Teddy Forance grew up in Southampton and began dancing seriously as a child. In his late teens, he left western Mass to build a career as a contemporary dancer and choreographer. That journey enabled him to work with pop music stars like Madonna, Lady Gaga, Usher and Kelly Clarkson.
Today, Forance is back in Western Mass, running a new dance program called CLI. CLI is a dance conservatory Forance and a few friends started several years ago when living in Los Angeles.
Producer Dave Fraser visited with Forance and brings us his story.
Read the full transcript:
Zydalis Bauer, Connecting Point: Teddy Forance grew up in Southampton and began dancing seriously as a child. In his late teens, he left this region to build a career as a contemporary dancer and choreographer. That journey enabled him to work with pop music stars like Madonna, Lady Gaga, Usher, and Kelly Clarkson.
Today, Forance is back in western Mass, running a new dance program called CLI: A Dance Conservatory that he and a few friends started several years ago when living in Los Angeles.
Producer Dave Fraser visited with Forance and brings us his story.
Teddy Forance, CLI Conservatory: One, two, three, four, five. Bye bye!
Dave Fraser: Teddy Forance is back at his family’s dance school, the Hackworth School of Performing Arts in Easthampton.
He’s running CLI Dance Conservatory, a highly intensive nine-month program for experienced and talented young dancers.
Teddy Forance: You know, I think to have longevity, you need to stay curious and always learning from every situation, good or bad. It’s, like, learning is the most important thing.
So really, it’s kind of a full circle create, learn, inspire. We just try to keep that revolving door happening inside of our company with our teammates and all the dancers that we teach as well.
Dave Fraser: Forance has had a love of dancing for as long as he can remember and began winning awards and competitions while he was still in school. We featured him on our Making It Here: Teen Style program back in 2006, and over the past 15 plus years, he built a busy career as a contemporary dancer and choreographer.
Teddy Forance: I started working with Janet Jackson, Lady Gaga. Got to assist on Justin Bieber stuff, just a lot of pop stars and that type of thing as well. And then from there, I started a dance company and we toured, you know, doing contemporary work.
From there we started CLI Studios, and CLI Studios has been our online content platform for the last seven years. And, recently, this has been our new baby here, the CLI Conservatory, where it’s dancers 18 and up training to be professional someday in concert dance, commercial dance, Broadway, you know, really just all the different facets and and knowledge that we can hand down to the next generation.
And it’s — I’d have to say this has been my favorite so far.
Dave Fraser: Over 300 students auditioned for the first CLI class last September. And from that, Forance and his staff chose roughly 40 to come to Easthampton to learn jazz, hip hop, contemporary, and other styles of dance.
Teddy Forance: This transition was huge for us, you know? We made a big, big decision to move from Los Angeles, our whole content team, to Easthampton, Massachusetts.
So we film all of our online content from this building as well. So, all of our dancers have the opportunity to assist the choreographers coming in.
Dave Fraser: Alex Arce is here from Minnesota. He says he didn’t have a clear direction as to where he wanted to go after high school, but knew he wanted to be with others who love dance.
Alex Arce, Dancer from Minnesota: Not always, you have everyone at the same level, like striving to be the best all together. So that’s like…it’s like subconscious.
Like, I don’t think we realize how much energy that is pushing forward for all of us to, like, have a better career. So, I’m really grateful for that.
Francis Tirado, Instructor from Puerto Rico: Hi, my name is Francis Tirado.
Dave Fraser: And Francis Tirado is from Puerto Rico and is teaching an online dance challenge.
Francis Tirado, Instructor from Puerto Rico: So I’m teaching a challenge, which means kids are going to be able to send videos to me and I’m going to be able to put them on the CLI app. And I’m being able to respond to them and give them corrections.
So not only am I doing an online challenge, but I’m actually interacting with people in the CLI community, which is really special to me.
Dave Fraser: The conservatory draws from students all around the world. Amanda Knowles is from Toronto, Canada.
Amanda Knowles, Dancer from Toronto: It’s not so far from home, it’s like an 11 hour drive, which isn’t so bad. I have learned so much, it’s insane!
I have to go home and write so much in my journal because it feels like I’m just, like, overflowing with knowledge and I don’t want to forget it.
Sadie Guthrie, Daner from Baldwinville, MA: There’s a lot of styles of dance that, like, I came here feeling very uncomfortable with and unsure of.
And, taking classes in them more has made me want to, like, work in them and grow in them. And I’ve just discovered so much about like who I am through dance and how I see myself in the world and what I want to create.
Teddy Forance: One more time!
Dave Fraser: Beyond the dancing, Forance focuses on keeping the students mentally and emotionally healthy, recognizing that this is the first time away from home for many.
Teddy Forance: Like anything, you know, it’s an adjustment for people who are from different places at first is like, “Whoa, this is a completely new spot!” But they’ve really, I think, enjoyed the community aspect of being in a place like this.
We go to Big Y every day for lunch and they know we’re definitely in the building. They’re like, “Where are you guys from?” And they’re like, We’re from here, we’re from there, we’re from here.
So it’s been cool to see slowly us getting more involved in the community.
Boo boo, boo bah low.
Dave Fraser: Forance doesn’t perform much these days, but feels he can do more for the evolution of dance as an instructor and entrepreneur than he did as a performer.
Teddy Forance: You know, just seeing the daily growth, I’ve never had the opportunity to really invest my time to — to this many dancers. And I think mentally, physically, creatively, they are expanding just every day.
And that’s been like the greatest gift for us as a team to see that growth.
