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Providing a community of support for mature dancers.
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New Treasurer - Kathy Seng Gurland Please Help Us Reach Out... |
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Kathy Seng Gurland takes on
Kathy, like many dancers, came to NYC right after high school and threw herself into classes, auditions and part time jobs. Her ballet teacher from Philadelphia recommended a Jazz teacher named Chuck Kelly and thus began her adventures at Don Farnsworth’s Studios. After passing the mandatory student verbal abuse tests from Chuck in jazz, tap and acrobatics, she remained a dedicated follower and eventually wound up being one of his first teachers and a long term friend. She joined DO40 right after her 40th birthday and has been a loyal member ever since. She joined forces with Ron Stratton in planning two of the holiday parties several years ago and has him to blame for getting roped into the position of treasurer. (Well, actually it was her own fault for moving to Brooklyn – it made us contact her since she gave us the wrong address!!! – Ed.) Kathy spent most of her dancing career doing dinner theater and summer stock, toured with Cyd Charise and Tony Martin, and then moved into choreographing and directing. She assisted Tony Award winning Director Dennis Rosa on several productions and eventually made it to Off Broadway as an understudy in the musical flop “Surf City.” She landed a few national commercials during those years (Dawn, Uncle Ben’s Rice, etc.) but as we all know, those residuals really don’t pay the rent. Realizing that she was not going to join the ranks of Broadway’s rich and famous, Kathy decided to pursue a college degree while still dabbling in “the biz.” After seven years of part time study, while working multiple jobs and taking ballroom classes to maintain her sanity, she received her BA from NYU just prior to her 40th birthday. Swearing to never return to school again, Kathy worked for five years in social services enduring the 9-5 schedule while simultaneously building a relationship with her former professor that happily ended with an elopement in the Virgin Islands. Eight years ago Kathy went back on her promise and returned to NYU (this time for free thanks to the hubby) to pursue a masters degree in Social Work. She graduated in 2000, passed the state licensing exam and immediately began working in her two chosen fields – hospice and psychotherapy. Kathy still feels to this day that it is a true honor and privilege to provide end of life services to individuals throughout NYC and also still thoroughly enjoys being a “shrink” to her ongoing private clients.
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After over 30 years living in the “only borough”, Kathy and her husband made the move over the bridge to Brooklyn last year and now reside in DUMBO. After going through withdrawal and adjusting to the peace and quiet, they are now confirmed Brooklynites. (The view of your City is marvelous from here and so are the sunsets.) Kathy and Bob also own a home on the island of Culebra, PR and Kathy is considering holding a DO40 membership meeting there in 2007 for those of you who like the beach
The Board of Directors recently sent out a letter contacting past members who were on our mailing list but whom we had not heard from in a while. There was a terrific response and it was great to have so many old friends renew their membership with us again. However, there are still 100 past members that we have not heard from and we’d like to reach out to them with your help.
Please contact us as soon as you can. We’re here to send out our newsletters to those DO40 members who do not have access to a computer, and to continue to mail them information about our socials and other activities throughout the year. We will answer questions through our hotline, and continue to produce events important to your needs as artists. Let’s get back as many of our flock as we can! Sincerely, The Board of Directors
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Copyright 2006 - 2016 Dancers Over 40, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. |
As you know, DO40 is dedicated to the community of dancers, mature dancers. And as you can see from some of our member letters, some DO40-ers are working and thriving well into their later years! (Molly Molloy and Ann Pimm are excellent examples, as well as Marianne Selbert, a younger whippersnapper!)
One way we would like to be of assistance is to provide some honorary memberships this year. But we need your help in identifying past members who want to renew their DO40 membership but are unable to because of financial constraints. If you are a past member or if you know of a past member who could benefit from an honorary DO40 membership, please contact us, either through our hotline, 212-330-7016, DO40 website or our e-mail address, 
Our mission is to keep all of us in touch, and to make sure no dancer is left behind! There are other avenues of support, financial and medical, sponsored by the Actors’ Fund and Career Transition for Dancers, but they cannot provide the invaluable service we do – keeping dancers together – and communicating! And more!