Still in the swing

• Peggy Pritchett's influence in the Albany dance scene continues despite her "retirement."

K.K. Snyder

ALBANY — Thousands of costumes have been tucked away in Peggy Pritchett’s attic through the years, remnants of thousands of students and various recitals she led during her 58 years teaching dance in Albany.

And while the costumes do take up a lot of precious storage space, Pritchett never knows when they just might come in handy. Like now. Because for the first time in her six decades as a dance teacher Pritchett is missing three sets of costumes for a recital just days away.

But not even that can make this lifelong dancer sweat.

“Oh, I have stuff in the attic I can costume them with if I have to,” the 80-year-old offered calmly.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Pritchett-Pippin School of Dance, originally opened in 1948 as the Peggy Forehand School of Dance, a name the studio held for just one year as the young instructor married Jimmy Pritchett the following year and changed the name to Pritchett School of Dance.

“I don’t know how Jimmy has survived it all these years,” said Pritchett of her dance business.

Pritchett, who earned a degree in cost accounting from Duke University, didn’t work long in the accounting business before she began looking for other career options.

“After four years of (accounting), I was ready to do something else,” she said in a recent interview at her northwest Albany home.

Under the direction of Mildred Ross Crouch and later Alta Devane Malone, Pritchett herself studied dance beginning at age 4. While at Duke, she was asked twice to choreograph the annual performance of the Hoof and Horn Club, the second of which was attended by a dance instructor from Durham, N.C., who offered Pritchett her first job as a dance teacher.

“I worked on weekends and I made 50 cents an hour,” recalled Pritchett, who would go on to teach for most major dance organizations as well as teaching children’s dance in San Francisco, Miami and Cleveland. “So I made 3 dollars a day and out of that I had to pay my bus fare and a meal.”

Pritchett, who graduated from high school at age 16 and college at 20, went home one year with a classmate from Chicago, where she studied dance for a full summer. Following graduation, Pritchett returned to Albany and opened her first studio located in the alley behind the 600 block of Pine Avenue.

The business quickly outgrew that location and soon moved to a building on Society Street near the high school stadium and later into what is now the conference room behind the restaurant at Merry Acres on Dawson Road. Today, the studio is located at 605 Baldwin Drive, where it has operated for about 20 years. The studio is now owned by Kathy Hall-Hawkins, a former student of Pritchett’s, who purchased the business when Pritchett retired two years ago.

“I’m real proud of Kathy,” she said. “She’s doing a great job.”

In fact, many of Pritchett’s students have gone on to play a role in her business, including Barbara Pippin, who studied with Pritchett for years. Upon Pippin’s return to Albany after college, the two created a partnership, thus renaming the business as the Pritchett-Pippin School of Dance.

Another former student of Pritchett’s Judy Williams Dabbs started tap and ballet at age 6 and after college opened a branch of Pritchett-Pippin in Americus.

“I adored dancing and loved her more than anything,” said Dabbs of Pritchett, whom she called a second mother. “Teaching dance has been my love for 33 years and it all started with a little song about Raggedy Ann’s arms.”

Other students have gone on to win pageants, become dance instructors and perform off-Broadway shows. One student became head of the dance department at Agnes Scott College and another cornered a coveted role as a Rockette.

Pritchett has taught so many for so long, in fact, that there are 11 students enrolled now that are the third generation in their families to study dance at Pritchett-Pippin.

“And there are many, many, many mothers and daughters that I’ve taught,” she added.

Many things have changed in the dance business since 1949, of course. Costumes, music, parents — they’ve all evolved, and not always for the better.

“In my first years we used nothing but a piano. Then we went to records, then cassettes, then CDs,” she said. “The music’s changed completely; it’s just amazing. And you’d better change with it.”

One thing that hasn’t changed much is the number of boys signing up for lessons.

“Twice we had a boys’ class,” she said. “The first time I did it, I forgot how much I didn’t like it. By the second time, I remembered why. They were there because their mothers wanted them there, not because they wanted to be.”

Today, dance lessons compete with so many other activities that keep children busy.

“They have dance line and soccer and cheerleading,” she said. “They have to really be a little more dedicated to dance if they want to do it. Attendance is not as good as I’d like it to be with all the other extracurricular activities.”

Pritchett treasures a number of funny stories involving her little ones through the years. Like the day she walked into a class full of unhappy looking students and tried to get them excited by playing “Alabama Jubilee.”

“Do you know what this music is?” she asked the students before telling them the song was “Alabama Jubilee.” “Does anyone know what a ‘jubilee’ is?”

“Does it have something to do with sex?” offered a second-grade student.

Though she’s retired, Pritchett remains right in the mix of things, especially this time of year as the studio prepares for the annual Dougherty County Kiwanis recital May 16-17 at Albany High School. The performance is a fundraiser for Kiwanis and proceeds support local youth activities, added Pritchett.

Pritchett is working to create a list of names of the thousands of students she taught over the years.

“Lots of pink tights and pink ballet shoes, which we love,” she said. “If we ever have a reunion, we’ll have to have it at Mills Stadium because it’s the only place big enough.”

In her “spare time” Pritchett has taken up piano lessons and attends computer classes at Darton College three days a week. And while she does look back fondly on her 60 years in the dance studio, she doesn’t waste much time sitting around reminiscing. After all, the show must go on and it just wouldn’t be the same without her.

Tickets for the Pritchett-Pippin Dance Recital, “Footsteps Light up the Stage,” will be available at the door. The show begins both nights at 7 p.m. For more information call the studio at (229) 435-1226.

K.K. Snyder is a freelance writer who resides in metro Albany.