CLASS ACTION
Prima ballerina Susan Jaffe brings her ballet skills-and exercise know-how-to the masses.
By Meenal Mistry

W Beauty Flash, November 2004: A slightly gritty New Jersey Transit train is just about the last place you’d expect to find a world-renowned ballerina. But these days, former American Ballet Theatre star Susan Jaffe is a regular, commuting between her home in New York City and her newish venture: a year old ballet school in Princeton, New Jersey.

“After I retired, I knew that I would teach,” says Jaffe, settling into her seat, sipping a blend of berries, protein powder and flax oil-evidence that, even as a so-called civilian, she treats her body like a finely tuned instrument. “But I didn’t think it would happen for 20 years.”

A casual conversation with former ballet school classmate Risa Kaplowitz, on the eve of Jaffe’s much publicized final performance in June 2002, changed that. Kaplowitz, a dancer-turned-sales exec who moved to Princeton after getting married, had been teaching at a school there but was less than satisfied. “Risa said to me, ‘My biggest dream is to have a school like the one that we had when we were growing up,”’ says Jaffe, 42. “I put my arm around her and said, ‘You know, Risa maybe on day we’ll have a school together.”’ Kaplowitz took her at her word, coming back six months later with a business plan. The freshly retired ballerina wasn’t entirely convinced that she was ready. Still, Kaplowitz refused to proceed without her. Their small school, Princeton Dance and Theater Studio opened its doors in September 2003.

Though the chance to play guru arrived a couple of decades early, the role actually comes quite naturally to Jaffe. “I brought up a lot of partners,” she says. “I had these young men who had a lot of talent, but they hadn’t done the roles. I’ve sort of always been a teacher.”

“But,” she adds, “teaching every day is hard. Very hard.”

PDT offers a full slate of ballet classes, from sessions for toddlers and parents to advanced pointe for teenagers on their way to potential professional careers. Although auditions aren’t required for enrollment, with Jaffe on board and quest instructors like ABT principal dancer Irina Dvorovenko, the training is top-shelf.

The lineup is rounded out by tap, jazz, modern, African dance, flamenco and Gyrotonics, a form of exercise based on circular motions practiced on a machine akin to the Pilates Reformer. Both Jaffe and Kaplowitz credit Gyrotonics with transforming their dancing and they strongly encourage it. The school offers dramatic instruction as well. “You can’t really be an artist without understanding how to create a character,” says Jaffe, who worked with an acting coach for years. “But they don’t teach you that in ballet class. The just say, ‘You’re in love. Go put your head on his shoulder.’”

PDT does offer a few yoga and Pilates sessions for adults, but what has really taken off are the adult ballet classes. “When women see what it does, they keep coming,” says Kaplowitz. “They’re losing weight and toning tremendously. They’re literally transforming their bodies.” Although Jaffe still looks like a prima ballerina, with defined, streamlined muscles and rail-thin physique, she claims that her body went through its own transformation when she retired. “I’m used to having nothing here,” she says clutching at her seemingly nonexistent belly. “But what are you going to do? I’m 42 years old.” Post ABT, her exercise routine shrank from seven hours a day to a half-hour. Initially, she attempted what she refers to as “more refined” forms of exercise; it didn’t last. “I found myself in a yoga class in this crazy position and thinking, Why am I doing this?” she says. “Now I’ve been doing really dumb exercise, like jogging. You don’t have to concentrate.”

She tells her students, “ABT is not the end-all, be-all. There are other places in the world to dance.”

These days, her power of concentration are focused on her students. Sitting in one of the school’s bright but spartan studios, watching a class of 15-and 16-year-olds rehearse for an upcoming recital, she scribbles notes on a yellow legal pad. After the girls finish, she critiques each student’s performance, offering advice to polish their techniques. Well aware of the power that her words can have on her occasionally star struck, aspiring ballerinas, Jaffe keeps the advice on the gentle side of honest. “Some of them might not make it into a big company, but can make it in a smaller one,” she says. “I say things to them like, ‘ABT is not the end-all, be-all. There are other places in the world to dance.’”

Of course, sugarplum fairies notwithstanding, Jaffe knows that sugarcoating is not what the ballet world is about. “You have to be perfect,” she admits later. “Nobody will take you if your legs are too short. It’s just not going to happen.”