05-21-2023 Harford Magazine - Flipbook - Page 12
H E A LT H Y L I V I N G
BY MARY CAROLE MCCAULEY Harford Magazine
Tania Long, owner of Dimensions Dance Center, leads the Mighty Minis class through basic ballet positions. PHOTOS BY KENNETH K. LAM
First steps
Dimensions Dance Center helps young dancers find their place in the spotlight
When Tania Long was in college and dreaming of a career
in dance, a teacher told her: “Ballet doesn’t look good on
Black girls.”
That broke Long’s heart, but not her spirit. And with every class of young tap dancers, jazz students and ballerinas
who come through Dimensions Dance Center, the school
she founded in 2016, Long is proving her naysayers wrong.
When 6-year-old Ava Davis-Griffith rhythmically bends
and straightens her knees in a perfect plié, and when Aubrey
Bailey, 6, finds her balance, stands on one foot and executes
a passe without so much as a wobble, Long knows she’s
found her calling.
“Every child I meet,” she said, “I feel like I’m in their life
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| Summer 2023 | harfordmagazine.com
for a reason.”
Dimensions welcomes students of all races and backgrounds, but Long, 35, of Aberdeen, said it’s extra-important
for young dancers of color to have an adult instructor they
can identify with.
“I am proud to be a representation for girls that look like
me,” she said.
“As a young dancer, I would often be the only student of
color in my class. A lot has changed since then. Now these
girls can find tights that are in their skin color, point shoes
that are their skin color. But sometimes students still come
up to me all excited and say, ‘Oh, your hair is just like mine.’”
Long grew up in Baltimore and began dancing at age 3.