If it's true that people can lose themselves in dance, then Carole Sampson has been lost for more than four decades. And she's right where she wants to be.
Sampson is the artistic director for the International Dance Education Academy (IDEA).
The 3,500-square-foot studio at 2595 S. Cimarron Road, suite 106 has about 120 students ages 3 to adult. There, Sampson teaches ballet, hip hop, jazz and tap.
Sampson, 52, was born and raised in South Africa where apartheid meant her life was filled with "you can't" moments.
You can't eat in a restaurant where whites go to eat.
You can't go to the movies like whites do.
You can't own a TV ... although the white people can.
When it came to dance studios, the list continued.
Black students were not allowed to sit on the benches in the foyer as they waited for class. They had to sit on the curb outside. They had to change into their dance togs in a bathroom, not in the dressing room used by the whites. Their class was separated from the white student's classes by a screen. Sampson recalled peeking through to see what the white girls were learning.
But when the music started, "you can't" was replaced with "I can."
"When I was in class, I would come alive," she said. "No one could tell me I couldn't do anything because of my color."
When Sampson was 15, her father, an English teacher, moved the family to Zambia where there was no segregation. Her dancing flourished and she began teaching the skill. She worked in big production shows in casinos, later, in Paris. Many of the dancers she worked alongside were American and they were black, though light-skinned, as she is.
In Johannesburg, those black dancers were allowed into restaurants, nightclubs and movie theatres because they had United States passports. Sampson was often let in, along with them. It was assumed she, too, was an American. It was the first time she saw the interiors of places white people took for granted.
For 20 years Sampson owned dancing schools in Kitwe, Zambia, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and Kimberley RSA, Africa. But it was her year spent on the stage of Paris that brought her to the attention of a "Jubilee!" producer.
"I never thought I'd have a chance to come dance in America," she said. "That was our dream, to come to America. Even my dad, when he found out they asked me to dance, he said, 'Why would they want you when they have all those international dancers to choose from?' "
Sampson emigrated to the United States and spent five years as a dancer in "Jubilee!" She retired from dancing on stage at 39 ("I've always looked younger than my age.") to concentrate on teaching at the Nevada Ballet Theatre, at UNLV and the Vicky Chapman Academy of Ballet. Three years ago, she opened IDEA. There, she uses her boundless energy to teach young people.
"She puts a lot of pressure on us, but she's really nice," said one of her students, Casey Andrews, 9.
Sampson is married to Michael, a baccarat supervisor. Between them, they have four children. Only one, Aaron, is still at home. He takes ballet at IDEA and, like his mother, has a natural inclination for it.
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