By Cindy J. Roth
"I just love being here with all my girls," said Allison Hochhauser, who has danced at Dorothy's for 15 years and is now a member of the senior company. "We've all been dancing together so long, we are like sisters."
The 14 members of the senior company take two ballet, one jazz and one lyrical dance class a week. The group ranges from 12 to 19 years old, but most members are 15 and 16. Most have spent 10 to 15 years studying at Dorothy's. Some even started before the Merrick Road school existed, when Director Dorothy Medico taught classes at home.
"Some neighborhood kids couldn't afford classes, so I started teaching in my mother's basement" in Bellmore, said Medico, who is co-president of the Bellmore Chamber of Commerce. "Each year, more and more children came."
Megan Goller started studying dance in Medico's basement 15 years ago. She is now a member of Dorothy's senior company and captain of the Kennedy High School cheerleading squad. She loves dance so much that she plans to pursue it in college.
"If I have a bad day at school, it just brightens my whole day to come here," said Goller.
From her love of children, teaching and dance, Medico grew her business out of her mother's basement into a three-studio dance school with more than 400 students. Her pupils include men and women who range from 2 1/2 to 20 years old and take part in regular and/or competition classes.
About 10 percent of Dorothy's students test their skills in dance competitions, including the Sophisticated Productions, Star Bound and Dance X-plosion competitions. In past years, students have traveled as far as Florida for national competitions and have won a slew of awards.
Medico said her favorite honor is the professionals award. "The coolest award we won is the professionals award, which is given for professionalism on and off the dance floor," said Medico.
The accolade represents what Medico stresses at the school -- for the students to respect others and be well-rounded individuals. Many of Dorothy's students are in honors classes and on sports teams.
Not surprisingly, the school's homey atmosphere attracts many former students to become teachers there. Nicole Kypreos, one of three teachers for the senior dance company, started as a student and worked her way up to teacher. Now with the studio for 12 years and graduating from Adelphi University with a psychology degree in December, Kypreos doubts she will give up teaching.
"I don't know if I'll ever leave," she said. "I'm kind of like the furniture around here."
For Kypreos and Medico, the reward of teaching is watching dancers grow over the years and seeing them take up dance beyond the school.
"I like when kids leave and they're happy with their progress, and they take it up professionally or become student-teachers, or if they take dance in college," said Kypreos. "The best is when I go to sweet sixteens, and a song comes on I've choreographed, and the girls start doing the dance."
Medico said, "It's like giving birth to my own children. It's just amazing watching them grow up. I get to light candles at sweet sixteens, and I'm going to weddings now" for former students.
