Smith Club of San Francisco
and Marin
Alumnae Profiles
Sharonjean Moser Leeds '67
Summer 2006
Profile By Sarah Cross Mills '66
Have you ever observed a woman's posture, foot position, body type, maybe even her hair or dramatic outfit, and known you were watching a dancer? Many dancers develop an identifiable persona, and, self-admittedly, Sharonjean Moser Leeds '67 is one of them. How could this not be so, for someone who began ballet lessons at three, performed professionally for more than thirty years, and has taught dance at the University of San Francisco for 33 years?
Sharonjean grew up in Great Neck, NY, where she delighted in the music, costumes and adrenaline rush of performing on stage. She added tap and baton twirling to her repertoire and could perform all three talents in annual shows sponsored by the local fire department. Sharonjean emphasizes that this was her personal passion; her parents were very supportive but never pushed her. With their permission, she even changed her name when she decided that combining her first and middle names would stand out more on programs. She knows that the presence, structure and discipline dance gave her as a young girl could have been valuable had she decided on any other career, but her commitment to dance never wavered.
Majoring in Theater and Dance at Smith, Sharonjean often missed usual house activities and meals because of constant practicing and rehearsing. But one advantage was the need in both dance and theater projects for male performers to fill roles and vice versa at Amherst, making her department virtually co-ed. Sharonjean moved away from ballet into dramatic modern dance that portrayed often dark emotions. She began to choreograph, and she danced her own compositions as well as pieces by her professors and fellow students. She also performed in plays and musicals every year and explored summer stock during vacations, thinking she might pursue musical comedy after graduating.
Thanks to her ballet teacher from Great Neck, however, Sharonjean was hired upon graduation as an apprentice dancer with the Wuppertal, Germany, opera. The only American in a small town she found stifling, her lifeline was her continuing contact with her former Smith professor and mentor, really her spiritual mother, Rosalind deMille. Back home the next summer and undecided about her future, a "coincidence" Sharonjean thinks may have been planned occurred when she returned to Smith to visit deMille. On arrival, she found deMille ailing and in need of someone to teach her classes. Sharonjean, the likely substitute, discovered she loved the experience, although she'd never thought of teaching before. She immediately sent out inquiries to universities. Discouraged by receiving little response, she took deMille's advice and decided to seek a Master's degree, so she would have the credentials for such an appointment. She was accepted into UCLA's two-year program and was provided opportunities of studying with Mia Slavenska, prima ballerina with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and Jose Limon.
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Visiting her Smith roommate in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles, Sharonjean was introduced to Rick Leeds, a dental school student. They survived a long-distance relationship, and as soon as he had taken his dental boards, Rick joined Sharonjean in Los Angeles. The day after her program ended and now married, they moved to San Francisco, a cultural center of dance for her, a location with sailing and nearby skiing for him. There were no openings for university dance instructors at the time, but Sharonjean enrolled in ballet classes at the San Francisco Dance Theater and was soon dancing and choreographing with its new chamber dance company. This quickly led to her teaching modern dance there. The renowned Margaret Jenkins had recently returned to San Francisco to start her own company, and Sharonjean began taking modern dance classes with her. Here she met the professor of dance from the University of San Francisco who asked her to teach a master ballet class. Soon she was teaching a twice-weekly beginning ballet class at USF, which has remained her teaching home for 33 years.
Each fall, she gives a ballet history lecture to all performing arts majors. She has taught all levels of ballet, as well as modern dance, composition and even tap. She has sometimes taught students all four of their undergraduate years, finding great satisfaction in seeing long-term progress. There's a clear distinction in Sharonjean's mind between giving a class (often the experience in a dance studio) and teaching a class, where correcting improper body placement and requiring good posture and positions are paramount. She also expects her students to learn what it means to be a good dance audience and to value dance as an art form.
Never ceasing to take ballet classes just for herself, Sharonjean found she could weave new approaches she learned into her own classes. This has also been her way of connecting with other dancers and feeling part of a community. Now in her early sixties, she welcomes the mental challenge of quickly putting together complex dance combinations she watches a teacher demonstrate. A few years ago, Sharonjean stopped teaching modern classes which required that she show students most of the moves, as she began realizing it was harder on her body than teaching ballet with its established techniques and common vocabulary.
Wanting to spread her wings in the late 70's, Sharonjean and another dancer/choreographer founded Dansfrancisco which thrived for two years, but proved too difficult to maintain as a small company. Around the same time, the San Francisco Dance Theater folded when government funding for the arts dwindled and the popularity of aerobics soared, replacing dance classes as a form of exercise.
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Although she didn't want to retire from performing, the close of the S. F. Dance Theater and a minor knee problem conspired prematurely to mark the early 80's as the supposed end of her dancing career. Having performed with this company two or three seasons each year, Sharonjean faced a major question of personal identity: Who was she if not a dancer? Dancing and teaching were intricately bound together, and even if she'd still be teaching, dance performances had always made a unique contribution to her life. The fortunate support of a counselor who specialized in working with dancers helped her realize she would always be a dancer even if she wasn't performing.
Some ten years after this retirement, a dancer she'd known from the S. F. Dance Theater began gathering former company dancers, all better than forty years old, for a new company to be called "New Shoes, Old Souls". In 1999, its fifth and final year, two well-known choreographers, Mark Morris and Michael Smuin, were involved with the company. Smuin selected Sharonjean for a trio, then later asked her to perform this piece, "My First Time", with his Smuin Ballet company. The dance was created after three female dancers together taped the stories of their first lovemaking experiences. The edited tape plays while each dancer lip-synchs her own words throughout the dance. What results is a humorous, sometimes poignant and wholly charming piece.
Sharonjean and Rick were inspired several years ago to establish an annual dance scholarship at San Francisco's School of the Arts. They believe that recognizing young people's talent and, perhaps more important, commitment and perseverance in training during high school will give these dancers a boost at a critical time in their lives. The award goes to one or two dancers who plan to continue in dance at the college level.
Sharonjean has made two very special return visits to Smith over the years. In 1984, she danced what she considers her signature piece in a concert that honored Rosalind deMille upon her retirement. Appropriately titled "And Evening, And Morning", she paid tribute at the end of her mentor's Smith years that began when deMille arrived for Sharonjean's sophomore year. Next, in 2002, when she was able to make a special donation following the deaths of her parents, a dance studio in the Mendenhall Center for the Arts was named for her. The dedication of the studio occurred during Sharonjean's 35th reunion.
Now, with her 40th reunion next year, Sharonjean and Rick are excited and proud to announce that they have just established a substantial endowed fund to benefit dance majors at Smith. This generous legacy will provide for such things as Master Dance Classes with guest artists; trips to New York for senior dance majors to attend performances of premier ballet and modern dance companies; technical support for Smith dance concerts; physical therapy for dance majors; and financial aid. Sharonjean expects that the initial funding of this endowment will occur at the time of her reunion in 2007, making this another special campus visit.
Regardless of how many more years Sharonjean teaches and studies dance, there's no doubt that she'll always know herself to be a dancer - and little doubt that she'll continue to be seen on the street by others who will also know she's a dancer. The three year-old's joy, the young girl's dream, that learned way of moving her body when music plays, the lightness of her gait, the river of silver hair down her back - yes, she's a dancer.
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