She's hanging up her ballet and tap shoes.
After 33 years of teaching various forms of dance, ìMz Patî ó Pat Crew
of Patriciaís School of Dance ó will no longer be dancing and the hall
on the hill where she spent most of her evenings is vacant and for
sale.
  That was the message she sent out recently ó to the surprise of many
young girls who have spent years trying to emulate her every dance
move.
She came to this community nearly 30 years ago after spending a short
time in Danville, directing a Senior Citizens Center. Her then-husband
Doug Crew was a young engineer working at the South Boston Westinghouse
plant and the two of them decided that Halifax County needed a dance
center. Doug remembers well that the two had reservations about whether
or not they could make it in the dance business, so he told the owner
of the building which they were considering renting on Seymour Drive
they would have to register at least 40 students in order to make it
fly. In no time, he remembers 82 students had signed up for lessons.
Three dropped out along the way, but by the time of the end of the year
recital, they had 79 students.
Pat had taught dance while in high school in Alabama. "I began teaching
a jazz class at the age of 15 while I was taking dance lessons from a
set of twins who had a dance studio there. They asked me to help out
and I've been dancing ever since," she says.
Leaving high school, she went on to graduate from Huntington College in
Alabama with a degree in psychology and a minor in physical education.
Continuing her education, she received her masters degree in counseling
and guidance from Troy State University.
It didn't take her long, though, to fully realize that physical
exercise such as dance was very therapeutic for young women who needed
something to help them "loosen up."
Starting out at the rental studio on Seymour Drive, she first taught
ballet (still her favorite), tap, jazz and aerobic point, later to
introduce hip hop, lyrical, cheer and pom as well as clogging. There
have been several moves of her studio ó from Seymour Drive to two
locations in the Centerville area, before purchasing the former Hankins
Furniture building on Spencer Hill in Halifax. There's also been more
than a doubling of the number of students from that first year with
over 200 taking lessons from her during the past year.
But giving up the dance studio doesn't mean she'll be sitting still ó
quite the opposite. This past weekend she defended her championship
golf title at Greens Folly Golf Course. "Both of my parents, who are
now deceased, were avid golf players and I've been playing for as long
as I can remember," she says.
In addition to playing golf, she is also working as the assistant golf
coach for both the high school and middle school golf teams. And she
gives private lessons by appointment.
Not only does she coach, but she now has a new career as a teacher's
aide at Sinai Elementary where she is very close to a seven year old
boy. "I started working with him on a volunteer basis last year when he
was at Halifax Elementary. He couldn't read at all. Now he's reading
extremely well and seems to be enjoying it. He calls me on the
telephone and puts me on speaker phone and I listen to him read," she
says.
That, of course, is in addition to their visits together and their
trips. "That has been the most rewarding thing that I have ever
experienced ó seeing that little guy learn to read."
As for Doug, he says he plans to retire although he acknowledges that
he will miss the little three, four and five year olds that he has
taught for many years. "Yes," he says, "I went from engineering (after
13 years of college) to teaching dance to the tiniest of the crowd."