wilhelm said. “It’s not something I do—as cheesy as it sounds, it is me.”
– By Garrison Parrish
